Heidi promptly endears herself to the mountains few inhabitants: wizened and blind Grandmama, and sulky and possessive goatherd Peter.īut Heidis free-wheeling ways are challenged when she is sent to Frankfurt, where she is to become the companion of the ailing and wheelchair-bound Klara. Her moving to the mountains imbues her with the ability to make the most of just about any situation, and indeed Heidi comes across as a sort of environmental alchemist, transforming greenery and nature into health and happiness. Heidi is in her element on the mountains, and spends her days traipsing about the paths, taking in her surrounds, and generally being wholesome. Despite Alm Uncles famously gruff outlook, he is quite taken by Heidi, whose free-spirited, almost sprite-like nature manifests in rather effusive fashion as she takes up in her new residence. Recently orphaned Heidi is sent to live with Alm Uncle, a reclusive man who lives a happily hermit-like existence in his cabin on the Swiss Alps. But the emphasis and positioning of Heidi are somewhat different, with religion and spirituality playing a far more foregrounded role, and the restorative power of relationships rather less so. Like The Secret Garden, it touches on the power of nature and unencumbered, unfettered living as a way of cleansing the soul and becoming a whole person. Heidi, like The Secret Garden, which I recently reviewed, is a sort of narrative catharsis perfect for todays despondent, tree-change inclined city-dweller.
0 kommentar(er)
