The Landscape of the Island of Sweetland

The landscape of the isle of Sweetland stands as a major symbol throughout the novel. The island as a physical presence is walked and monitored by the main character, who himself is named Sweetland; in essence the man is a human manifestation of the island and vice versa.

Its various landmarks are named and named again as places where important events happen in both the present and the past. The isle of Sweetland's people have been there for many generations, probably two hundred years. The cliffs, the cairns, the meadows, the stones, the mash, the cove, the breakwater—these are all places of life and history for the island and its people. The cairns are to warn people of the cliffs, and the cove protected by its breakwater is the only reasonable landing spot on this Northern Atlantic island. The...