This paper examines Sarah Orne Jewett's use of paradox as a primary rhetorical strategy in The Country of the Pointed Firs, her most prominent work. Her use of paradox helps her portray the world of Dunnet Landing as an alien "world elsewhere" that intrigues the narrator, prompting her to provide richly textured depictions of the culture of rural, coastal Maine, as she is drawn more deeply into this culture itself. The trope of paradox helps Jewett to involve readers in the this picturesque world, while it also helps her to persuade readers that Dunnet Landing and its environs are unique and fascinating. The narrator is a traveler with a paradoxical vision who invites readers to share this perspective as they travel with her.
The paper will also draw conclusions that explore the implications of Jewett's paradoxical vision for understanding several dimensions of the text. This examination will consider the importance of paradox in her portrayal of the American village, which contrasts sharply with several late nineteenth and early twentieth-century portrayals of the American small town such as in Mark Twain's "The Man that Corrupted Hadleyburg." It will also examine how Jewett's use of paradox helps connect her to the approaches used by Thoreau and other transcendentalists in their interpretations of New England culture. Jewett, writing in a literary age characterized by realism, naturalism, and local color, uses paradox in a way that links her closely to the spirit and traditions of the American transcendentalists. Paradox as a technique and perspective helps Jewett transcend realism.
This paper, finally, emphasizes the use of paradox to help control the structure of the narrative, to provide a perspective on travel to a rural and semi-isolated section of New England, and as a mode of analyzing the culture of Dunnet landing. As a trope, paradox is also effectively used as a rhetorical strategy aimed at readers for whom coastal Maine would be an unusual place and a potential travel destination.
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