Lost in the Barrens: Difference between revisions
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Jamie and Awasin are then forced to overcome a series of obstacles including finding shelter and food, to wait until the summer when they can make the trek back to their home camp with the best chance of survival. They engage in a massive caribou hunt, and able to build a log cabin and make a comfortable home for themselves. On their attempted return trip, they both become afflicted by snow blindness and are forced to build an igloo to survive. They are discovered by an Eskimo boy named Peetyuk who offers to help and takes them to his camp, where they learn that the Eskimo do not hate the cree, and are only hostile because they are as afraid of the Cree as the Cree are of them. The boys are able to return home with the help of their new friends, and they make plans to return to their cabin the next summer with Jamie's uncle Angus. |
Jamie and Awasin are then forced to overcome a series of obstacles including finding shelter and food, to wait until the summer when they can make the trek back to their home camp with the best chance of survival. They engage in a massive caribou hunt, and able to build a log cabin and make a comfortable home for themselves. On their attempted return trip, they both become afflicted by snow blindness and are forced to build an igloo to survive. They are discovered by an Eskimo boy named Peetyuk who offers to help and takes them to his camp, where they learn that the Eskimo do not hate the cree, and are only hostile because they are as afraid of the Cree as the Cree are of them. The boys are able to return home with the help of their new friends, and they make plans to return to their cabin the next summer with Jamie's uncle Angus. |
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Lost ine the barrens is the worst book ever. I hate it. So don't think about reading this book. It's a bad book. |
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==Themes== |
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'''Man vs. Nature:''' The true antagonist of this novel is Nature itself. The boys struggle to survive in a very harsh, difficult environment. The boys demonstrate true courage in hunting and even surviving an encounter with a grizzly bear. They also show great ingenuity in doing so. Awasin already has skill in hunting and fishing and also learns how to make warm clothes. He is very clever as proven by how he is able to make a fire in chapter 9. Meanwhile, Jamie is a very creative person. He is the one who designs and builds first their stone igloo and later their wood cabin. He is a 'think-outside-of-the-box problem solver. Working together they are successful. This brings us to the next big theme: |
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'''Intercultural Friendships:''' How do you overcome fear, ignorance and distrust between people from different cultures and backgrounds? You work together and learn to trust one another. That's how it is for Jamie and Awasin and then later between the two boys and Peetyuk. Jamie is a white English speaking city boy from Toronto. Awasin is from the Cree camp in the wilderness. He learns English while at boarding school. The two very different boys become excellent friends. Jamie helps Awasin to trust Peetyuk, even though the Cree have always been suspicious, fearful of them. |
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'''Coming of age:''' The novel is also a 'Coming of Age' story. The two boys journey in the barrenlands is also their journey from boyhood towards manhood. They are becoming men through their adventures and experiences, they are growing up. For example, risk-taker Jamie learns some lessons about survival in the north through it all. Also, Peetyuk, a secondary character, has reached an age where it is time to learn about his father's people after being raised by his mother and grandparents. |
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==Adaptations== |
==Adaptations== |
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Revision as of 13:33, 30 May 2012
 Cover of the 22nd edition (hard cover) | |
| Author | Farley Mowat |
|---|---|
| Illustrator | Charles Geer |
| Language | English |
| Genre | Children's |
| Publisher | Little, Brown & Co |
Publication date | June 1956 |
| Publication place | Canada |
| Pages | 219 |
| ISBN | 978-0-316-58638-2 |
| OCLC | 290007559 |
| Followed by | The Curse of the Viking Grave |
Lost in the Barrens is a children's novel by Farley Mowat, first published in 1956. Some editions used the title Two Against the North.
It won a Governor General's Award in 1956 and the Canada Library Association Book of the Year for Children Award in 1958.[1][2]
Plot introduction
The book tells of boys in their late teens: one white boy who has recently lost his parents, and one Indian boy from the Cree tribe of the same age. The boys embark on a mission to relieve the starvation of a neighbouring Indian village, the Chipeweyans, but due to a series of unfortunate events become trapped above the tree line in Canada's Barren Lands (Arctic tundra, a vast level treeless region with a mostly marshy surface and underlying permafrost) during winter. The characters emerge again in Mowat's The Curse of the Viking Grave.
Plot summary
The parents of Jamie (the white boy) died in a car crash, thus he was under the care of his trapper uncle, Angus. Angus had supported Jamie's boarding-school fees for a long time, until the fur trade had declined. Angus could no longer support Jamie's school. Thus, Jamie left the boarding school to live with his uncle. Jamie made friends with the Cree Tribe's Chief's son, Awasin. Then the Chief thought a trader was cheating him, so he asked Angus and Jamie to go with him. Then, it was decided that Jamie would stay with Awasin for Angus' canoe could not hold three people and other things. Fortunately Jamie was fine with this and he even said that he would have more fun in the wilderness. Shortly after, Chipeweyans come to the Crees for help. The Chipeweyans were starving because the deer did not come at its usual time in the year. Awasin's mother was suspicious that the Chipeweyans may just be looking for a free handout, and so the boys agreed to go with them back to the Chipeweyan's camp to prove they needed the supplies. Jamie decides he wants to go too, so the two and the Chipeweyans who came (including Denikazi, their leader), canoes back to the Chipeweyan camp. There, Denikazi misunderstood for he thought Jamie and Awasin were going with them on the hunt for the deer. This is how Jamie and Awasin start their journey for the deer hunt out in the barrens. Soon, they go up to the North farther, but they do not find any 'deer' (in the book, deer means barrenland caribou). So, Denikazi orders Jamie and Awasin to stay with two young Chipeweyans at a certain point until they come back. He includes that they should run, and forget about the camp should they encounter Eskimos.
In this book, the Chipeweyans and the Crees are deathly afraid of the Eskimos. The Chipeweyan Chief Denikazi described it this way: his people went and hunted as far north as they wanted to for deer, for they had guns and the Eskimos did not. Then, the Eskimos got guns and fought back. (Nowadays Eskimos are called 'Inuit' or 'Thule', but this was not the case when Mowat wrote his novel, or for decades afterward). Anyway, while staying with the two young Chipewyan hunters, Jamie decides he wants to take the chance and explore. He tricks Awasin into it, and later Awasin gives in. They go up to see the 'stone house' that one of the two Chipeweyans had told them about. There, they try to find it but unexpectedly meet a whirlpool and barely survive. Gathering what they can salvage from the water and their broken canoe, they have barely enough to survive. They cannot use the canoe anymore, they are stranded in the barrens. When the two young Chipeweyans found out that Awasin and Jamie were gone they went on searching for them. Their search is abruptly stopped when they catch a glance of an Eskimo kayak. As for Jamie and Awasin, they decide to go the way that Denikazi and the other hunters went, so they can join with them on the journey back. A problem occurs, for one of Denikazi's men sees what he believes is an Eskimo and they all flee quietly back. They unknowingly pass by Jamie and Awasin's camp during the night.
Jamie and Awasin are then forced to overcome a series of obstacles including finding shelter and food, to wait until the summer when they can make the trek back to their home camp with the best chance of survival. They engage in a massive caribou hunt, and able to build a log cabin and make a comfortable home for themselves. On their attempted return trip, they both become afflicted by snow blindness and are forced to build an igloo to survive. They are discovered by an Eskimo boy named Peetyuk who offers to help and takes them to his camp, where they learn that the Eskimo do not hate the cree, and are only hostile because they are as afraid of the Cree as the Cree are of them. The boys are able to return home with the help of their new friends, and they make plans to return to their cabin the next summer with Jamie's uncle Angus.
Lost ine the barrens is the worst book ever. I hate it. So don't think about reading this book. It's a bad book.
Adaptations
There is a 1990 television movie version of this novel. It was made for a family/general audience so the hunting scenes are tame. There are also quite a few differences between the movie and the novel. Some of them are:
- Awasin is called Awasis, Uncle Angus's last name is different
- Jamie and Awasin meet on a train instead of at Angus' cabin
- Alphonse is called Mewasin
- The boys go hunting with Awasin's father Alphonse instead of Denikazi and the Chipewyans
- The movie is from Jamie's perspective (1st person) instead of the all-knowing 3rd person in the novel
It was shot in Winnipeg, Manitoba.