Random Passage

Summary of Random Passage
Random Passage, a book written by Bernice Morgan, is a novel that takes the reader back to the rural, unpopulated Newfoundland. The setting in which the book takes place is Cape Random which is a desolate cape off the shores of Newfoundland. This is a fictional place and is based on a real location, Cape Island, where Bernice Morgan's ancestors lived. The book contains many rich characters all trying to thrive, survive, and live on this desolate cape. The novel focuses on the lives of the few people that came to live on the cape by either choice, chance, or necessity. These people that created the community of Cape Random over the years can be broken down into two families and a single man.

The two families are the Andrews and the Vincent's. The Andrews are an English family who were kicked out of their homes because of an incident that occurred with one of the family members and his employer who also was the homeowner of the house they were renting at the time. The family chose Newfoundland to move to because one of the family members had been there before, plus it was far away from the trouble they were in, and it promised of freedom; the land there was not owned and this would be the first time the Andrews' would have their own land. They came with no food or supplies, and they came ignorant to what a hard life they had to face. Throughout the novel they grew and learned to fish, live on little, and survive. There are many deaths and sadness throughout the whole novel but the Andrew's thrive and they become more established upon the island.

The Vincent's are a Newfoundland family who came to the cape because ,unlike the Andrews family, they thought life there would be profitable due to the excess amount of fish there. They came with their whole lives packed into their small boat. They did however know what a life in rural Newfoundland was like and were all experienced in the necessary skills used for them to survive and fit right in. Even so, there is much hardship within the Vincent's' lives, but they too, survive through the cold, hunger and brutality of the Cape.

The man whom is no relation to the two families on the Cape was the first person to settle there and his name is Thomas Hutchings. He is the leader of the cape, the one everyone else turns to. He has indefinable qualities, which everyone always appreciates but wonders about. His past is known to no one but is later on revealed in the second part of the book which gives a reader a few surprising twists on the outlook of this major character. He seems not to suffer, but his life style seems to change him throughout the book. He learns to love and to feel but he never forgets his past. Not even thirty people live on the cape and they are all connected to these three parties. Because of the few people, the book depicts accurately what life would be like in such a place in early Newfoundland. Love blooms between many of the different family members and passers by. Many interesting and often scandalous relationships form between the most unlikely of characters. The forces of nature claim many lives, and sickness and hunger are a constant reminder of the peoples' dance with death. People come and go from the Cape like the wind, but their lives are forever changed.