Importance Of Family And Community In Joseph Boyden's Through Black Spruce

In the novel Through Black Spruce written by Joseph Boyden exhibit the importance of family and community in the small town of Moosonee. Will Bird and Annie Bird, the main protagonists demonstrate how family and the community need to stick together through thick and thin. Will is in a coma due to a flying accident and is in the hospital. Annie is his niece who stays by his side throughout the novel showing deep support. Both characters start telling each other stories about past events which help bring their bond closer. In Joseph Boyden’s novel Through Black Spruce, demonstrates the importance of support, culture and storytelling in the Bird family and community. Will Bird devotes his life to being a bush pilot which unfortunately decides his fate. He wants to commit suicide due to his house catching on fire and thinking that his family did not make it. This shows how much Will values his family and he will go as far as to kill himself as long as he is with the people …show more content…
People form bonds and peace through storytelling which plays an important role in the novel. Without the bond of people in a community, the sense of togetherness and peace is faded away. In the novel Will is sharing with his nieces how he keeps secrets from people and is surprised by the fact that Mushkegowuk people share all of their secrets and he does not, “I am a keeper of secrets, just as your mother, Lisette, is the keeper of her own. Me, I don’t know where this comes from. The Mushkegowuk people love nothing more than to chatter like sparrows over coffee in the morning, over beer at night” (Boyden 12). Will is surprised with the amount of openness their is in the Mushkegowuk community. The openness in sharing secrets and stories forms a sense of togetherness and meaning with one another. By them sharing everything, they grow stronger as a community. Thus, storytelling is significant in the novel regarding