Cultural Contexts "The Striding Place"

“The Striding Place”

By: Gertrude Atherton

Cultural Contexts

I found this story to be very hard to understand. I didn’t make sense to me at all. Not even in the end when you find out what happened to Gifford. But I believe that this story has a main key issue that is discussed. That things are not always what they seem to be.

I saw this right from the begging that the author was trying to discuss the way things appear to be versus the way things really are. When the author talks about the English’s woods and how they are painted out to be so beautiful but when you get in them you realize how unsatisfying the hype is. Another example is Gifford is painted out to be a prankster and is always playing practical jokes on the group. But it turns out in the end that he really doesn’t have the face to muster a joke.

Unfortunately things not being what they seem is something that we find in today’s society as well. Even history shows us that things aren’t what the seem. Take Communism for example, the perfect form of government. On paper it seems like the best thing for society. Then comes the Soviet Union, and boom, communism turns out to be not the best thing in the world. The thing people have to understand is that things are never what they seem to be. Everything can seem perfect at one point or another, but unless you take into account every aspect of human nature you will not find out what it really is.

In this story it is evident that the woods are not what they seem to be. “An English wood is like a good many things in life-very promising at a distance, but a mellow mockery when you get within it.” (Oates 157, from the story “The Striding Place”) Basically, there is a grand picture of the woods, but once you get in it you are like “Wow this isn’t that special”. The author is trying to make society take a look at what we hold up on a pedestal and make us look at if they really deserve to be up there. Not all things in the world are what they seem. If society learned this then I think there would be fewer depressed people in the world.