The Boat Study Guide

Alistair MacLeod was a Canadian writer best known for his short stories, many of which were set in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, where his family had lived since the 1860s. Though he published only one novel and fewer than 20 stories in his lifetime, his work is widely acclaimed, starting with his first story “The Boat,” which was published in 1968 and went on to be named one of the best American short stories of the year. Working odd jobs in mining and logging while he completed his education, MacLeod earned a B.A. from St. Francis Xavier University, an M.A. from the University of New Brunswick, and a PhD from the University of Notre Dame, where he began his creative writing career. In 1971, he married Anita MacLellan; they lived together for 43 years and had 7 children. Focusing on 19th century British literature, MacLeod taught English at Indiana University for three years before eventually moving to Windsor University, where he continued to teach for over three decades. In 2014, MacLeod died of a stroke. His funeral was held in a Scottish Catholic church near his home in Cape Breton.

While MacLeod’s biography doesn’t line up exactly with the narrator of “The Boat,” some events from the story may have been inspired by his life. Like the narrator, MacLeod also grew up in the rugged Cape Breton region of Nova Scotia. Also like the narrator, MacLeod taught for a few years at a university in the American Midwest. Several more distant historical events are referenced in the story. The Highland clearances in Scotland, for example, were a period in the 18th and 19th century when tenant farmers were evicted from the Scottish Highlands by wealthier interests looking to consolidate grazing lands; many of the farmers chose to emigrate from Scotland and some of them ended up in Canada. MacLeod’s reference in the story to “Ireland’s discontent” refers to ongoing conflicts in the region, both between the Irish and the English and between Irish Catholics and Protestants. It could also refer to the Irish potato famine (1845–1852), which forced many Irish people to leave the country (again, with a number ending up in Canada). Finally, MacLeod references the American Revolutionary War. For the purposes of “The Boat,” the most relevant event from that war is that several Loyalists or “Tories” (residents of the U.S. who supported British rule) either chose to leave the U.S. or were expelled, with many of them settling in Nova Scotia, Canada.

Name-checked in “The Boat,” and also the subject of MacLeod’s doctoral dissertation, the 19th-century British writer Thomas Hardy was a key influence on “The Boat.” Known as one of the leading realists of his time, Hardy believed in a universe ruled by chance, where bad things can happen to undeserving people for seemingly no reason. As a result, his work has a reputation for being bleak. As one of the leading Canadian short story writers of his generation, MacLeod was both inspired by and an influence on other 20th-century writers who explore Canadian identity, including Margaret Laurence, Ann-Marie MacDonald, Wayne Johnston, Margaret Atwood, and Alice Munro. As a teacher, MacLeod also worked directly with students, many of whom would also go on to publish their own work.