S. Hammond

I'm interested in the fabricated first person narration that occurs in Chapter 6 of Samuel Hammond's book.

The narration is a story told from the guide's perspective.  First, Hammond describes his guide; he's rugged from years of self-sustaining and knows the Adirondack backcountry.  Abruptly, Hammond launches into a retelling of the guide's story of his time in the city.  Hammond assumes great authority in doing this.  We don't hear directly from the guide once during the chapter, yet his story is used for the majority of the chapter.  He subverts the guide's ability to articulate his own experience and implies that the storyteller cannot convey his own words.  Hammond dilutes the guide's story with his own narration, makes the story unreliable, and steals the voice of the guide.

Hammond assumes a dialect and writes to fit the guide's supposed speech patterns.  The use of "'em" and "feller" as colloquial terms deviates from Hammond's personal narration and creates a power dynamic in which Hammond reigns.  This use of speech creates an even larger divide between city and country.  Hammond supports this divide throughout the chapters of the book, exalting the woods for its natural beauty, but demeaning those who live there.  Although the story takes a positive tone regarding the guide's truthful account of the fight, Hammond still depicts the city folk as "taking mercy" on him for his lack of understanding, and further continues the power dynamics.

I'm not sure if Hammond consciously placed his guide into this submissive position.  I cannot argue for his authorial intent with such a short chapter, and one that is singular in the book.  I can say that my interpretation is changed after reading this chapter.   I read Hammond's language as thick instead of beautiful.  His interpretations of nature suddenly seem ignorant and self-serving, magnifying the trouble I have with Chapter 6.

Hammond's piece falls in line with the tone I perceive from the Adirondack cultural history I know up to this point.  It's almost entirely male-centric and originates from a wealthy class of whites.  I'll be interested to find more readings on the logging community, especially camp life there, to hear more from the working class who lived here.