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What did Northrop Frye mean by the term garrison mentality in Canadian literature?

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Canadian literature Canadian writer Alice Munro was lauded as a “master of the contemporary short story” by the Swedish Academy when it awarded her the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2013.

In his "Conclusion" to the Literary History of Canada (1965), Northrop Frye used the term "garrison mentality" to describe a specific psychological and cultural state prevalent in early Canadian literature.1

Frye characterized this mentality as a colonial frame of mind defined by several key traits:
* Fear of the unknown: A deep-seated anxiety regarding the vast, untamed Canadian landscape.1
* Reliance on convention: A tendency to cling to established social and moral structures as a means of protection.1
* Puritan consciousness: A rigid, disciplined outlook that sought to maintain order within small, isolated communities.1

Essentially, the "garrison" represented a defensive, inward-looking posture. By creating these metaphorical or literal "garrisons," early writers depicted communities that huddled together for safety against an implacable and often hostile environment. Frye argued that this mindset reflected a society struggling to define itself while remaining tethered to the security of traditional, often derivative, colonial values.1