Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun
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| Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun | |
| Author | Velma Wallis |
|---|---|
| Country |  United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | novel |
| Publisher | Epicenter Press, Kenmore, WA |
| Publication date | 1996 |
| ISBN | 0945397348, 0060977280 |
| Preceded by | Two Old Women (1993) |
| Followed by | Raising Ourselves: A Gwich'in Coming of Age Story from the Yukon River (2002) |
Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun is a 1996 novel by Velma Wallis, set in Kenmore, WA.
The Bird Girl and the young Daagoo must recognize, only within the clan, the long icy winter in the polar region of Alaska survived.
Contents |
[edit] Plot summary
Long before Columbus: Jutthunvaa' is called the Bird Girl. That girl and Daagoo (Snow grouse) are members of two different clans of the people of the Gwich'in, to the Athabaska tribes belonging. The two young people want to be free first of all. So both stripes, each for itself, through the country. The parents disapprove such useless, inappropriate trips. Once meet Bird Girl and Daagoo in back country. That lead their paths diverge.
With reluctance goes Daagoo with the hunters of his clan on caribou hunt. After the hunt the always wandering around Daagoo finds all hunters to whom also his father counts murdered. The murderers are to Daagoos view invaders from the north - Inupiat, called by the Gwich'in Ch'eekwais (Inuit). Daagoo reflects and hurries to the still living rest of his clan. He leads the women, old men and children from the danger area. With the boys Daagoo practices the hunt in the new camp. When finally the survival of the clan is secured, realized Daagoo his dream. He leaves the home icy regions and moves southward in the Land of the Sun.
Meanwhile the parents want to marry at home Bird Girl. Defiantly escapes the girl because it wants to prevent the dreaded pregnancy. Bird Girl would like to fight through on own initiative. A cave is found far away by the clan. Winter stocks are put on. There is only no caribou meat. Bird Girl goes on the caribou hunt. Besides, it is overpowered by a Ch'eekwai and is kidnapped northwards. As a slave Bird Girl to her torturer must be to will and becomes of it pregnant. The newborn child, a boy, is taken away from her and is educated by a young Ch'eekwai woman. Of Bird Girl three brothers never give up the search for the sister also in following polar summers. In one of its exploratory moves in the north they are murdered by Ch'eekwais. When the murderers with the beaten heads of the brothers play football for all the world to see, the measure is full. Bird Girl takes revenge. At night it plugs up the smoke deduction openings of the Ch'eekwai dwellings. All sleeping suffocate, even own son. This had turned away from the mother. Bird Girl moves home.
Daagoo has found meanwhile in the southern Land of the Sun a woman. Children go from the relationship. However, Daagoo must experience how his are all murdered. In the end, Daagoo leaves the Land of the Sun and returns to his clan. When Daagoos and Bird Girl's clan want to get together, both central figures of the novel also find again each other.
[edit] Style
According to novel title a history about a pair is expected. But there are two interlaced stories presented. Both still happen mostly geographically very far of each other remotely. The happy ending looks enforced therefore.
[edit] Themes
The author argues in the epilogue[1] with an awkward fact. The torturers of the Bird's Girl belong in the novel to the Inupiat - to a neighbouring nation of the Gwich'in (see above). Velma Wallis understands her text in the connection also as a discussion with prejudices which you were inoculated from childhood in the tribal federation.
[edit] Self-testimony
"The essential message of this story is that we have all our home for various reasons, to leave, but to one day return there again"[2].
[edit] Promotion
"...the author interweaves two classic Athabaskan legends set in ancient central Alaska. This is the story of two rebels who break the strict taboos of their communal culture in their quests for freedom and adventure."[3]
[edit] Bibliography
- Velma Wallis: Bird Girl and the Man Who Followed the Sun. An Athabaskan Indian Legend from Alaska. 224 pp. , Epicenter Press, Kenmore, WA, ISBN 0945397348, ISBN 0060977280
- Velma Wallis: Das Vogelmädchen und der Mann, der der Sonne folgte. Roman. Aus dem Amerikanischen von Angelika Naujokat. 221 pp. München, Zürich 1997, ISBN 3-453-35005-7
[edit] External links
[edit] References
- ^ Wallis in 1997, p. 207 - 210
- ^ Wallis in 1997, p. 210
- ^ epicenterpress.com
[edit] Note
This article is based on the corresponding article in the German Wikipedia from 2007-11-8.
