The Shipping News is an analysis of human nature and love and how these are shaped by our way of life and the world around us. What does Proulx say about human nature and love? (Mid-year exam – 2000)
             The Shipping News is an analysis of human nature and love and how these are shaped by our way of life and the world around us. Through her story of Quoyle, as well as the people of Newfoundland, Proulx shows that everyone is different and that, depending on their own personal experiences and circumstances, the human nature of every person is different. Proulx explores how human nature and love can be shaped by isolated cultures, personal success and self-esteem, and loss.
             The Shipping News is an exploration of love. It not only explores different types of romantic love, such as the love between Wavey and Quoyle, but also love between family, such as the love between Agnis and Quoyle, as well as love for a place, such as Quoyle's love for Killick-Claw. Through various experiences of love, Quoyle learns, as does the reader, that "love may sometimes occur without pain or misery." In the beginning of the novel, through his vicious experience of family love in childhood, and his twisted love affair with Petal Bear, Quoyle develops the idea that love is always associated with pain and misery. However, at the story continues and Quoyle learns of different types of love, such as the rewarding love he has for his children, Bunny and Sunshine, and the new, pure love he has with Wavey, his views on love are renewed, and he is able to see the "other type of love".
             The Shipping News also explores Quoyle's love for Newfoundland, and the people of Killick-Claw. Before Quoyle came to Killick-Claw, he did not feel that he really belonged anywhere, because he had never been truly accepted. However, when he goes to Killick-Claw to build a new life for himself and his family, he learns of a new type of love: a love o...