Symbolism, Imagery, Allegory
Setting
The Ward family lives in their fair share of different locales over the course of Angle of Repose. From the sleepy East Coast to the rollicking West Coast and everywhere in between, the Wards' trav...
What's Up With the Title?
Before we get started, let's just go ahead and define an "angle of repose" for all you non-engineers out there: it's the angle at which a material will stop sliding. In other words, if you pour a b...
What's Up With the Ending?
Angle of Repose ends in the strangest and most unexpected way possible.First, we witness the sad end of the Susan-Frank affair. Based on his research, Lyman determines that Oliver and Susan's young...
Tough-o-Meter
Wallace Stegner writes in a relatively straightforward way, so don't expect to be hemorrhaging brain cells while reading this one. That being said, the book covers a century's worth of history, so...