Search for Free 150,000+ Essays

Find more results for this search now!
CLICK the BUTTON to the RIGHT!

Need a Brand New Custom Essay Now?  click here

I Heard The Owl Call My Name

Uploaded by Gotskillz on May 05, 2004

Fatal Learning

Mark Brian, the protagonist in Craven’s, I Heard the Owl Call my Name, undergoes a life altering change during his stay at the village of Kingcome. He learns the true meaning of death by experiencing it first and second hand. Mark encounters death directly, or indirectly through these people: Caleb and Jim Wallace, the weesa-bedo, Keetah’s sister, Gordon’s mother, Calamity Bill, and himself.

Mark’s first encounters with death arise from conversations he has with Caleb and Jim Wallace. Caleb advises Mark, when performing a burial service, to always look inside the coffin at the very last minute before burying someone. Caleb tells him he once buried the wrong man. While on patrol with Jim, Mark hears many stories of death associated with the villages in the area. As they pass Ghost Island, Jim tells Mark, “The Indians of Gilford village once buried their dead,”… “in low sheds.” (14) In both of these situations, Mark does not experience death directly, He merely hears and learns about death in a detached or somewhat comical way.

The death of the weesa-bedo is much closer to Mark’s own death than the discussions that surface during his boat ride to Kingcome. Although, Mark does not know the boy, the body is in the vicarage waiting the arrival of Mark, who will help with the burial of the body. This is the first death Mark experiences in the solemn village of Kingcome. The death is indirect because Mark doesn’t actually know the weesa-bedo. During a conversation about the weesa-bedo, Jim informs Mark that dead “…bodies are kept in the vicarage until burial.” (24) This foreshadows Mark’s death because his body resides in the vicarage, and it is only a matter of time before death visits him.

The death of Keetah’s sister is dreadfully near to Mark’s own demise. The RCMP officer claims that the man who Keetah’s sister was engaged to “…left her in Vancouver, penniless, and he disappeared.” (79) Keetah’s sister eventually dies by succumbing to alcohol, cocaine, and the desire’s of men. Her death is indirect because she dies far from the village of Kingcome. It is also direct however, because Mark had previously been acquainted with her. The death of Keetah’s sister is important and very near to Mark’s own death because she dies in the “white man’s world” which is where Mark commences from. This connection signifies...

Sign In Now to Read Entire Essay

Not a Member?   Create Your FREE Account »

Comments / Reviews

read full essay >>

Already a Member?   Login Now >

This essay and THOUSANDS of
other essays are FREE at eCheat.

Uploaded by:   Gotskillz

Date:   05/05/2004

Category:   Literature

Length:   4 pages (835 words)

Views:   22597

Report this Essay Save Essay
Professionally written essays on this topic:

I Heard The Owl Call My Name

View more professionally written essays on this topic »