Growing up on the prairie
As we travel through our lives we come to road blocks and other turmoil's. In W.O. Mitchell's novel Who has seen the wind, we learn about some of the struggles Brian (the main character) encounters as he grows up in Saskatchewan during the Depression. The focus of the story is Brian's interpretation of the realities of birth, death and religion.
When Brian is four years old he comes into his first experience of birth, when his pet baby pigeon is born. While the story continues Brian starts to attending school and experiencing birth in full swing. When Fat (Brian's school aged friend) gets two pet rabbits. Brian starts to wonder and ask about reproduction. "How do rabbits get started"(Pg.179).
Brian's first introduction into death is the death of his pet baby pigeon. After the death of the bird it seem like Brain runs into numerous counts of death, including the death of his dear friend Jappy (Brains Dog).
Death of Brian Rossiter
A Bennett Buggy, 1935
Brian Griffin" The feeling was fierce in Brian as he stared down; it passed on uncertain and breathless quality; he felt as though he were on a tight rope high in the air" ( Pg. 190). With all this challenges stuck in Brian's mind he sets out to find the meaning of life. At the same time Brian starts to mature and grow up, leading up to the pivotal event of his father's death. "People were forever born, forever died, and never were again"(pg.263). At last with the death of his grandmother, Brain realizes we have a meaning to our lives and he accepts that there is a circle of life.
Through written passages, Mitchell expresses Brian's encounter with the spirit of God, his confusion about death and his grief. The ever-present prairie wind of the...