Literary notes about squatter (AI summary)
The word "squatter" has been deployed with remarkable flexibility in literature, embodying a range of meanings that reflect both physical and metaphorical occupations. In some works, such as Synge’s The Playboy of the Western World ([1], [2]), the term identifies a person, often of lower social status, who occupies land without legal title, hinting at the broader themes of social marginality. Thoreau, in contrast, employs a juridical nuance in claiming rights to natural resources by squatter’s right ([3]), while H. G. Wells uses the term to evoke the image of a modest, makeshift dwelling—a squatter’s hut ([4]). Meanwhile, Robert Burns intriguingly adapts the word as a verb meaning “to flap” ([5]), which underlines the inventive and varied usage of “squatter” in literature. Likewise, Bret Harte’s narrative credits an enterprising yet fleeting occupant for building certain structures, further underscoring the word’s dynamic semantic range ([6]).
- OLD MAHON, his father, a squatter.
— from The Playboy of the Western World: A Comedy in Three Acts by J. M. Synge - Christopher Mahon, W. G. FAY Old Mahon, his father, a squatter, A. POWER.
— from The Playboy of the Western World: A Comedy in Three Acts by J. M. Synge - In all...................... $28.12-1/2 These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, and sand, which I claimed by squatter's right.
— from Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience by Henry David Thoreau - Not far from me was a little one-roomed squatter’s hut of wood, surrounded by a patch of potato garden.
— from The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells - Squatter, to flap.
— from Poems and Songs of Robert Burns by Robert Burns - It is said that these were originally built by an enterprising squatter, who for some unaccountable reason abandoned them shortly after.
— from The Luck of Roaring Camp and Other Tales by Bret Harte
