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Chapter 17
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Moon of the Crusted Snow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology, Society, and Survival
Colonialism, Oppression, and Trauma
Selfishness vs. Selflessness
Gender, Power, and Wisdom
Summary
Analysis
Maiingan stands on the counter, counting cans, and as Nicole cheers him on as she makes an inventory of their supplies. Nicole grew up in a similar family to the one she’s raising. She thinks about her sister in Toronto and wonders if there’s a blackout there too, trying not to think of the chaos in Gibson that Nick described. Her heart warms as Nangohns enthusiastically joins in to count along. Evan enters, and Nicole gives him a tight hug, feeling safe. She’s worried that the situation isn’t temporary. Evan is exhausted from a day of ploughing and making house visits in the worried community.
Nicole’s worries about her scattered family represents the pain that First Nations people feel from their history of displacement and family separation. Despite her pain, Nicole feels happy and safe in the new family unit that she’s cultivating. Overall, Nicole’s conflicted, bittersweet feelings represent the outlook of First Nations people more broadly: they carry the sadness of displacement with them, but they draw strength from rebuilding their communities anew. Meanwhile, Evan diligently upholds his community-oriented values by visiting vulnerable people and putting their needs above his own.
Themes
Evan drifts to sleep. He dreams that he’s driving by the rink when his truck starts sinking, its windows caving in. In the dream, he struggles out of the truck and heads to the rink, trailing blood behind him. The snow is rising rapidly around the rink, so Evan hurls himself through the glass window. Inside, a smokeless, heatless fire burns, surrounded by endless piles of frozen adult bodies, hidden under blankets. Evan’s goes to lift a blanket, but he wakes up. He screams as he wakes, and Nicole runs in, looking concerned. In a hoarse voice, Evan says that he just had a bad dream.
Evan’s dream, like other dreams in the story, foreshadows future events in the story. Evan’s image of himself walking and trailing blood suggests that he will face violence as the situation in the community becomes more dire. The fact that he walks away trailing blood implies that he survives. Evan’s dream also suggests that the community will soon suffer tremendous losses, implying that the devastation of the wintry crisis will be far greater than anyone imagines. Since the story is also an allegory about colonialist oppression, the dream implies that the community’s losses will be catastrophic—just like First Nations people’s losses under colonialism.
Themes
