Death By Landscape

Allusion is a common literary device that involves referring to a person, event, place, etc. from the world outside the text. In many cases, including in “Death by Landscape,” it takes the form of a reference to another piece of art or literature; Atwood not only describes pieces by the Group of Seven in detail but also alludes to various myths from Classical Greece and Canada’s own indigenous peoples. The raven, for instance, is a trickster god in much First Nations folklore, which makes Atwood’s references to the bird throughout the story significant. As third-year students, Lucy and Lois are “Ravens” in the Camp Manitou’s classification system, and Lois hears a raven calling just before Lucy shouts and vanishes; the implication is perhaps that Lucy has encountered the Raven god or that she herself is a raven-like figure because of her ability to disappear into thin air.

Later in the story, Atwood offers a different possible explanation for Lucy’s disappearance when Lois wonders “how many trees there were on the cliff just before Lucy disappeared” and whether “there was one more, afterward” (Part 9, Paragraph 9). In this case, the allusion is to the Greek myth of Daphne—a nymph who transforms into a tree to escape the advances of the god Apollo.