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Book 2, Chapter 8
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in The Return of the Native, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Humans vs. Nature
Modernity vs. Tradition
Class and Morality
Deception
Summary
Analysis
As time stretches on, it becomes clear to the locals that Clym doesn’t plan to leave Egdon Heath anytime soon. They gossip about why this might be. When Clym comes for his haircut, Sam and Fairway ask him why he is still around. Clym reveals to them that he did not like Paris because he didn’t like his job and couldn’t find people who think like him. Instead, he wants to stay in Egdon and start a school. However, Fairway thinks that he will change his mind before too long.
Eustacia wants Clym to take her to Paris, but Clym has no desire to return to Paris. This conflict is central to the entirety of Books 3 and 4. Additionally, Clym’s desire to build a school near Egdon suggests that he wants to modernize the heath, an environment notoriously immune to modernization.
Themes
Literary Devices
