I have taken a long time to post this, because I have been thinking about it a lot. What I keep thinking about is, who is really Windigo, Elijah or Xavier?
While we know that Elijah has a love for killing and takes great pride in killing other men, it is Xavier who loses touch with reality.
if you look back to page 44, where Niska's father is preparing to kill the female Windigo, it says "she begged and pleaded in a childs voice, first for Micah to help her, then for her child to be brought to her." The woman had killed Micah, and was wel aware of it. Her reaction to ask Micah for help reminds me of Xavier always thinking about Elijah and where he was while he was on his canoe ride home. Xavier defiantely knew that he had killed his friend. Was this denial, or was it madness?
Xavier even says a few times that he wonders where Elijah is, and i seriously question the fact that this is just blocked from his memory.
xaviers loss of hearing during the war forced him to live within himself, because he could not hear or understand what was going on around him. This put him in a sort of solitary confinement, and Elijah was his communicative device. i sometimes wonder if when Xavier lost touch with reality and viewed Eljah as his enemey since he was the reason Xavier was at war. Also, Elijah is what kept Xavier involved with the troops because otherwise, Xavier likely would have left and returned home.
When I switch the context of who is truly Windigo, I also think of the situation where Elijah is awareded medals and recieves praise, and Xavier is always wondering "what about me." At some point in the story he wonders to himself what was different about him, and up until this point I thought that it was because Elijah was such a good killer and such an outspoken person. But what if it was that the others could see Xaviers decent into madness? No one in the troops wanted to get to know Xavier, but Elijah was Xaviers link to the world outside of his deaf ears.
The biggest problem with this theory is that at no point does Xavier appear to enjoy killing people, and as far as we know he does not eat anyone. So from here, I wonder, was there a Windigo, or was there just pure insantiy?
In the scene where Xavier is killing Elijah, I felt that there was a degree of self defence in Elijah. Xavier was paranoid about Elijah for along time, and maybe his paranoya came from his own madness. Elijah asks "why?" when xavier started to strangle him, and sometimes I wonder if Elijah had been trying to help Xavier and that is why he had tried to get time alone with him.
I realise that there are alot of holes in this theory, but can you imagine the difference it would make if it was just Xaviers insanity that caused him to believe that Elijah was a windigo? what if the story was told from the perspective of Elijah?
All in all, i really liked the story. I thought it was great and very well written. I also really enjoyed everyone elses post on it!
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2 comments:
You make some good points here, Holly. I think that Xavier is also at risk of "going Windigo" but he is keenly aware of that risk because of his connection to the old stories. Perhaps that is the difference between him and Elijah, in the end, because these storeis don't speak to Elijah. In some respects, Elijah is an empty shell, filled up during the war in ways that are very destructive. The difference between him and Xavier is partly that Xavier acknowledges the power of the old stories; Elijah tries to take up his place in the white man's world but, of course, he can never fully assimilate, because he is brown. He exists, in the end, quite literally, in no-man's-land. The story of his descent into madness, however,remains a Native story - the story of Windigo.
great thoughts holly - I didn't think about any of that. I am very literal and what I see/read is what it is. thanks for making me think of other possibilities!
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