(Make sure to check out the instructor comments at the end of the journal)

Mary Sue Prangley

Journal #3 Whitecloud’s “Blue Winds Dancing”

Out of the stories we’ve read so far, which of the stories interests you most (only one, please!)? Connect that interest with what you notice about the protagonist’s change and why you find that personally significant.

Tom Whitecloud’s “Blue Winds Dancing” is interesting because it is possible to identify with the protagonist’s point of view throughout his struggle to understand his place in the world. From his initial longing for home, through his growing disdain for the ways of civilization and, finally, to his discovering that his strength and security lie in understanding and embracing where he comes from, the narrator seems to voice some of the same notions that have stirred often in my own thoughts.

In the opening lines, the narrator startles us with beautiful images—the moon, the stars, the “clouds tipped with moonlight,” and the geese that “wedge southward”—that paint us a vivid picture of his longing for home. He draws us further into his world by carrying us across the mountains to where there is “home, and peace, and the beat of drums, and blue winds dancing over snowfields.” We can smell the “wild rice and venison cooking.” We can hear the loon calling. We understand why he wishes to awaken to find the “world white and beautiful and clean.” The fact that it is Christmas time makes our narrator’s yearnings all the more poignant, for, for many of us, this is the time of year when the call of home may be most keenly felt.

The narrator’s evaluation of civilization also resonates with a painful truth. Upon reading a particular passage, one is left to ponder, “Why are we ‘driving to keep up in a race that knows no ending and no goal’?” When our storyteller states, “These civilized men want us to be like them—always dissatisfied—getting a hill and wanting a mountain,” we may ask ourselves, “Why are we always striving to get further in life?” Although he seems to suggest no alternate course for dealing with civilization—other than rejecting it as he does—it is possible to find hope for ourselves in our storyteller’s finding his place in the world.

Perhaps the most important message of this story may be found in the narrator’s recognition that he must draw his strength and security from his heritage. The author illustrates this idea by having our storyteller reminisce about being at home in the woods after the “first snows fall” and he can “look back over his trail and see the tracks following.” From these lines, we may be able to recognize that what he is longing for is the strength and comfort of being able to see his footprints behind him—to know where he has come from, where he belongs, and where he is going. Possibly this is why he can state, “Those are never lonely who love the snow and the pines; never lonely when the pines are wearing white shawls and snow crunches coldly underfoot.” We may find this message helpful when we feel a “fall wind blowing” in our own hearts, and we are seeking the strength to deal with civilization. Perhaps we will find this strength in our families, in our ancestors, in going home.

Instructor comments: Mary does a terrific job here of not only identifying what she wants to write about and why, but also getting to the core of what the story's theme is and where it's located. I particularly like how she very directly answers the question in her opening paragraph, her use of embedded quotes in paragraph 2, and her recognition and analysis of the theme in paragraphs 3 and 4. The style throughout is eloquent and sophisticated. Very nice work indeed.