The Symbolism Of Color In The Wolf Bavarian's Dirge

The definition of color expresses “producing different sensations on the eye”, yet in “The Wolf Wight’s Dirge” color produces more sensations on the mind. At the beginning of the story, Ikumaniq, his sister Puajuq, and soon the rest of the tribe discover that they are in an awkward stitching of wolf and human parts, possessing both appearances. The “lost innua”, the tribes humanity is resisted and initial descriptions of “mismatched body parts” transport the reader into a state of uneasiness. The tribe is desperate and Puajuq goes so far as to vow to the tribe to “take back our innua” clearly opposing this full time wolf form. Although, the tribe may be resistant to the form of the wolf, if one looks closely at the symbols of goodness and greed,

Notably, Puajuq’s transformation is juxtaposed through a wolf throat like a “white collar” and her remaining human “raven locks”. Her humanity is decorated with black, but her wolf attributes are specifically white. The wolves are repeatedly depicted with “all white arm”, “white-furred cheeks”, and “white paws”. Whiteness is once again seen near the end of the story when the wolf pups are described as “whiteness against white”. The relationship of the colors is explicitly apparent in the “terrible” Nanurlualuk that was described with “more black skin than white fur” conveying his cruelty in greater abundance than his compassion. Clearly the white represents the good and the wolves’ whiteness on the outside shines to the inside, highlighting the wolves’ pure intentions by not acting with any malicity, only trying to reclaim the humanity that was theirs. Oppositely, the black resembles the evil attributes tied to the humans, such as “arrogance” and

First, the wolves are linked with light and “best love the sun” and when their humanness leaves they possess “bodies shimmering”, deductively making the humanness the attribute that kept them in the dark. Next, the defeat of the Nanurlualuk is detailed with “flashes of multi-hued flames” signifying the goodness correlated with the wolves defeating the evil. The other main evil in the story is the grandmother. The permanently human grandmother is described in a “dark patch” and she is illustrated as a “shadow” when she emerges. It is clear to see her wicked action and selfish personality, but interestingly the tribe is still only able to see the human grandmother as “young and beautiful”. Paralleling their ambivalence toward the wolf form, they see humanity in a light that is actually absent from the human in the story. The tribe’s desire and inaccurate belief that the human is the coveted form masks the reality of the darkness that is intertwined with humanity. The story finalizes with the “shadows quite long” and the “sun was low” and like the light disappears, so does the wolf tribe, unlike the greedy grandmother that prevails with the