SEEKING REFUGE IN THE PAST. BERET’S FAMILY CHEST IN O.E. RØLVAAG’S GIANTS IN THE EARTH
SEEKING REFUGE IN THE PAST. BERET’S FAMILY CHEST IN O.E. RØLVAAG’S GIANTS IN THE EARTH

Summary/Abstract: Seeking Refuge in the Past. Beret’s Family Chest in O.E. Rølvaag’s Giants in the Earth . This study explores the importance of homeland treasures for the immigrants longing to belong. Beret Holm, the female protagonist in Giants in the Earth, speaks for the difficulties faced by Norwegian settlers in the Dakota prairie during the 19th century, both in what concerns the land they are about to conquer, but also in what concerns their sense of belonging, as well as the preservation of their identity in the American melting pot. The family chest she had brought from Norway, in which she kept all the treasures, all the memories from the homeland, would become her shelter during a locust plague that ravages the settlement. Torn by remorse for having left her country and parents, Beret seeks refuge from the wrath of God, hiding with her children in the very object that was so dear to her, her sole remembrance of an intangible past. The family chest that she sees as her coffin in a moment of despair would become the altar for the ritual of communion held by a Norwegian Lutheran priest, a ritual which would bring comfort to her troubled soul.

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