Those Who Run In The Sky Hero's Journey

“Those who Run in the Sky” by Aviaq Johnston follows our protagonist Piturniq as he travels to the spirit worlds in order to locate a missing shaman. At the end of the book Pitu returns from his journey to find that Saima, his childhood friend and love interest had married another man in his absence.The conclusion of the novel works because it marks the completion of Pitus coming of age journey by highlighting the acceptance of his newfound understanding of the world brought upon by his shaman centered adventure; This not only teaches Pitu, but the reader that there is always price to pay for a greater mastery of one’s life, no matter how powerful they become. This can be seen by the journey Pitu must embark on and the final scene of the novel.

The coming of age journey or the hero’s journey is a common storytelling format which takes an inexperienced protagonist and throws them into in unknown situation, in order to teach them an important lesson. This same format is used for Pitu’s journey in order to have him acquire the knowledge of a shaman. The hero’s journey has three main stages which Pitu must travel through; The first stage being departure. This takes place in the first quarter of the novel, which establishes Pitu’s relationship with Saima and his shortcomings; These shortcomings can be seen when the young hunter Sikuliaq visits the camp: “[Pitu] stomach flared with irrational anger[...] his feelings were strong and he struggled not to run back to the two and[…]hit Sikuliaq-or do something worse”(Johnston 27). This one short interaction between the three adolescents single handedly showed all of Pitu’s shortcomings; His inferiority complex, jealousy and aggression all come out and he points them towards Saima and the young man without any second thought. He then blames his outburst on the fact that Sikuliaq had caught a polar bear further cementing his immaturity (Johnston