Introduction
Margaret Lawrence is one of the most acclaimed Canadian writers of the twentieth century. Born in Neepawa, Manitoba, her stories mainly portray the theme of strong women in a male-dominated world. The local life, native people in her land and her life experiences reflect on most of her stories. In the short story, ‘The Loons,’ Lawrence, narrates the hardships faced by a half-Indian girl, Piquette, due to the racist attitude of the white people towards her community. This is the only work that Lawrence describes as ‘semi-autobiographical fiction.’ (Nischik, 219).
The plot
In this short story, the author describes the relationship of the narrator with the half-Indian girl, Piquette. The half-Indians who are looked down upon by the white people, and their sufferings resulting from alienation have been taken from the contemporary life of the people at that time. Piquette, who has tuberculosis in her bones, is not bothered about anyone other than the narrator’s father, Ewen Macleod, who is her doctor and who earnestly wishes her wellbeing. The racism in the mind of the narrator’s mother and grandmother is brought out in the first half of the story. When the father, who is the only person in the family with a sympathetic attitude towards the girl, suggests that they take Piquette with them for a vacation, the mother and grandmother protest. The mother says that she must surely be having nits in her hair and the grandmother says she wouldn’t come if the girl accompanies them on the tour to the cottage. (The Harbrace Anthology of Literature Fourth Edition, 1060).
In the story, the cry of the loons is compared with the life and sufferings of Piquette, rather than the half-Indians in general. The loons symbolize the Indians who are oppressed by the white people. Their cries are never heard by those who dominate the society. The only person who cares for Piquette, who has tuberculosis, is the narrator’s father. The narrator herself says in the beginning that she knew nothing about the girl because she wasn’t present in class on most days due to her illness. (The Harbrace Anthology of Literature Fourth Edition, 1060). She is a passive character in the class. The other children too do not take any notice of her existence or her illness and never offer her a helping hand. The mother and grandmother are showcased as the epitome of stereotypical racism against the half-Indians. Like the loons, which learn to not bother the humans who attack their habitat and disturb the silence of the forest, Piquette too stays resigned and is indifferent towards everyone in the narrator’s family except the father. She finds it better to ignore everyone who shows prejudice to her. She remains cold to the narrator whenever she tries to be friendly with her. The narrator too is interested in her friendship only to extract information about the secrets of the forest and not to help the ailing girl Evidently, Piquette understands this because she does not answer the narrator and instead warns her not to ask anything about the forest. (The Harbrace Anthology of Literature Fourth Edition’, 1062).
However, with the developments in various areas and modern human invasion, the loons lose the forest which they once owned. They learn to adapt to new ways to survive and remain silent in their nests. Piquette who represents the half-Indians too learns to acquiesce to adjust and conform to the expectations of the whites. She decides to marry a white man since she fails to change their environment. Like the loons give way for the modern human invasion, Piquette adapts to the dominant culture which the whites imposed on her. The fact that Piquette is dead, conveys the message that the dominant community had at last succeeded in gaining complete control over the oppressed class.
Problems and symbolism of the plot
The story, overall, deals with the basic problems faced by the Tonnerres, who are neither Cree nor French. This provides an obstacle in the development of their culture and they lose their identity to the dominant people. The whites oppress them and consider them as inferiors who exist only to serve their purpose. The mother believes that Piquette, who has tuberculosis, should not be allowed to mix with her child because the disease might be contagious. In reality, she considers Piquette as a child of inferior birth and that is the reason why she doesn’t want to take her with them. Through the cry of the loons and their later silence, the author conveys the issue of oppression of the minority community during that period. The author subtly hints that though the oppressed show resistance, it only wears off with time and is not strong to withstand the torrents of racism. The half-Indians who try to establish a niche of their own in the society do not succeed and ultimately, they are forced to accept the dominant culture. At the end, when the narrator goes back to the lake, she sees many new cottages and buildings which arose as part of tourism in the region. She does not hear the cries of loons anymore. Thus, the author implies that the half-Indians have been silenced and transformed due to the dominant group’s invasion of them. Lawrence also intends to refer to the narrator’s lost childhood with the lost cries of the loons.
Conclusion
Hence, the main theme in ‘The Loons’ is racism against the minority sections of society and its consequences on them. Lawrence has been successful and effective in conveying her message through narrating the tragedy of the half-Indian girl, Piquette, who suffers an identity crisis until her death.
Works Cited
Nischik, Reingard. M. Collective Memory and Personal Identity in the Prairie Town of Manawaka: Margaret Laurence, The Looms (1966). Boydell & Brewer. Web.
The Harbrace Anthology of Literature Fourth Edition’. 1060.
‘The Harbrace Anthology of Literature Fourth Edition’. 1062.