There is no doubt that both Ovid, from Imaginary Life, by David Malouf and William Wordsworth eventually come to appreciate their new surroundings. Discuss

ESSAY MUSTAFA KHEIR

Consequently, they modify their attitudes towards life in civilized societies. William Wordsworth and Ovid do have their similarities in that they love nature from parallel perspectives. However the approach they use in accepting their new surrounding, nature, is different.

There is no doubt that Ovid, a character in David Malouf"s book "An Imaginary Life" does accept and appreciate nature, the main catalyst for this transition is the wild child who allows him to see nature in a much wider context than what he originally considered nature to be by demonstrating to him that not only is nature a sustainer but also a guider and that god can be found in nature. When Ovid was first introduced to the Getai region a region away from the civilization he has become accustomed to he gives a skeptical image of his surroundings, "no flower no fruit we are at the ends of the earth...

desolateness of this place.... oblique against the sky" p15 "I am dead I am relegated to the region of silence" p 27. However Ovid moves from this state o f withdrawal to a state of acceptance instead of saying there is "no flower" he sees a poppy. This poppy is a symbol of the fist time he notices beauty in nature. With the introduction of the wild child Ovid becomes more observant of nature e.g." smooth black pebbles... fish all beautiful" Ovid himself says, "I have stopped seeing fault with creation and have learned to accept it" p 64. This clearly shows that Ovid fully accepts nature and describes his life as a series of new beginnings, being in nature allows Ovid to accept these new beginnings much more quickly and easily. This shows that Ovid believed nature was a sustainer "it is these grasses.... that...