The Loons

Here's my stuff on our short story, The Loons.

The Loons is a short story. Told from the point of view of a girl named Vanessa, it is a metaphor for the suffering of the First Nations as a result of discrimination. The story tells of Vanessa's experiences with a Metis girl named Piquette Tonnerre. The Tonnerres are a very poor family - as it is described in the book, Piquette has to look after most of her family because her mother was dead. Since every penny she earned went towards supporting her family, she could not put out a very "nice" appearance for Vanessa. The two girls are metaphors for First Nations and the rest of Canadian society - Vanessa looks at Piquette with a sort of wonder, along with a healthy serving of stereotypes. The view Vanessa already has of Piquette obscures any truth about her during her childhood.
However, later in life, several incidents occur that prove that Vanessa may be starting to learn the truth. During the last part of the book, it is revealed that Piquette was killed during a fire in her cabin - a cabin located around the same lake a good part of the story takes place in. Vanessa returns to a dock she once knew, where she used to listen to the loons as the sun set. However, there are no more loons, and no longer does the lake have the same untamed beauty Vanessa so admired as a child. Instead, the lake has been transformed by the government, with a resort at it's edge, reworked roads and piers, and other wise changes to make the place more popular to tourists.
What has happened to the lake is a metaphor for what was happening, and what is still happening, to the Native American peoples. Out of a misplaced sense of authority, the government has taken something beautiful and changed it to make it more appealing to their eyes. However, by doing so, they remove what made this thing so beautiful in the first place. In the same way the lake no longer has the loons that gave the lake it's haunting beauty, the First Nations peoples no longer have the spirit that was so popularized by general stereotypes - the presence of such stereotypes pushed the Native out of the Native.

This picture I chose is a weaving made by artist Sue Coleman. Though not directly related to the book, it represents what I am trying to say - the loons are a representation of the Native American peoples, which, in this picture. they are in the most literal sense.