The Journey to Insight: A New Understanding

Experiences in life create new perceptions that alter people’s views on the world around them and how they act in everyday life. In Margaret Laurence’s “The Loons,” the main character shows how her mindset changes as she acquires new insights from her experiences with people around her, as well as through aspects of nature. Alister MacLeod’s “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood” gives evidence into how people cannot only change their thought processes, but also their actions. His use of nature in the story strengthened the narrator’s journey to insight. A journey to insight can change how a person thinks and acts because it creates a deeper understanding of new perspectives: in the case of Vanessa, her insight allowed her to reflect on her prejudiced thoughts and value Piquette as a person, while in “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood,” the narrator’s insight caused him to reevaluate his son’s living arrangements to benefit his son.

Vanessa, a main character in one of Margaret Laurence’s short stories “The Loons,” has a journey to insight that changes her prejudicial thoughts about Métis people, specifically a girl named Piquette. The way Piquette physically presents herself in school results in judgement from Vanessa that show she does not care about Piquette’s personality and judges Piquette solely on the image she presents. Vanessa would often try to ignore Piquette, saying she “existed for me only as a vaguely embarrassing presence, with her hoarse voice and her clumsy limping walk and her grimy cotton dresses that were always miles too long” (109). She does not really know Piquette, but she feels embarrassed by the way she walks, talks, and dresses. Vanessa does not consider the condition of Piquette’s personal life before she forms her opinion. She ignores her instead of trying to get to know her. Vanessa’s prejudicial thoughts about Métis people lead to her stereotyping Piquette into a narrow image. As Vanessa and Piquette spend some time together Vanessa automatically assumes that Piquette is like the Métis people she reads about in poems and stories (112) and would know all about the forest and animals. She views Piquette through a stereotype that make her seem fascinating but does not try to fully understand who Piquette is. Vanessa’s opinion about Piquette begins to change as she matures. Piquette brags about getting married to an English man when Vanessa notices how “[h]er defiant face, momentarily, became unguarded and unmasked, and in her eyes there was a terrifying hope” (117). Vanessa relates the terrifying hope to how Piquette has “been forced to seek the very things she so bitterly rejected” (117).

This encounter initiates Vanessa’s journey to insight as she realizes that Piquette is terrified to marry this man because she would be marrying into a community that has hurt her and her people. This realization initiated the change of Vanessa’s thoughts about Piquette and Métis people. “The Loons” shows the loons at the cabin as aspects of nature that influence Vanessa’s journey to insight on her prejudicial views of Piquette. When they stay at the cabin, Vanessa asks Piquette to come listen to the loons before they are driven away by new people taking over the area, but Piquette refuses (Laurence 114). The loons being pushed out of their home by new people can relate to the way the Métis people were pushed out of their homes. Both situations show a lack of respect for the original occupants of the land and leave them without a home. Vanessa realizes that “Piquette might have been the only one, after all, who had heard the crying of the loons” (Laurence 120). Instead of the calling of the birds that Vanessa loves to hear, Piquette hears a cry. She relates to the cry because she is in a situation like the loons. Her people were pushed out and left with nowhere to fit in, just as the loons were. Vanessa’s insight allows her to relate Piquette’s situation to the treatment of the loons that they witness.

In Alister MacLeod’s “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood,” the main character experiences a journey to insight as he arrives in Newfoundland to bring his son, who is living with his grandparents, back to live with him. As he realizes that he would be taking his son away from a nurturing household and community, his decision changes. The narrator is exposed to the various supports provided to John throughout the community, including from his peers. While they are fishing, the boys are “shouting encouragement and giving almost physical moral support” (67). The support and encouragement demonstrate the healthy relationships available in John’s community that are important in how he develops his personality. If John is taken to Toronto, there may not be as much open support among his peers, which could negatively affect his attitude. Among the constant support available, John and his peers all have positive attitudes about school that give insight to the intellectually nourishing environment that the adults are providing.

The narrator finds that “[a]ll of them say that they like school and that they like their teachers” (69). Younger children generally do not enjoy going to school because they would rather be doing something fun, but John and his peers are in a nourishing environment that makes them feel positive about school. The narrator finds that John’s grandparents have also created a very nurturing household. When John talks about his day at dinner, his grandparents listen intently and take an interest in what has happened (74). They create a comfortable home that shows how they value family relationships and religion through their pictures of their family and Christ (73). Providing a home with a comfortable atmosphere filled with love and care shows how much the grandparents value having John as a part of their family. The narrator notices the nurturing environment that John has access to and makes the decision to leave John in Newfoundland. He is introduced to a new perspective that results in a deeper understanding of John’s life. His thoughts and actions about John’s living situation changes from his insight of the loving and nurturing environment that John is a part of. In “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood” the narrator’s journey to insight is partly influenced by the natural aspects in the short story. The most prominent nature visual is when one of John’s friends takes in a tame sea gull to live with them because they are concerned about it (MacLeod 70).

The way that the family takes in a tame sea gull to take care of, as if taking in a wild animal is a normal thing, shows how the community cares for individuals. They could have just left the sea gull alone to fend for itself, but instead they nurture and care for it. Another indication that the community is thoughtful is how “they held a funeral about a mile away from the shore” (MacLeod 70) when the bird died to say goodbye. If the community does not care about individuals, they would have just discarded the bird. However, the family wanted to say a proper goodbye to the sea gull that they brought into their home to nurture so they gave it a funeral. As the narrator is leaving the house, he sees children carrying something that he assumes is a crippled sea gull (MacLeod 85). His first thought after that is “[p]erhaps they will make it well” (MacLeod 85). This thought shows how the narrator realizes how nurturing and caring the community is because his first thought is related to the people taking care of the bird and nurturing it back to health. This reflects on his views about the caring community that John is a part of. The nature image in this short story influences the narrator’s journey to insight by showing how nurturing the community is.

Developing new insights in life requires reflecting on previous mindsets and understanding why those thoughts, and the actions they cause, might be wrong. For Vanessa in “The Loons” she reflects on her prejudicial thoughts about Piquette and Métis people. Vanessa develops a deeper understanding of the way Piquette is treated throughout her life when she realizes that her initial thoughts and stereotypes about Piquette and her people are wrong. Similarly, John’s father in “The Lost Salt Gift of Blood” decides to do what is best for John when he decides not to take John back to Toronto because he is provided with a caring, nurturing community in Newfoundland. The characters’ new perspectives allow an opportunity to reflect on their initial thoughts and actions, resulting in deeper understandings of the situations they are experiencing.