Aaron Paquette’s Lightfinder (2014) and Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen (1998) are two novels that follow a set of siblings in a fictional context, focusing on their journeys, challenges, and accomplishments as Aboriginal youth. Highway’s Kiss of The Fur Queen revolves around the Okimasis brothers, Jeremiah and Gabriel, and the experiences they face as they were forced into the inhospitable environment of a Catholic residential school. Paquette’s Lightfinder revolves around Aisling (sister), her grandmother Kookum Georgia, Aunty Martha, as well as two young men, Matari and Jake, who set out a search with hopes to find Aisling’s brother Eric, who has run away with a friend, Cor. In this paper, I will compare and contrast the relationships
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Their closeness with each other is also a reflection of their relationships with the other characteristics in the novel. Eric becomes close with Cor, although he “kept forgetting that Cor was his enemy” (Paquette 108), and relies on Cor. Towards the middle to the end of the novel, Eric also becomes with Skia, a fox that Eric also falls in love with. Aisling, throughout the novel, also displays her closeness in her relationships with her grandmother, Kookum, Aunty Martha, as well as the two young men, Jake and Matari. In Kiss of the Fur Queen, it is also evident from the very beginning of the novel that both siblings are close with their family, growing up with traditional Cree values and traditions. Although the brothers express closeness with each other when they are with their family, they are not close enough with each other to discuss certain situations. This is evident when Jeremiah witnesses his brother Gabriel getting sexually abused by the priest in shock, as “his throat went dry. No sound came except a ringing in his ears”, asking “had this really happened before? Or had it not? But some chamber deep inside his mind slammed permanently shut. It had happened …show more content…
It was time for her to stand up and fight to save the world” (Paquette 205). This statement shows how Aisling believes that she plays an important role in the world, and wants to make a change. In chapter 40, “Eric felt the fear he had been trying to push down come screaming up to the surface. He couldn’t seem to control it. He clenched his stone and pushed his fear into it, pushed everything into it until he was in control of himself again” (Paquette 218). This statement shows how Eric feels the need to always be in control during situations, and how he enjoys being in control. In Kiss of the Fur Queen, Jeremiah and Gabriel did not always connect and see eye-to-eye, therefore they both had a different outlook on different ideas and situations, which was evident throughout the novel. At the end of the novel, when Gabriel is laying in his bed at the hospital, he states “But I’m not a child any more, Jeremiah. Haven’t been for a long time. There is nothing you could have done about this. What I did, I did on my own. Don’t mourn me. Be joyful” (Highway 301). This quotation shows the two different views that the brothers had; although Jeremiah mourns, Gabriel insists that he should be
Their closeness with each other is also a reflection of their relationships with the other characteristics in the novel. Eric becomes close with Cor, although he “kept forgetting that Cor was his enemy” (Paquette 108), and relies on Cor. Towards the middle to the end of the novel, Eric also becomes with Skia, a fox that Eric also falls in love with. Aisling, throughout the novel, also displays her closeness in her relationships with her grandmother, Kookum, Aunty Martha, as well as the two young men, Jake and Matari. In Kiss of the Fur Queen, it is also evident from the very beginning of the novel that both siblings are close with their family, growing up with traditional Cree values and traditions. Although the brothers express closeness with each other when they are with their family, they are not close enough with each other to discuss certain situations. This is evident when Jeremiah witnesses his brother Gabriel getting sexually abused by the priest in shock, as “his throat went dry. No sound came except a ringing in his ears”, asking “had this really happened before? Or had it not? But some chamber deep inside his mind slammed permanently shut. It had happened …show more content…
It was time for her to stand up and fight to save the world” (Paquette 205). This statement shows how Aisling believes that she plays an important role in the world, and wants to make a change. In chapter 40, “Eric felt the fear he had been trying to push down come screaming up to the surface. He couldn’t seem to control it. He clenched his stone and pushed his fear into it, pushed everything into it until he was in control of himself again” (Paquette 218). This statement shows how Eric feels the need to always be in control during situations, and how he enjoys being in control. In Kiss of the Fur Queen, Jeremiah and Gabriel did not always connect and see eye-to-eye, therefore they both had a different outlook on different ideas and situations, which was evident throughout the novel. At the end of the novel, when Gabriel is laying in his bed at the hospital, he states “But I’m not a child any more, Jeremiah. Haven’t been for a long time. There is nothing you could have done about this. What I did, I did on my own. Don’t mourn me. Be joyful” (Highway 301). This quotation shows the two different views that the brothers had; although Jeremiah mourns, Gabriel insists that he should be