Nowhere is this more apparent than life spent in the deep, dark and distant coal mines in Africa. The narrator of Closing down in summer recalls their anguished isolation as they spent “gruelling twelve-hour stand up shifts” in the dark bowels of the earth. Not only does Africa symbolize distance and displacement, but the experience in the mines reinforces the men’s despair. Death and loss pervade their lives. (See “Discord in Childhood” by D H Lawrence.)
Likewise, depending upon experiences and sensitivities the same individual may relate in ambivalent or contradictory ways to the same landscape. For example, country landscapes may conjure a sense of serenity, peace, bliss and beauty. At other times, they may evoke horror. The fires on Black Saturday (Kinglake, 2009) and in the Blue Mountains (2013) transformed a paradise into a living nightmare for many citizens. The physical landscape, which was once a blooming oasis of greenery, became black and desperate within a few hours. Such landscapes become infused with danger, destruction and loss. For years to come, psychologists say, weather patterns will become phobic signs of loss and danger.
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Our relationships with our environment can change owing to positive or negative experiences.
People choose to live in the bush because of their love of nature and their desire to live in a peaceful and tranquil environment. However, natural disasters such as bushfires can suddenly disrupt this idyllic environment. During such moments, the physical world often changes from picturesque-postcard sceneries to a war-zone. Many individuals often lose everything including their treasured possessions, including neighbours and friends. Natural elements trigger traumatic memories. For example, Matthew, who lived in Kinglake, was 8 during the Black Saturday fires, and one day told his mother, “I think I’m going crazy”. He remembers how his house was burned to the ground. The landscape of his life — the bushland around Kinglake — was a blackened ruin and he suffered panic attacks. He would become hysterical at the sight of a red sunset because it reminded him of flames in the sky. When mist swirled across a wintry road one morning, he would scream, with the other children on the school bus because they feared it was smoke.
Similarly, many authors use storms and weather disruptions to mirror their character’s distress or to herald impending disaster. (Just think of the night Macbeth bludgeons King Duncan to death in Macbeth – the night is out of joint.)
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