He is unable to truly become a member of their community or culture. That separateness is essential in Synges endeavor to write in an anthropological nature, because without this detachment Synge feels, he would be unable to reproduce an unbiased account of life on the islands. An example of this can be seen in the text when Synge attends the funeral of an old woman that died. With an almost cold detachment and curiosity, Synge describes the scene of the women keening (Synge 50). In instances like this one Synge does not seem to establish the same connection with the people that he does with the landscape throughout the text. The many emotions Synge feels for the landscape are not always reflected in his feelings for the people. In many ways, he simply does not seem to empathize with them. While Synge is not happy to see the scene of the young mans funeral, he does not mourn along with the islanders. To Synge the islanders are simply a part of the islands. He accepts the inevitability of their demise due to their landscape. He is fond of them but he does not connect with them.Synge found the inspiration he was looking for when he entered the Aran Islands. He set out to write an anthropological record of one of the remotest cultures inhabiting Europe. To accomplish this Synge needed to be both acutely aware of his surroundings but also detached from them in order to provide his reader with vivid imagery and unbiased prose. Synges Romantic style of writing aided him in this venture because it motivated him to write extensively about the landscape of the Aran Islands, which is instrumental in the readers understanding of the islanders culture. It also provided him with a belief in the noble savage which enabled him to at once hold himself above the islanders and yet respect them and their culture. This attitude kept him separate from the people and thus able to provide the reader with a more detached recounting of his experience....
