Analysis Of Windflower By Gabrielle Roy

“She turned away her eyes to gaze far into the heaped-up ice that was all that now marked what had been a great flow of free and singing water.” (14)

The mention of ice and water in the same instance occurs just once, fleetingly, in Gabrielle Roy’s “Windflower”. Yet, it serves to contrast the ways in which water and ice are depicted in the novel, along with how they vary according to the tone of the story. Roy utilises the settings around her main characters, Elsa, an Eskimo woman, and Jimmy, Elsa’s half-Eskimo, half-white son, in order to portray their dynamic characteristics.

At the beginning of the novel, the connection of the Inuit people with water is shown by the calmness of the setting – New Fort Chimo. This is shown through the Koksoak

In order for Jimmy to be “calm and happy,” Elsa bathed Jimmy each day. (25) This ritual, in turn, lured many people to Elsa’s house, by the Koksoak river. While having his bath, Jimmy would laugh, with his “sonorous laughter (filling) the wondering silence.” (25) The “wondering silence” in the presence of so many spectators signified a collective agreement among them, showing how they see Jimmy as an astonishment. While surrounded by so much water, including the bath water and the Koksoak river, Jimmy and Elsa are shown to have been having a joyous time, with “many happy moments (slipping) by that summer in the peaceful Eskimo village.” (25)

As Jimmy grew older, he and Elsa would sometimes go to a cove that she recognised as being “more peaceful” than the common beach, due to its scarcely moving water. (40) Many other families gathered at the beach – however, at the cove, Elsa was able to find solitude to “decipher (her) own thoughts”. (40) Jimmy, meanwhile, appeared gentler and dreamier after contemplating the water in the area, often smiling at Elsa, “trying to tell her he was happy to be there with her.” (41) Compared to sea waves, which are constantly moving; the cove waters appear to be calm, reflective of Elsa’s, as well as Jimmy’s,

When Ian, Elsa’s Eskimo uncle, looked at an “immense frozen expanse,” he fell into a “profound meditation.” (101) Jimmy, conversely, cried for help in a “weak piteous voice” after journeying through the ice. (99) By choosing to have Elsa thaw out the ice in Jimmy’s eyes, Roy emphasises the differences in the ways in which the Eskimos and white men act when faced with ice. Notably, while Elsa was thawing the ice in her son’s eyes, there was no attempt from Jimmy to thaw out the ice