'Roughing it in the Bush' Summary

Roughing It in the Bush was part of a trilogy Moodie wrote to chronicle the immigrant experience in Canada. The other works that complete the trilogy are Flora Lyndsay (1854), a prequel that describes the initial preparations for immigration, and an exploration of Canadian towns and institutions in Life in the Clearings (1853). Moodie's publishing background in Canada consisted of short contributions to periodicals. She and her husband edited Victoria Magazine from 1837 to 1838, before the magazine was shut down. She contributed to The Literary Garland of Montreal beginning in late 1838. She was one of the principal contributors over the next 12 years, publishing "serialized novels based on English life, several of them expansions of earlier short work, poems on Old World and Canadian subjects, and most important, a series of six "Canadian Sketches" that formed the nucleus of Roughing It in the Bush." 

Moodie's account of the hardships of settler life contrasted sharply against the image conjured by the British advertisers. Moodie's tone is frank, and her style is vividly descriptive: 

The conduct of many of the settlers, who considered themselves gentlemen, and would have been very much affronted to have been called otherwise, was often more reprehensible than that of the poor Irish emigrants, to whom they should have set an example of order and sobriety. The behaviour of these young men drew upon them the severe but just censures of the poorer class, whom they regarded in every way as their inferiors. "That blackguard calls himself a gentleman. In what respect is he better than us?" was an observation too frequently made use of at these gatherings. To see a bad man in the very worst point of view, follow him to a bee: be he profane, licentious, quarrelsome, or a rogue, all his native wickedness will be fully developed there. (Chapter 7, Our Logging Bee) 

Disorientation in a new environment, the dirty and exhausting physical demands of land-clearing and house raising, and the gossip and friction amongst the new settlers are explored in detail. Moodie added touches of humour, but there is an underlying irony to such passages, emphasizing the disconnect between immigrant illusions and Canadian realities. Moodie's treatment of the settler experience differed from the works published by her sister, Catharine Parr Traill. The Backwoods of Canada (1836), by Traill, presents a more "pragmatic and optimistic" account, stressing the "scientific" and the "factual" examination of settlement realities.