C.B. Brown's "Dark Side" of Nature

OR: Take that as a Pink Floyd or Star Wars reference, whichever makes me seem less dorky to you

At the beginning of Chapter 20, Edgar Huntly, as a narrative, has come to a lull in the action. The narrator has just finished a flurry of battles with the Natives, and is trekking down a path seeking some semblance of white habitation. If there were any opportunity for C.B. Brown to insert picturesque description, this would be it; the breakneck pace of the previous chapters has slowed and the narrator’s situation is slightly less dire. However, the description of nature we see right off the bat is still lacking in detail, and Edgar Huntly continues to see nature as something to be overcome or passed through:

“I did not allow myself to meditate. The great object of my wishes was a dwelling where food and repose might be procured. […] The path was narrow, and on either side was trackless wilderness. On the right and left were waving lines of mountainous ridges which had no peculiarity enabling me to ascertain whether I had ever before seen them.” (Brown, 195)

This passage shows that nature is a hindrance more than anything. Huntly’s obsession with finding a way through the wilderness, rather than his admiration of the wilderness itself, doesn’t simply reflect his dire situation. In fact, his situation is much better than it was in previous chapters, and if ever there were a time for reflection this would be it. This passage in particular is exemplary of Brown’s ability to make nature a threat. By continuing Edgar Huntly’s frantic search for (white) civilization, Brown never shows the reader another side to nature.

However, in the frame of this narrative, I’m not sure that showing the reader the “Romantic” side of nature would be an effective descriptive device. By neglecting aspects of nature that inspire wonderment and beauty, Brown is heightening the terror and twisted psychology of his work. In order to narrow our focus, as readers, to the narrator’s inner workings, Brown effectively severs nature from its positives. Brown’s caricatures of the Native Americans in the work have the same effect, though to elaborate on how Native Americans are described in the novel would require a much longer and more complex blog post.

So while Brown’s descriptions of nature may have shortcomings, these shortcomings actually help enhance the feeling of frantic psychological terror which permeates the second half of the book. If Brown had given Edgar Huntly the desire to reflect on his natural surroundings and muse about the qualities of rural Pennsylvania’s landscape, we would have ended up with a work that doesn’t evoke the same emotional response Edgar Huntly does now. By manipulating his descriptions of nature so one-sidedly, C.B. Brown is able to more effectively invoke terror in his readers.