To the Foot of the Pass Into Erewhon explained

What happens

Themes in this chapter

• Memory and Nostalgia

  The father experiences a powerful sense of time flowing backward as he returns to familiar surroundings, evoking both youthful hope and grim memories.

• Truth and Perception

  The father questions whether he is being lured by a malicious fiend or befriended by a compassionate spirit, highlighting the ambiguity of his perceptions.

Characters to notice

• My Father

  The protagonist, preparing for his journey into Erewhon, reflecting on the past and disguising himself.

• The Narrator

  The son recounting his father's journey and thoughts.

• Shepherd

  A shepherd who warns the father about the dangerous river and provides hospitality.

Key passages

• “When my father reached the colony for which he had left England some twenty-two years previously, he bought a horse, and started up country on the evening of the day after his arrival, which was, as I have said, on one of the last days of November 1890.”

  Upon arriving in the colony after 22 years away, my father purchased a horse and began his journey inland the next evening, late November 1890.

  Sets the time and place for the journey.

• “He spent three whole days in riding across the plains, and was struck with the very small signs of change that he could detect, but the fall in wool, and the failure, so far, to establish a frozen meat trade, had prevented any material development of the resources of the country.”

  Riding across the plains for three days, he noticed little change, as the drop in wool prices and the lack of a frozen meat trade had stalled economic growth.

  Highlights the economic stagnation of the colony.

• “There was the clear starlit sky, the rushing river, and the stunted trees on the mountainside; the woodhens cried, and the 'more-pork' hooted out her two monotonous notes exactly as they had done years since; one moment, and time had so flown backwards that youth came bounding back to him with the return of his youth's surroundings; the next, and the intervening twenty years—most of them grim ones—rose up mockingly before him, and the buoyancy of hope yielded to the despondency of admitted failure.”

  The familiar sights and sounds of the night made him feel young again, but then the harsh reality of the past twenty years overwhelmed him, turning hope into despair.

  Captures the theme of memory and nostalgia.

• “Was he being lured on to his destruction by some malicious fiend, or befriended by one who had compassion on him and wished him well? His naturally sanguine temperament inclined him to adopt the friendly spirit theory, in the peace of which he again laid himself down to rest, and slept soundly from dark till dawn.”

  He wondered if a malevolent force was leading him to ruin or a benevolent one was helping him; his optimism led him to believe the latter, and he slept peacefully.

  Reflects the theme of truth and perception.