Tuesday 16 December 2014
Script
Before Entering First Slide:
War seems to be the most destructive and horrific type of human interaction.
There are three reasons why someone would defend war:
1. they see it as a positive value itself or as an expression of positive values
2. they see it as justified means towards some important and valuable end
3. they consider war to be virtue-based, it helps produce good character and positive virtues in people
Slide 1
As Elijahs morals weaken, Xaviers ethics barely change, even when tested.
On Page 319, Elijah seeks Xaviers divining powers to point way the way to the Germans, "What is the difference?" Elijah asks. "To hunt is to hunt." Elijah sees no difference between killing animals and men. Xavier continues to question and interrogate Elijah asking if he eats flesh as well as collects it.
{"I want you to do something for me."
I wonder what craziness he wants me to do with fire. He reaches for the sack and pulls out a whitened bone. [...] "Where did you find the shoulder blade of a bear?" I ask him.
Elijah smiles. "It is not from a bear. It is German." [...] "I need you to read the bone." [...] "It is just the same as conjuring a moose, is it not? You have read bones before in the past. I have watched you. And often it has worked. You have led us straight to them before."
"But this is different," I say.
"What is the difference?" Elijah asks. "To hunt is to hunt."}
To hunt is to hunt
Page 362, Xavier as a child celebrated his killing of the moose with all the other Bush Indians who could come to feast. The men praised his hunting skills.
{When we returned home with our prize, we invited all the other awawatuk who could come to a feast. It was a special time for you. Do you remember all the bush Indians coming to us, Nephew? How they brought you little gifts, eagle feathers and necklaces, charms and bullets? Do you remember how well we all ate, bannock dipped in fat, dried berries, meat?
After the eating we sat laughing and talking, more than ten of us, the men praising your hunting skills as the fire cast shadows in our bark house.}
When survival hunting for animals shifts to game hunting for humans, a line is crossed.
War Makes Us Less Than Human
By choosing to have Elijahs represent change, and Xaviers to represent adaptation, Boyden was able to truly show the line between kill or be killed and game hunting. I question though, would Xavier have killed a white man had he shown signs of becoming a Windigo?
The Struggle for Dominance that led to Elijah's demise
Elijah gets a thrill from killing close range and personal. Could it be because Elijah is beating the white people at their white people war/on their own playing fields? He finally has a chance to get the upper hand over the opposition, both literally and figuratively.
I kept seeing power struggle after power struggle while reading this book.
On Page 341, we learned of the story of Magdalene, the nun who liked to bathe him and punish him emotionally/sexually as a young boy.
[...] Elijah tells me the story of the nun, Magdalene, who liked to bathe him each week when he was a boy. He tells me of how she would rub her soapy hands all over him, how Elijah would get an erection, how she would scold him and then take his erection in her hands and rub him until his taut penis thumped against his lower belly in a spasm.
Grey Eyes offered him an escape and offered to make him feel better than he'd never felt before through drugs, which he became reliant on and eventually abused, which damaged him mentally/physically.
The War magnified and enhanced Elijah's kill game, changed it from animals to humans, which I would count as a change spiritually.
[Page 341] The high after the kill of Grey Eyes and the Lieutenant is relatable to the high of the morphine, and frees Elijah of his problems, relieving the stress despite it being the act of cold-blooded murder. Elijah even wakes Grey Eyes before he kills him, presumably to see the light leave his eyes/certainty in his death.
"Grey Eyes," Elijah calls out. "Wake up."
He opens his eyes and looks up at Elijah. Elijah raises the wood in both hands and swings it down hard as he can onto Grey Eyes' forehead.
The killing of Grey Eyes is Elijah defeating the last of his own weaknesses/influences.
Grey Eyes' final appearance (thin, dirty and torn uniform, wild and desperate eyes) could be described as looking like a 'white' heathen. Uncontrollable and unpredictable. Weak like a child. The very traits that Elijah had been trained to hate about himself.
Page 338: Elijah and I are surprised to see Grey Eyes sitting in a chair beside Breech. He's been gone a few weeks, and we all figured he'd either deserted for good or been killed, but here he is beside the lieutenant. He is as thin as ever, and his uniform is dirty and torn. His eyes have the look of a wild animal caught in a snare.
it is possible to fight a moral war, but only if you keep your humanity.
hu
Elijah became apathetic towards killing others. He had been fed propaganda and was told that by steeping further into
By killing Grey Eyes (and the Lieutenant), he killed his
This book is power struggle after power struggle
power struggle development/progression of character
Page 341, the story of Magdalene
[...] Elijah tells me the story of the nun, Magdalene, who liked to bathe him each week when he was a boy. He tells me of how she would rub her soapy hands all over him, how Elijah would get an erection, how she would scold him and then take his erection in her hands and rub him until his taut penis thumped against his lower belly in a spasm.
Grey Eyes
Fear, cowardess, sketchy-ness, not fitting in, medicine man
Page 338: Elijah and I are surprised to see Grey Eyes sitting in a chair beside Breech. He's been gone a few weeks, and we all figured he'd either deserted for good or been killed, but here he is beside the lieutenant. He is as thin as ever, and his uniform is dirty and torn. His eyes have the look of a wild animal caught in a snare
Could be described as looking like a white heathen. Uncontrollable and unpredictable. Weak like a child.
Indigenous Navajo, Choctaw and Cherokee were intrinsic to the encryption and communication in WW1 and WW2.Navajo remains the only spoken code never deciphered.
Thesis:
Effects of War on Elijah and Xavier
State
parallels, a tale of two great hunters, respected for killing two very different brands of targets
'... trophies of the dead' (page 308) vs pelts/killing for need
Elaborate
Exemplify
Page 305, "The look in Elijah's eyes is frightening. I can only believe that this war has made my friend this way. Elijah, he will get better when we are gone from it, I think."
Xavier doesn't see Elijah as having crossed the line yet, but isn't sure. Five pages later he decides he has, but after realizing it was a joke is unsettled.
Page 310, Elijah far too familiar with cannibalism, normalization. X fights against it and is repelled: 'The meat is gamy and a little tough. "Is it horse?" I ask, pulling gristle from my mouth. Elijah smiles his wicked little-boy smile. "No. It is human. German to be exact."
I jump to my feet before I know that I do it and approach Elijah with balled fists. Then I find myself reaching for my knife. *first reaction to attack windigo* But what he has said makes me gag and I kneel down and stick my finger down my throat. The contents of my stomach come out in a slimy glob.
"X! Calm down! I am only joking. What? Do you think I'm crazy? I was kidding. It's just horsemeat." His forehead creases innocently and the gleam of the trickster is in his eyes. He pops some meat in his mouth, chews it and swallows.
Page 319, Elijah seeks Xaviers divining powers to point way to Germans, Elijah sees no difference between killing animals and men, Elijah continues to question and interrogate asking if he eats humans as well (post-selected text):
"I want you to do something for me."
I wonder what craziness he wants me to do with fire. He reaches for the sack and pulls out a whitened bone. [...] "Where did you find the shoulder blade of a bear?" I ask him.
Elijah smiles. "It is not from a bear. It is German." [...] "I need you to read the bone." [...] "It is just the same as conjuring a moose, is it not? You have read bones before in the past. I have watched you. And often it has worked. You have led us straight to them before."
"But this is different," I say.
"What is the difference?" Elijah asks. "To hunt is to hunt."
Page 322, In response, X goes and seeks prayer and answers in a sweat lodge, lets his body carry him to Elijahs bedside and opens his morphine carrier, and starts to inject himself but stops and instead goes to overfill Elijahs already medicine-bound body. An attempted murder.
Page 326, 'I fight my own struggles just as Elijah does, and every other man, Canadian, English, German, French, Australian, American, Burmese, Austrian, fights his. We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.'
Suggesting that
Page 341, the high after the kill is relatable to the high of the morphine, and frees Elijah his problem, relieving weight on his shoulders despite it being murder (of Grey Eyes and Lieutenant Breech), and even wakes Grey Eyes before Elijah kills him, presumably to see the light leave his eyes/certainty in his death:
"Grey Eyes," Elijah calls out. "Wake up."
He opens his eyes and looks up at Elijah. Elijah raises the wood in both hands and swings it down hard as he can onto Grey Eyes' forehead.
(Could Grey Eyes' fear and cowardness reflect Elijah as a child? Thinking back to when E was molested by the nun who wanted to bathe him often and rub him inappropriately. The author mirroring
Grey Eyes
Fear, cowardess, sketchy-ness, not fitting in, medicine man
Page 338: Elijah and I are surprised to see Grey Eyes sitting in a chair beside Breech. He's been gone a few weeks, and we all figured he'd either deserted for good or been killed, but here he is beside the lieutenant. He is as thin as ever, and his uniform is dirty and torn. His eyes have the look of a wild animal caught in a snare.
Elijah as a child
trying to fit in, treated as a heathen, lives with X and N for a summer and wishes to never leave. X and E go to residential schools but run away, taking down a nun with them, leaving her alone in the canoe.
E was molested by a nun who wanted to change him 'for the better' mentally/socially
E was swayed by Grey Eyes, who gave him drugs that changed him mentally/physically
The war magnified and enhanced Elijahs kill game, changed it from animals to humans, ie. change spiritually
Elijah signifies change in the book
Xavier signifies adaptation
could the killing of Grey Eyes be Elijah defeating his own weaknesses/influences
}
Stressful situations i.e. anything that challenges him
ex. the child and the mother
He gets a thrill from killing at close range and personal, empowering, power move just like the Frenchman Niska had seen. Could it be because Elijah is beating the white people at their white people war/on their own playing ground?
Niska was dishevelled in a church by the Frenchman,
Elijah and X have gone overseas to impose on German troops
I keep seeing power struggle after power struggle.
Page 341, the story of Magdalene
[...] Elijah tells me the story of the nun, Magdalene, who liked to bathe him each week when he was a boy. He tells me of how she would rub her soapy hands all over him, how Elijah would get an erection, how she would scold him and then take his erection in her hands and rub him until his taut penis thumped against his lower belly in a spasm.
Page 351, Xavier and Niska are talking about Xs missing leg,
"What am I to do with this?" [...]
N: He is not fully in this world world right now. A part of him has died already and tugs at what is left to follow.
mirrors when Elijah is at the bar with the men who ask of him about the war, E responds that he finds its better to have one foot in this life and one in the next
Page 362, Xavier as a child celebrated his killing of the moose with all the other Bush Indians who could come to feast. The men praised Xs hunting skills.
X is a better hunter in the Canadian bush
E is celebrated as a better hunter in Europe with the white people
When we returned home with our prize, we invited all the other awawatuk who could come to a feast. It was a special time for you. Do you remember all the bush Indians coming to us, Nephew? How they brought you little gifts, eagle feathers and necklaces, charms and bullets? Do you remember how well we all ate, bannock dipped in fat, dried berries, meat?
After the eating we sat laughing and talking, more than ten of us, the men praising your hunting skills as the fire cast shadows in our bark house.
Page 368, Elijah: You were always the better shot
Implicate, why Boyden what he achieved doing so
A Canadian soldier adds his message to a fifteen inch shell.
Indigenous Navajo, Choctaw and Cherokee were intrinsic to the encryption and communication in WW1 and WW2.Navajo remains the only spoken code never deciphered.
Page 319, Elijah seeks Xaviers divining powers to point way to Germans, Elijah sees no difference between killing animals and men, Elijah continues to question and interrogate asking if he eats humans as well (post-selected text):
"I want you to do something for me."
I wonder what craziness he wants me to do with fire. He reaches for the sack and pulls out a whitened bone. [...] "Where did you find the shoulder blade of a bear?" I ask him.
Elijah smiles. "It is not from a bear. It is German." [...] "I need you to read the bone." [...] "It is just the same as conjuring a moose, is it not? You have read bones before in the past. I have watched you. And often it has worked. You have led us straight to them before."
"But this is different," I say.
"What is the difference?" Elijah asks. "To hunt is to hunt."
Page 322, In response, X goes and seeks prayer and answers in a sweat lodge, lets his body carry him to Elijahs bedside and opens his morphine carrier, and starts to inject himself but stops and instead goes to overfill Elijahs already medicine-bound body. An attempted murder.
Page 326, 'I fight my own struggles just as Elijah does, and every other man, Canadian, English, German, French, Australian, American, Burmese, Austrian, fights his. We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.'
State
parallels, a tale of two great hunters, respected for killing two very different brands of targets
'... trophies of the dead' (page 308) vs pelts/killing for need
Elaborate
Exemplify
Page 305, "The look in Elijah's eyes is frightening. I can only believe that this war has made my friend this way. Elijah, he will get better when we are gone from it, I think."
Xavier doesn't see Elijah as having crossed the line yet, but isn't sure. Five pages later he decides he has, but after realizing it was a joke is unsettled.
Page 310, Elijah far too familiar with cannibalism, normalization. X fights against it and is repelled: 'The meat is gamy and a little tough. "Is it horse?" I ask, pulling gristle from my mouth. Elijah smiles his wicked little-boy smile. "No. It is human. German to be exact."
I jump to my feet before I know that I do it and approach Elijah with balled fists. Then I find myself reaching for my knife. *first reaction to attack windigo* But what he has said makes me gag and I kneel down and stick my finger down my throat. The contents of my stomach come out in a slimy glob.
"X! Calm down! I am only joking. What? Do you think I'm crazy? I was kidding. It's just horsemeat." His forehead creases innocently and the gleam of the trickster is in his eyes. He pops some meat in his mouth, chews it and swallows.
Page 319, Elijah seeks Xaviers divining powers to point way to Germans, Elijah sees no difference between killing animals and men, Elijah continues to question and interrogate asking if he eats humans as well (post-selected text):
"I want you to do something for me."
I wonder what craziness he wants me to do with fire. He reaches for the sack and pulls out a whitened bone. [...] "Where did you find the shoulder blade of a bear?" I ask him.
Elijah smiles. "It is not from a bear. It is German." [...] "I need you to read the bone." [...] "It is just the same as conjuring a moose, is it not? You have read bones before in the past. I have watched you. And often it has worked. You have led us straight to them before."
"But this is different," I say.
"What is the difference?" Elijah asks. "To hunt is to hunt."
Page 322, In response, X goes and seeks prayer and answers in a sweat lodge, lets his body carry him to Elijahs bedside and opens his morphine carrier, and starts to inject himself but stops and instead goes to overfill Elijahs already medicine-bound body. An attempted murder.
Page 326, 'I fight my own struggles just as Elijah does, and every other man, Canadian, English, German, French, Australian, American, Burmese, Austrian, fights his. We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.'
Suggesting that
Page 341, the high after the kill is relatable to the high of the morphine, and frees Elijah his problem, relieving weight on his shoulders despite it being murder (of Grey Eyes and Lieutenant Breech), and even wakes Grey Eyes before Elijah kills him, presumably to see the light leave his eyes/certainty in his death:
"Grey Eyes," Elijah calls out. "Wake up."
He opens his eyes and looks up at Elijah. Elijah raises the wood in both hands and swings it down hard as he can onto Grey Eyes' forehead.
(Could Grey Eyes' fear and cowardness reflect Elijah as a child? Thinking back to when E was molested by the nun who wanted to bathe him often and rub him inappropriately. The author mirroring
Grey Eyes
Fear, cowardess, sketchy-ness, not fitting in, medicine man
Page 338: Elijah and I are surprised to see Grey Eyes sitting in a chair beside Breech. He's been gone a few weeks, and we all figured he'd either deserted for good or been killed, but here he is beside the lieutenant. He is as thin as ever, and his uniform is dirty and torn. His eyes have the look of a wild animal caught in a snare.
Elijah as a child
trying to fit in, treated as a heathen, lives with X and N for a summer and wishes to never leave. X and E go to residential schools but run away, taking down a nun with them, leaving her alone in the canoe.
E was molested by a nun who wanted to change him 'for the better' mentally/socially
E was swayed by Grey Eyes, who gave him drugs that changed him mentally/physically
The war magnified and enhanced Elijahs kill game, changed it from animals to humans, ie. change spiritually
Elijah signifies change in the book
Xavier signifies adaptation
could the killing of Grey Eyes be Elijah defeating his own weaknesses/influences
}
Stressful situations i.e. anything that challenges him
ex. the child and the mother
He gets a thrill from killing at close range and personal, empowering, power move just like the Frenchman Niska had seen. Could it be because Elijah is beating the white people at their white people war/on their own playing ground?
Niska was dishevelled in a church by the Frenchman,
Elijah and X have gone overseas to impose on German troops
I keep seeing power struggle after power struggle.
Page 341, the story of Magdalene
[...] Elijah tells me the story of the nun, Magdalene, who liked to bathe him each week when he was a boy. He tells me of how she would rub her soapy hands all over him, how Elijah would get an erection, how she would scold him and then take his erection in her hands and rub him until his taut penis thumped against his lower belly in a spasm.
Page 351, Xavier and Niska are talking about Xs missing leg,
"What am I to do with this?" [...]
N: He is not fully in this world world right now. A part of him has died already and tugs at what is left to follow.
mirrors when Elijah is at the bar with the men who ask of him about the war, E responds that he finds its better to have one foot in this life and one in the next
Page 362, Xavier as a child celebrated his killing of the moose with all the other Bush Indians who could come to feast. The men praised Xs hunting skills.
X is a better hunter in the Canadian bush
E is celebrated as a better hunter in Europe with the white people
When we returned home with our prize, we invited all the other awawatuk who could come to a feast. It was a special time for you. Do you remember all the bush Indians coming to us, Nephew? How they brought you little gifts, eagle feathers and necklaces, charms and bullets? Do you remember how well we all ate, bannock dipped in fat, dried berries, meat?
After the eating we sat laughing and talking, more than ten of us, the men praising your hunting skills as the fire cast shadows in our bark house.
Page 368, Elijah: You were always the better shot
Implicate, why Boyden what he achieved doing so
A Canadian soldier adds his message to a fifteen inch shell.
Indigenous Navajo, Choctaw and Cherokee were intrinsic to the encryption and communication in WW1 and WW2.Navajo remains the only spoken code never deciphered.
Step one: introduce, three day road, topic I chose
Effects of war on E and X
step two: explain scene where Elijah is grouped around men excited about his kills
scalping with Frenchmen
Page 305, "The look in Elijah's eyes is frightening. I can only believe that this war has made my friend this way. Elijah, he will get better when we are gone from it, I think."
{Elijah signifies change in the book
Xavier signifies adaptation}
{This book is power struggle after power struggle, fight or flight}
"I want you to do something for me."
I wonder what craziness he wants me to do with fire. He reaches for the sack and pulls out a whitened bone. [...] "Where did you find the shoulder blade of a bear?" I ask him.
Elijah smiles. "It is not from a bear. It is German." [...] "I need you to read the bone." [...] "It is just the same as conjuring a moose, is it not? You have read bones before in the past. I have watched you. And often it has worked. You have led us straight to them before."
"But this is different," I say.
"What is the difference?" Elijah asks. "To hunt is to hunt."
Page 322, In response, X goes and seeks prayer and answers in a sweat lodge, lets his body carry him to Elijahs bedside and opens his morphine carrier, and starts to inject himself but stops and instead goes to overfill Elijahs already medicine-bound body. An attempted murder.
Page 326, 'I fight my own struggles just as Elijah does, and every other man, Canadian, English, German, French, Australian, American, Burmese, Austrian, fights his. We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy.'
Elijah, the man who always needs to be known for being the best of the best,
Page 368, Elijah: You were always the better shot
explaining scene where Xavier is a child and talks of first moose hunt with bush Indians :
a tale of two hunters : respected for killing two very different brands of targets
Thesis:
War has a way of changing peoples ethics. "We all fight on two fronts, the one facing the enemy, the one facing what we do to the enemy"
As Elijahs morals weaken, Xaviers morals compensate for the loss. Is it possible to fight a moral war?
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