My first question is simple. Why not Walrus Dreams?
Anyway...
When Edrich describes a time, whether it be curled up in a sleeping bag in the middle of a football field or taking a hike on some hidden trail in the forest or just plain sneaking into a wildlife preserve, you can see it. You can see it as if you were the one experiencing these...adventures? She writes so elegantly yet so causally. Her verbiage was extremely well thought out and it definately added to the attraction.
The main attraction I am eluding to is her skunk obsession. Why skunks? Like my first question, why not walruses? (walrusi?) Or why not elephants? Everybody likes elephants! It was just amusing when she told her story. She went through life learning different lessons but put them in a skunks perspective on occasion. She was quite interested in skunks it seems, but I still wonder why she chose an animal in the first place to be the second perspective of this essay. If she could be any animal, why a skunk? Of all things?
For the record, I think Walrus Dreams would be a great name for a song or album...
ReplyDeleteThe question of why skunks is an important to this piece, I think. We tend to ascribe certain symbolism to skunks that Erdrich works to subvert. Skunks come off as actually pretty heroic: living life by their own rules.
I was at my mom's a few weeks ago (she lives in suburan Chicago), and we spent a big part of the trip trying to figure out how liberate a skunk that fell into her window well. I'm happy to say that our efforts were ultimately successful, and we managed to avoid any stink attacks.