Example Of Essay On The Prophet Of The Great Smoky Mountains

Murfree (1850-1922) is an American novelist and a short story writer working under Charles Craddock. In her book, The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains she uses elaborately detailed descriptions and distinct dialect in her language of the characters to illustrate the rural setting and their surroundings.
As a 19th-century writer, she is authentic in her work that brings life to the American milieu. The author was born in one of the regions in Tennessee called Murfreesboro and named after the place. She was born and raised in a wealthy family, and both parents were professional in the field of art. That gave Murfree a friendly environment and insight that nurtured her literal interests. Her family could spend the summer at the Cumberland Mountains that was a remote area. That region stood pivotal to her since she uses it in her writings. She devoted her writing in earnest during the 1870s and by early 1900s; she had managed to produce a number of books.
Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains establishes a degree to fulfill the promise of a story. The author ensures that the audience can easily identify a stable and permanent work throughout the novel. All the parts balance perfectly as the story appears interesting. The characters are real, and that makes the scene to have an adequate background for them to develop the story. It is easy to tell the story using a few sentences. Some critics cite that the book lacks a definite meaning and purpose. The prophet encounters hardship while in the mountains that emanate from the gift of prophesies. The prophet faces torture as he questions his religion. He assumes himself as the creator of the entire world. As he does that, the fascination haunts him throughout the book. The audiences have sympathy towards the prophet as he undergoes the painful persecution. He portrays a lack of experience in the hardship that he encounters.
Rick Tyler or referred to, as the prophet is the epicenter of the book as he attempts to hide out while climbing the mountain. Tyler charges unfairly in the murder ordeal. Tyler has immense love towards Moonshiner’s Daughter called Dorinda Cayce. He is envious towards Parson Kelsey, and this is a sufficient subject that to a series of short stories that same people appear. The interconnecting parts of the story happen in one society as a decisive test of a firm bond on feminism. The book is a well-written, exciting novel with admirable conception where the reader has knowledge about the construction. Miss Murfree novel embraces a strong dialect to lend flavor. Most of the characters are clear individuals that aid in the strange speech. Murfree discovers unique people for her literal purposes that have excellent skills. Some of the English novelists occurring now include George Eliot and Thomas Hardy. The Mountaineers appear insightful with intense humor to discriminate the poor in the society.
At the initial stages, the author mentions mists at the peak of the Smoky Mountain where the prophet overlooks imagination. While he hides out, he sacrifices his life for Sheriff Micajah that offends mountaineer Cayce. The mountain bootleggers execute the wrong person as the Prophet disguises himself. Later on, Cayce changes to a gigantic person Just like Dorinda, his daughter. The Prophet states that after death of an individual, the person goes to heaven like the one it says in the Bible. For that reason, the Sheriff goes to heaven since his death is natural. The book is full of deception and imagination. For example, Dorinda has visions concerning Kelsey and Tyler that loom her life with emotions.
The Prophet embraces creativity in the scene he is in the Smoky Mountains. Mrs. Cayce deceives the Sheriff concerning the whereabouts of the Prophet as she invites them to dinner to employ a delay tactic. The Mountaineers betray their colleagues regarding the issue of liquor distillation. Kelsey deceives others that he is a Prophet with immense powers only to confess that he is human with a desire to lead others astray. Kelsey is the ultimate salvation for Green in the symbol of sacrifice. The mountain world is religious in the use of biblical names, prophesies, judgment and fascinations. The sacrifice of Kelsey denotes the biblical passage that state that the greatest love is to lay up your life for another person. Murfree uses an accident in a humorous way as does other writers in her times such as Freeman and Wharton.
The American fiction entitled Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountain a natural foreboding and vigor. Miss Murfree uses local color and flavor to describe the scene in the mountain world through a pure descriptive note. The audiences have to encounter imaginations at the onset of the novel where the scenic drawing precipitates flavor. The appearance of layers of jelly embraces conversation through distressing certainty. The author uses literal devices such as imagery to describe each of the scenes using words such as translucent gazes, golden-burnished blades, poetic glamor, and opalescent tints. Through such figurative language, it is evident that the author fancies jelly-like flavor.
Murfree, which publishes her work through pseudonym Craddock, resides in one of the plantations in Murfreesboro. Mary and Fanny, her sister, affords a privileged life that includes the best educational schools among the southern women. The author attends one of the finest schools in the state called Nashville Female Academy where for two years she studies language. William Murfree, his father, is a lawyer by profession. He encourages her to read widely, and that leads to Mary Murfree, emerge as a writer of short stories using the popular tradition of the local color. The author turns writing as a form of hobby during her free times. Most of the author’s first short stories capture the rural life of people living in the Tennessee Mountains. The author finds her niche in writing after the successful publication entitled, “In the Tennessee Mountains.” The publisher of her 1885 The Prophet of the Great Smoky Mountains considers it as the best novel of Tennessee mountain world. Modern southerners that read the book, depict positive reviews.
The novel set in the rural settlement of the Smokies explores the issue of tension precipitated by the state authority where the mountaineers reside. The central question revolves around the life of one Rick Tyler that is wrongfully blamed with an impending murder case. He opts to run away and hide other than confront the issue. That question leads to Tyler becoming a fugitive as the Sheriff and his officers’ conflict with the mountaineers. The first suspect according to the Sheriff is a young woman called Dorinda Cayce since she disguises Tyler hiding place. Dorinda conceals Tyler and goes ahead to outwit the Sheriff in the search of the culprit as she hopes Tyler will marry her. Dorinda brothers and father conspire to kill the sheriff while Dorinda talks to them concerning the repercussion of the issue that would embroil the family in conflict later on. The blacksmith captures Tyler to claim the sheriff reward of the bounty. Kelsey as well as his daughter yearns for the day the community will strive to work indecency to transcend secular law. Kelsey act of free talking concerning the blacksmith leads to the sheriff arresting him on the pretext of aiding a criminal escape. The author illustrates moral decay of people residing in the mountain world.
In summary, Dorinda is frustrated with Tyler that refuses to explain Kelsey’s name to return the favor he accorded him. Upon Kelsey release from jail, he finds the community bloodthirsty as they plot to kill the sheriff led by Cayces. That leads him to sacrifice himself on behalf of the sheriff to ensure the community flourishes in the future.

Works Cited

"The Prophet Of The Great Smoky Mountains." Journal Of Education 22.15 (1885): 258.
HOLIDAY BOOKS. (1885). Journal of Education, 22(24), 402.
"Charles Egbert Craddock." Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6Th Edition (2013): 1.