53 pages • 1 hour read
Farley MowatLost In The Barrens
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 1956A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Symbols & Motifs
The Rifle
The rifle represents the extent to which Indigenous communities have adopted Western technology. The rifle increases hunting efficiency and makes the kill more humane. It expands food stores and assists remote populations in winter survival. No matter how far into the wilderness Jamie and Awasin travel, guns are a constant.
Indigenous populations also have adopted Western clothing, language, and tools. Many Western inventions and artifacts have made their way into common usage among the southern Cree who live near The Pas’s Western culture and goods. The geographic proximity to Western communities has resulted in blended cultures. For example, the Cree wear jeans and T-shirts and speak English, and the trappers use canoes, wear furs, and eat off the land as the Cree taught them. Midway through the boys’ survival ordeal, Awasin admits he does not know how to make or shoot a bow and arrows because his people converted wholly to rifle hunting. After Jamie asks him if he knows how to make a bow: “Rather shamefacedly Awasin replied that he didn’t. ‘You see,’ he explained, ‘my people haven’t used bows for fifty years—not since they got guns. Sometimes we boys used to make them just for fun but they never worked’” (107).
Further north, the Denésuliné (referred to as Chipeweyan in the text) wear deerskin pelts, live in deerskin domes, and eat off the land. However, they hunt with guns because the rifle is more efficient and humane than the bow and arrow. Even farther north, the boys encounter the Inuit, who also hunt with rifles.
Throughout the novel, Indigenous inventions and artifacts have penetrated Western cultures, most notably in the form of the canoe. This is the primary means of aquatic transportation for Angus, Jamie, and other trappers in the far north, an invention hailing from the Indigenous peoples of the area.
Great Stone House
Jamie’s surname, Macnair, is of Scottish origin. Angus Macnair is described as having red hair and a large physique, traits often associated with Celtic heritage, while Jamie is described as fair-haired. The Vikings inhabited northern Scotland in several migratory waves that left a lasting impact on the culture and customs of the area. Jamie’s parents lived in Toronto, connected via the St. Lawrence River to the Gulf of St. Lawrence directly west of Scotland. This geography suggests a metaphorical, if not strictly historical, link between Jamie and the Vikings.
Initially, Jamie is not certain what the structure is, or what it represents:
Whatever the structure had once been, it was now hardly more than a rough rectangle of rocks about fifteen feet square and ten feet high. Jamie was sure that no Eskimo or Indian would have constructed anything so massive and so regular in outline; but he was also sure that no white man had come this way before (46).
When he discovers artifacts inside the structure, his analysis changes: “‘This is the kind of helmet Eric the Red and Leif the Lucky wore!’ he whispered. ‘And that means—that the ancient Vikings must have built this place!’” (47). The Great Stone House is a constant symbol in the backdrop of the remote Barrens. It signifies to Jamie that he belongs on the land and that the Barrens can be survived in many ways. It gives him peace of mind, and he feels that the place is not as remote as he imagined and that he is tied to the land by a string of events and people that he feels close to.
Viking Artifact
Awasin has a strong connection to family, community, and heritage that helps guide and support him throughout the harrowing winter in the Barrens. Awasin has been armed with legends, religion, and myths from his people. By comparison, Jamie has no such cultural touchstones to rely on as he attempts to survive in the wild. He was orphaned at a young age, cut off from oral histories and traditions his parents might have imparted. This leaves Jamie acutely aware of his lack of connection to the past or to the land. When they at last reach the Great Stone House, Jamie finds artifacts that he determines to be Viking in origin, and they help to ground him in place and people.
Awasin has claim to the land around him by virtue of his family’s continued presence in the area as far back as memory, legend, and myth extend. In contrast, Jamie has no direct connection to his environment. When he explores the Great Stone House, he finds Viking artifacts that connect him, tangentially, to the land.
Jamie’s connection to the Vikings lies through his father’s lineage: “Jamie’s uncle, Angus Macnair, had been a trader in the arctic, the master of a sealing schooner in the Bering Sea, and finally a trapper who roamed over the broad forests of the north” (1). Angus himself is described in a stereotypical Viking manner as, “a huge, red-bearded man in a buckskin jacket,” (3). With Jamie’s tangential connection to the Vikings established, he takes refuge in the knowledge that the artifacts offer a different historical understanding of the Barrens. One in which the Vikings walked where Jamie now walks.
The first artifact Jamie uncovers is a sword: “It was the sort of weapon that only a giant of a man could have handled. The blade was deeply pitted and rusted and on the hilt were broad rings of gold, turned greenish by centuries of weather” (47). He finds a helmet, a skull, a dagger and finally a lead plate described as, “a flat, square piece of gray metal about the size of an old-fashioned school slate” (48). Jamie takes the artifact, and uses it to notch their days in the Barrens as a makeshift calendar. Later it is this artifact, and his connection to its origins, that gives Jamie the courage to face a winter in the Barrens:
From his pocket he drew out the thin sheet of lead he had taken from the old Norse tomb. He was about to throw it away when something made him pause. His mood of depression seemed to lighten. Courage began to flow back into his heart, for he was thinking: ‘Those old Vikings—they sailed thousands of miles across the oceans in boats we wouldn’t dare to use even on Reindeer Lake! And they explored right into the Barrenlands a thousand or more years ago. Something hardly any white man has done since. They weren’t afraid of anything at all!’ (59).
After this realization, Jamie is ready to face the Barrens just as the Vikings once had.
The Grizzly Bear Paw
The ultimate wilderness survival challenge is a physical confrontation with a massive beast. The boys face a bear, conquer it, and live to tell the tale. This symbolizes their wilderness survival skills, but more importantly, it demonstrates the power of their friendship and how the boys work together to achieve their joint survival. When the bear attacked, Awasin was without the rifle. Jamie risked his life to get the weapon to his friend, who managed to slay the bear. Each boy made heroic gestures that, combined, resulted in their survival. The confrontation with the bear results in a trophy that symbolizes the power of the boys’ unity.
The bear itself is no normal animal: “It was a bear, though such a bear as few men have ever seen. It bulked as huge as a buffalo” (122). The boys want proof that the bear existed, that the fantastic event took place, and that they survived. Awasin and Jamie “brought home a paw” to commemorate surviving an attack of the most hazardous symbol of nature (123). This trophy symbolizes the power of their combined skills and efforts and their friendship.
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