re overwhelming, but Maclean makes nature become an extension of religion. When Norman, his brother and his father go out to fish, the hunt for the fish and the reeling him in are much like a prayer, even like a litany or psalm.He emphasizes this connection with comments about Norman?s father sitting on the bank ?somewhere in the sunshine reading the New Testament in Greek.? He makes references to the book of John, discussing the Word and the water, thus making a connection to the river they are fishing from (Maclean 94-96). This religious link to the river makes the river an ever present force in their lives, not just as a place they go to fish, but a place they go as one would go to church for solace from the world.The way in which Wallace Stegner approaches nature is radically different than the way any of the other three authors does. He doesn?t so much try to overwhelm or immerse a person in it, nor does he make it fade into the background. From the picture on the cover of the book, one might make the false supposition that the book would be filled with flowery descriptions of the Rocky Mountains and other geographical features. This couldn?t be further from the truth.Stegner?s use of nature is often rather subdued, yet he always manages to use the local, flora, fauna and geography as a starting point to conversation, or to jumpstart some inner thought process of one of his characters. He highlights the dialogue and provides a genesis for narrative shifts with descriptions such as the ones that occur when Oliver and Susan arrive in Leadville together. ?The stage leveled off into what seemed a plain or valley. She leaned to see. Ahead of them, abrupt as the precipice up which little figures toil in Chinese paintings, she saw a wild wooded mountainside that crested at a long ridge spiky with conifers. She pulled the curtains wide. ?But my goodness!? she cried. ?You called them hills!?? (Stegner 82)Stegner uses nature to...
