“The licence plate on the car said Sunshine State, sure enough, but that didn’t mean there was no rain in Florida, or liars either. The girl shook her head, slightly, in rebuke.”
The girl is skeptical about the tourist’s assertion regarding “alligators groaning each night in the tidal mud” in Florida. The girl’s protest is based on the assumption that ‘Paul Lilley’s pasture’ is superior to Florida in terms of natural creatures since the pasture is the habitation for copious crickets and bugs.
“Two different arts. Two different artists. Two separate truths.”
The two wayfarers who intermingle with Elizabeth Inglish take part in dissimilar arts. The wife is a painter whereas the husband is a photographer. The photograph that the man takes portrays Elizabeth Inglish as ‘a country girl.’ “Two separate truths” make reference to the photography versus painting binary whereby each of the two arts brings forth distinctive realism.
“You mustn’t resist the brambles,” she advised hearing him tearing himself free, his shirt already picked in a dozen places.” Just back out of them…It’s no country for man with temper.”
Elizabeth, who is a prodigy of country life, edifies Paul Montgomery how to traverse the country. Treating Mother Nature gently is what makes the country life rewarding. Paul’s act of tearing is an antagonism which specifies that he is exasperated by the trees which would make it impracticable for him to delight in the pacific country life.
“She picked up a stick and broke it and threw the pieces-one from each hand- at the laundry drying in the noon.”
The girl projects her revulsion, for her grandmother’s place, on the clothes. The clothes are not blamable for her being at a place that she does not like though. The clothes are the accessible scapegoats for her resentment.
“The girl walked close behind her, exactly where she walked , matching her pace, matching her stride, close enough to put her hand forth (if the need arose) and touch her granny’s back where the faded voile was clinging damp, the merest gauze between their wounds.”
The girl’s motion, in the resolution, affirms that she is penitent and would want to atone for all her insensitivity towards her grandmother. Both of them endure wounds resulting from the dog’s demise and Sylvie’s bereavement. The girl is wounded because she is certain that her deviance is a factor the dog’s death. For the grandmother, the passing of the dog aggravates the wound she developed after Sylvie’s death.
