PERSISTENCE PAYS: BOOK REVIEW
Image Source: The New York Times
“A Winter of Hardship” by Chief Thunderchild leaves nothing to imagination as to what kind of situation it is most likely to depict. It sets the tone right from its very first sentence. It arrests the reader’s attention with an irresistible lure that leads to a young man’s world characterized by lack and uncertainty, with respect to where the next meal will come from. This is one situation any one could face in life. Life is not always easy, but the story teaches that those who do not give up in times of adversity can experience triumphant times.
The story starts to paint a picture of how bad and desperate it really is for the young man and his family, who seems to be constantly moving his tribe across Saskatchewan during a particularly brutal winter. This part of Canada is known to be an extremely cold environment, where residents are completely dependent on nature for survival. The preferred food of “buffalo were scarce”. Life often presents us with times of abundance and times of scarcity. Every country’s economy goes through cycles of expansion associated with economic boom, and economic recession generally characterized by lack and hardship.
Desperate times call for desperate measures. The situation for this family on the move soon degenerates to the extent that it leaves them with no other choice than to start killing their beloved animal companions for food. Dogs are generally called man’s best friend in North America. However, it could be very hard to imagine that saying to be true, if people in North America were to find themselves in a desperate condition as vividly expressed in Thunderchild’s piece. Any information regarding where food might be found meets with urgent response from this family. This is a determined family. The true nature of determination is mainly its ability to leave no room for tiredness, hunger and misery to steal a family’s brick-wall resolve to keep forging ahead, even where any hopes of realizing its goals seems to fade away as fast as it shows up.
Dreams can turn things around when they come true. A change in situation for this suffering family arrives. The text does not say the family celebrates it, but it would not be uncommon if the family actually did. A change in situation for good is something that has immense power of bringing smiles upon faces where tears and misery have long been in charge. Who will not cherish a situation where he or she can truly say life is good?
The story demonstrates how an adventurous spirit can lead to discovery. The narrator’s adventurous spirit leads him out further. He ends up finding more meat, but his lack of strength means the women are better able to go and get it: “Our women seemed to be stronger than the men”. He shows a charitable side of his personality by taking some of his family meat to a river bank, for anyone who comes along to have it. His action here is typical of someone who thinks very much of the welfare of others, and demonstrates a good sense of awareness that there might still be lots of hungry people out there, who have not been lucky enough to find an abundance of meat like his own family. Although the text does not make mention of anybody finding and taking the meat left by the narrator, the situation of hunger and desperation make it plausible to believe someone, somewhere, and searching, will find the meat.
Thunderchild’s story is not without a spiritual side: “The spirits have pitied us and guided us”. This family believes in a god or spirit not mentioned in the text, and attributes its guidance and protection to it. This impacts the piece with an enthralling spiritual aspect the entire story could benefit more from, if explored and fully developed. Stories rich in the interconnection between those in the earthly and spiritual realms have not been known for intrigues in short supply.
When hunger is conquered, it is often natural that people can then employ some ingenuity, and make the most of available resources: “It was spring, and we went to where there were maple trees, and made sugar”. This is resourcefulness in action without an iota of doubt. This is also a good display of quality creativity born in the midst of an overwhelming need for survival.
It can be understood that common sense would want to make someone reading this piece, rush to the conclusion that life is so good at this point for the family at the heart of Chief Thunderchild’s story. That is not the case. A sense of incompleteness can hit any family hard, and especially a family like that of the narrator, which will not feel rich for just having enough meat to eat. Absence of its dogs and horses remains a gaping hole, yearning to be filled. This creates some deep emotional poverty in the midst of much material wealth for this family.
Chief Thunderchilds’s “A Winter of Hardship” has a message of charity, emphasizing that material wealth alone does not guarantee happiness. It also makes clear the need for one to challenge himself, strive to achieve self-sufficiency, and rely much less on others. The story shows the role of dreams in the affairs of humans. It also successfully demonstrates that humans can rely on the supernatural when the going gets tough. These relevant messages are well embedded in the story’s central theme, which says that persistence pays.
WORK CITED
Thunderchild, Chief. “A Winter of Hardship.” Voices of the Plains Cree. Ed. Ruth M. Buck.
Trans. Edward Ahenakew. Regina: Canadian plains Research Centre, 1995. Print.
