I Heard the Owl Call My Name
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| I Heard the Owl Call My Name | |
| Author | Margaret Craven |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Clarke Irwin and Co Ltd |
| Publication date | 1967 |
I Heard the Owl Call My Name is a 1967 novel by American author Margaret Craven.
The book tells the story of a young Anglican vicar named Mark Brian with not long to live, who learns about the meaning of life when he is sent to a First Nations parish in British Columbia. First published in Canada in 1967, it was not until 1973 when the book was picked up by an American publisher. Released to wide acclaim, it reached No.1 on the New York Times bestseller list. In the year of its American release, the book was adapted to the screen by Gerald Di Pego as a CBS television movie of the same title.
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[edit] Plot introduction
I Heard the Owl Call My Name is the story of Mark Brian, a young vicar who is sent to a Native Indian village called Kingcome in British Columbia which speaks the language Kwakwala. He was sent by his bishop who knows that Brian is suffering from an unnamed, fatal disease which he doesn't know of because the man that sent him on his journey didn't tell him. But he had a method to his madness... he wanted Mark to live the rest of his life to the fullest and not worry about the future he will never have. In the book, Mark struggles to gain acceptance from the people in the village by stressing the unity between their beliefs and his. Meanwhile, the villagers teach him about living in harmony with nature and accepting his fate. Other themes touched upon are the economic disadvantages and graft the village is facing, such as when the national government outlaws the village's time-honored festivals of potlatchs on the assumption they promote larceny. The village also owned a gigantic colorful mask, to which they refused an earlier offer for a museum to buy it for several thousand dollars on the basis that it was an insufficient offer. A white man manages to buy the mask for fifty dollars by getting one of the Indians drunk, who then proceeds to write a bill of sale on the mask. In order to ingratiate himself to the village to gain access to the giant mask, the same white man also started dating an attractive young woman by promising to marry her. At first he treats her to things like hairdressing and nail polish, to which the village is naively impressed with her enhanced beauty and the fact she has a fiancee. When the con man has acquired what he was truly in search of, the giant mask, he leaves the young Indian woman to fend for herself on the streets of Vancouver. A man from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) informs Mark of her tragic end, where she was only taken in at a beer parlor, working as a prostitute until she died of a heroin overdose. This is a turning point in the book for Mark as he ponders the "depth of sadness"; the destitution of the village, as well as man's greed and disrespect for women. Mark dies in the end, but not before having made an impact on the village and allowing the villagers to make a profound impact on him as well. But he doesn't die from the deadly illness that he possessed, instead he is killed when a landslide crushes his boat.
[edit] Significance of title
Craven employs various uses of animal iconography in this novel. One of the symbols she uses is the owl. According to the legends of the Kwakiutl tribe, the owl calls the names of the people who are approching their death. At the end of Chapter 20, Brian reveals to Marta, a grandmother of the tribe, that he heard the owl's call. ("On the bank of the river I heard the owl call my name....") Soon after, he meets his inevitable fate.
[edit] Again Calls the Owl
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Margaret Craven later wrote an autobiography titled Again Calls the Owl which is often incorrectly referred to as a sequel to I Heard the Owl Call My Name. It is, in fact, a true recounting of Margaret Craven's life. Though it does describe some of the real events which would later inspire the characters and plot of I Heard the Owl Call My Name, it does not feature any of the characters in I Heard the Owl Call My Name or continue the story of the novel.
