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Kiss of the fur queen summary
Kiss of the fur queen summary
Kiss of the fur queen summary
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In the opening passage of Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen, Abraham Okimasis, a caribou hunter participating in an intense race, strives to reach the finish line with his exhausted self and huskies. Although the chance of success is slim, he perpetuates. Through the use of literary devices, Highway captures Okimasis’ breathless experience during the race; notably, he emphasizes the significance of past promises in empowering one to overcome obstacles to reach his or her ultimate goal. In the beginning of the passage, Highway paints a descriptive picture of the race’s setting through which he foreshadows Okimasis’ obscure result. The race occurs near the end of a February day in Manitoba; Okimasis and his companions, the huskies, drive …show more content…
Okimasis recounts that he has promised his wife, Mariesis Okimasis that his anniversary gift for her will be “the silver cup, that holy chalice.” Highway’s use of symbolism— “holy chalice”— elevates the significance of the though-to-be ordinary cup to the one that carries marital meaning. In Christianity, the Holy Chalice, or the Holy Grail, is a treasured item, for it retains important historical and religious values. The item, though fictional, is so valuable that many conflicts and war had occurred in the world of literature. In this context, the holy chalice holds a meaning of an item being earnestly pursued. The fact that Okimasis urges to win the race, to win the “holy chalice” for his wife reveals his real motivation: Okimasis’ unconditional love for his wife. Because of his wife, Okimasis willingly races through the arduous weather condition, through the obstacles of the race, through the expenditure of his health— “to win the world championship just for her.” At this point, given the real motivation of Okimasis in the race, the reader hopefully sympathizes with him, with his desperation in the beginning of the passage. Victory or defeat, Okimasis has won the reader’s heart. With satisfaction, he “edged past musher number 54.” “[A] silvery white with bold black lettering,” Okimasis approaches the end of the race and …show more content…
Beyond that, Highway brings back Okimasis’s past promises with his wife to enrich the overall significance of the passage. The race is no longer a selfish desire to prove Okimasis’ superiority, but it becomes a quest for a buried love, for a miracle in his other half’s life. The author accentuates that meaningful past promises motivate one to rise through difficulties and empower him or her to achieve the present
In John Krakauer’s novel Into The Wild, the reader follows the life of a young man who, upon learning of his father’s infidelity and bigamy, seems to go off the deep end, isolating himself by traveling into the wild country of Alaska, unprepared for survival, where he died of starvation at 67 pounds.
The epigraphs presented by Krakauer before each chapter of the memoir Into the Wild dive deep into the life of Chris McCandless before and after his journey into the Alaskan wilderness. They compare him to famous “coming of age characters” and specific ideas written by some of his favorite philosophers. These give the reader a stronger sense of who Chris was and why he made the decision to ultimately walk alone into the wild.
In Kiss of the Fur Queen, the story begins with forty-three year old Cree hunter Abraham Okimasis winning the "1951 Millington Cup World Championship Dog Derby." (6) The victory is seen to have a significant effect on the Cree hunter's Native identity, as he becomes the first-ever Indian to succeed in the Derby. As time goes by, Abraham becomes the father of two sons, Jeremiah and Gabriel. When the Cree brothers leave their small northern Manitoba village and enter the hostile environment of a residential school, their lives take a turn for the worse. Estranged from their Native culture, Jeremiah and Gabriel are forced to assimilate into the predominately white Canadian society. During their stay at the residential school, the brothers fall victim to sexual abuse at the hands of the all-powering Catholic priest. The abuse brought upon the brothers continue throughout their adolescent and adult years. Emotionally traumatized, the Okimasis brothers come to a point where they are unable to withstand the pain. And as a result of the abuse and social pressure for them to change, the brothers lose their identity as Native Canadians.
ultimately defends the wild in all of its forms. He opens the novel with a narrative story about a
Schopen, Bernard A. "'They Rode On': Blood Meridian and the Art of Narrative." Western American Literature 30.2 (Summer 1995): 179-194. Rpt. inContemporary Literary Criticism. Ed. Jeffrey W. Hunter. Vol. 204. Detroit: Gale, 2005. Literature Resource Center. Web. 8 May 2014.
Markham, as a child, and then as a young woman, hunts with the native Murani people. Once while hunting for boar with Arab Maina, Arab Kosky, and her dog, Buller, Markham comes face to face with a dangerous, lone lion. In this section, Beryl is extremely descriptive and recalls the memory in a fashion that allows the reader to see the events unfolding through her eyes at a lifelike pace. “Buller and I crouched behind them, my own spea...
Jon Krakauer, fascinated by a young man in April 1992 who hitchhiked to Alaska and lived alone in the wild for four months before his decomposed body was discovered, writes the story of Christopher McCandless, in his national bestseller: Into the Wild. McCandless was always a unique and intelligent boy who saw the world differently. Into the Wild explores all aspects of McCandless’s life in order to better understand the reason why a smart, social boy, from an upper class family would put himself in extraordinary peril by living off the land in the Alaskan Bush. McCandless represents the true tragic hero that Aristotle defined. Krakauer depicts McCandless as a tragic hero by detailing his unique and perhaps flawed views on society, his final demise in the Alaskan Bush, and his recognition of the truth, to reveal that pure happiness requires sharing it with others.
Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate on the mind on the present moment. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, a man and his son, who remain unnamed throughout the novel, are on a journey heading south after an unnamed catastrophe has struck the world. The conditions they face are unforgiving: rotting corpses, fires, abandoned towns and houses. The man and his son are among the few living creatures remaining on Earth who have not been driven to murder, rape, and cannibalism. Unfortunately, the father’s health worsens as they travel, and by the time they reach the ocean, he passes away. The boy remains by his side for days until the boy meets a kind family who invites him to join them. The boy must say goodbye to his father,
...rs, '?was one of the most toughing exuberant, cleverly crafted and utterly entrancing plays?';(Cover The Rez Sisters.) Tomson Highway did a great job at giving the reader an idea of what reserve life is about. He gave us the opportunity to experience the hardships of native people and some insight to how they form their identity.
Into the Wild by John Krakauer is a rare book in which its author freely admits his bias within the first few pages. “I won't claim to be an impartial biographer,” states Krakauer in the author’s note, and indeed he is not. Although it is not revealed in the author's note whether Krakauer's bias will be positive or negative, it can be easily inferred. Krakauer's explanation of his obsession with McCandless's story makes it evident that Into the Wild was written to persuade the reader to view him as the author does; as remarkably intelligent, driven, and spirited. This differs greatly from the opinion many people hold that McCandless was a simply a foolhardy kid in way over his head. Some even go as far as saying that his recklessness was due to an apparent death-wish. Krakauer uses a combination of ethos, logos and pathos throughout his rendition of McCandless’s story to dispute these negative outlooks while also giving readers new to this enigmatic adventure a proper introduction.
Many people were puzzled on why the young man decided to go on such an expedition without being properly prepared. His death has led to a controversy between whether he should be idolized for having the courage to follow his dream or repulsed for his grand stupidity. Although Krakauer never met McCandless, he provides his readers with personal examples that explain why the young man went on this journey. Expecting his readers to comprehend McCandless, Krakauer’s primary purpose is to help his readers understand the importance of embracing one's personal dreams. In order to achieve his purpose, he uses a variation of literary and rhetorical techniques. Some of these techniques include epigrams and ethos. These devices are essential to Krakauer’s purpose because they illustrate and explain the reasons why McCandless went into the inhospitable landscape of Alaska.
The Editors of The Encyclopædia Britannica, ed. "Allegory." The Encyclopædia Britannica. N.p., 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. . third
Jack London’s use of an animal’s perspective allows the readers to fully understand how the harsh landscapes of the Klondike influenced the individual; this strategy exemplifies the naturalism evident among many of his works. For example, in London’s The Call of the Wild, the environmental conditions that occur shape the main character’s destiny and his inability to control these changes. The protagonist is a dog named Buck who is forced to adapt to the austere conditions of the Yukon after being stolen from his pampered life in civilization and sold to a sled team en route to the Klondike Gold Rush. This journey proves to be extremely difficult when Buck faces several obstacles, such as being beaten with a club and the fierce rivalry between him and the nefarious pack leader Spitz. “Yet, by following his instincts, Buck takes his readers to the deepest reaches of the mind…” (“London, Jack”). He cannot control his fate; ...
In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road, in the post-apocalyptic world that the man and the boy live in, dreams begin to take on the form of a new “reality.” As the novel progresses, the man’s dreams, initially memories remnant of his pre-apocalypse life, become “brighter” as the boy’s dreams become darker and nightmarish. Through the use of color and distinct language, McCarthy emphasizes the contrast between reality and dreams. The man’s reliance on bad dreams to keep him tied to the harsh reality alludes to the hopelessness of the situation; he can never truly escape. McCarthy suggests that those who strive for a life that no longer exists are deluded with false hope. Having dreams is a natural human tendency, but in a world that has become so inhumane, the man can’t even afford to retain this element of being human. The loss of the past is a concept that the characters living in this ashen world struggle with, and McCarthy presents memory as a weakness to be exploited.
“The Road Not Taken” examines the struggles people run into when they come to a place in their life where a life altering decisions has to be made. The man who is described in this poem is traveling when he comes upon “two roads diverged” (1). He then has to choose which path he will take to continue on his journey. After standing at the diversion for a while, he knows he has to make a final decision. One path was worn down and “bent in the undergrowth” (5), so he took the other path, which was described as “perhaps the better claim/ Because it was grassy and wanted wear” (6-7). The man of the poem begins to ponder about a time when he will be telling his story of the path he took. Although we are not sure if the man regrets his decision or is relieved, he lets us know taking the road less traveled “has made all the difference” (20).