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Canadian Ethnic Studies, 2008-01, Vol.40 (3), p.208
Ort / Verlag
Calgary: Canadian Ethnic Studies Journal
Erscheinungsjahr
2008
Link zum Volltext
Quelle
Sociological Abstracts
Beschreibungen/Notizen
Despite these ongoing corrosives, in the community that Boyden depicts, traditional ways of being are very much alive for some characters, as represented by [Annie]'s trapping, her healing powers, and the presence of the Cree language. Because the novel is told by first-person narrators, much of it carries the flavour of oral recitation, as in the opening of Will's story: "You know I was a bush pilot. The best. But the best have to crash. And I've crashed a plane, me. Three times. I need to explain this all to you" ( 1). While most of the book is in English, readers are told that characters' conversations may switch back and forth between Cree and English, depending on whom they are talking to and what the context is. When Annie is high at a party in New York, she makes a point of "protecting" herself by speaking Cree to people who want her to perform her Indian Princess identity: what her listeners don't know is that she is insulting them. [Joseph Boyden] himself uses Cree words occasionally in the text, but always with enough context that non-Cree-speaking readers will get the gist. The ongoing effect is to present Cree as a living language: this is a story of survival, not extinction. Also important here are the locations in which the novel takes place. Boyden's Aboriginal characters live in the city as well as in the bush; they are both on and off the reserve; and they have email accounts as well as visions. While traditional beliefs and ways of life are important in the novel, it needs to be stressed that they are not a retreat from modern life, but part of it, albeit often an uneasy, roughly- fitting part.