Argumentative essay for ‘who has seen the wind’
Introduction
The book is the account of a boy growing up in Prairies in the old days where he bashes into many fascinating characters. The book centers on gazing further than the society’s regulations and accommodating the inevitabilities of life. Therefore this is a book about the sequence of life of how things are born anew in the spring and pass away in the fall just to bloom once more inevitably. This book is one of the famous books by W.O.Mitchell, it is a book that is affluent and filled of Canadian values, which has accurately captured the spirit of Canadian life in the Praire.In this essay we are going to try and analysis the book based on what different people have said about the book. Life is not a rehearsal but a life time opportunity which we should make the best use of while we have the chance. (Mitchell 11)
Death and wind
The book expresses a worldwide topic in a characteristically western Canadian voice. We find that, the tale of Brian O’Connal growing up on the wilderness of the Canadian prairie is marvelously wicker against an influential, sometimes threatening, background of tiny town Canadiana. This book attempts to capture existence in a small town like few can. It is comical in spots, and from time to time very heartbreaking. The author captures the heart of a youthful boy’s religious and scholarly growth with magnificent element, principally because the book is sincere, profound and deals with the cycles of life with meek gentleness. A further look at the book reveals that, it is a persuasive book that opens one to a world of simple sincerity and magnificence in the Canadian praires. (Melnyk 121)
(”Now that the mother a small amber woman brought from China by Wong to bear him Tang and Vooie,had died, the father had left Vooie to his sister’s care.”)This is a sad representation of life on the Canadian Prairies in the 20th century. It captures something major about the Prairie awareness and the Canadian consciousness in full. The wind, so intensely illustrated in the book, is a significant feature of self discovery and is characterized as an element of natural world that we can experience and hear but not see. The wind is both a real image in that we can write articles on its influence on the land and it is a sacred image in that we are enforced to recognize it as something superior than ourselves. Example in chapter one, survival is uncovered to its barest structure (“Here was the least common denominator of nature, the skeleton requirements simply, of land and sky. . .”) this is an exciting equivalent to the narrative of the creation in the Bible, where we find that God started with the land and the sky, then every thing else became residents and accessories. (Mitchell 123)
An analysis of Brian as the main character
This book probes into the nadirs of self-discovery while presenting the major character; as an examination of life. It further goes on to expose the story of a prairie boy’s commencement into the mysteries of life, as he learns about death, God, and the force that travels through everything: the wind. The plot informs on the small things in life that the majorities of the masses ignore, and exactly narrates the expressions and yawning feelings of a little person growing up in the Great Depression. As a result the novel’s greatest strong points lie in its insightful evocations of Brian’s thoughts, sometimes connected with his various experiences of death, sometimes with a child’s original, incoherent but adamant inquisitiveness to find out the world within and beyond him. (”Give him the faiths that belonged all other men; let them light up the heart of darkness with his little soul was born.”) (Mitchell 17)
The prairie surroundings are everything in this book, a very fascinating example of how background can form a story. The characters are flushed out primarily the main character Brian O’Connal. Who is possibly a little too much the unpleasant child, he under goes a range of stages of learning regarding how life starts and ends? This is done through a sequence of lessons, example the demise of his pets, father and lastly grandmother. The ending does seem rather artificial regrettably. The novel outlines Brian O’Connal’s search for understanding, tracing his growth from the age of four to the age of twelve. He is lovely and friendly small-town boys who explores for the arrangement, guide, and implication underlying the confusion of human experience. Therefore my assumption here is that the book is called ‘Who Has Seen the Wind’ to propose that Brian is motivated by a force that he cannot see directly. Hence the book is a classic story of life and death on the Canadian prairies through the eyes of a youthful boy. In a strictly Canadian coming of age story, Brian’s contact with the enormous Saskatchewan prairie and his small town’s residents directed him to ask the gigantic questions about life, death and God. Beyond doubt emotional is the reminder of the short-lived, fragility of life, told with the misleading simplicity of a child. It is therefore important to point out that this is not a book that one should study for plot; since it is slow moving and without incident at points, but it carries an extremely significant message all through with a gratifying, idea and infuriating finale. (Mitchell 136)
What critics think about the book.
‘Who Has Seen the Wind’ is among the most well known Canadian Classics. However, even with all of it’s fame, it misses the crucial main elements to attract the attention of the reader and to stimulate one’s idea.Since it has long dragging points and endless concentration on certain topics which put the reader into a state, reffered to as a coma,hence the book has not lived to it’s hype,as a result it can be interpretted as a spiral downfall into nothingness. It could be said to be boring since it is not full of car chases or other amusements for tiny minds, but is a treat for anyone who appreciates a great legend well told. (“An individual whose every emotion, wish, action was the resultant of two forces.”) (Melnyk 159)
Conclusion
A closer look at the book reveals that it is one of the great Canadian books of all times, since it touches on key issues of life, which many writes in the recent past have tried to avoid due to the magnitude of the subject matter. Therefore, this book could be said to be a learning tool for the present and the future generations. The novel clearly indicates that no one is immune to death; therefore life is not a rehearsal but a life time opportunity which we should make the best use of while we have the chance.
Work Cited Page.
Melnyk, G.The Literary History of Alberta. University of
Alberta.1999.ISBN:0888642962
Mitchell, W .The Devil’s Instrument. Simon and Pierre publishers.1973.
Mitchell, W.Who Has Seen the Wind. McClelland
&Stewart.2002.ISBN:0771061110.
