Walk Well My Brother
The Revolution of Charlie Lavery
Change can happen in any place at any time. They can be tiny tweaks in personality or life turning revelations. These changes can catch one off guard and take them on an unforgettable adventure. Charlie Lavery a former WWII pilot is flying an airplane over a remote tundra region accompanied by an Eskimo woman named Konala when his plane fails him and they crash land. Charlie deciding that he could walk to the nearest civilization ditches Konala and begins the long hike. Days later Konala finds him dying, and during the process of being nursed back to health learns many important things and changes himself. Throughout the progression of Mowat’s short story “Walk Well, My Brother”, the protagonist Charlie Lavery undergoes several major changes. Charlie learns to understand and appreciate the tundra, grows to care and bond with Konala, and masters the skills and confidence necessary to find his way home. Primarily, Charlie’s understanding of, and view on the tundra is revolutionized. He goes from hating it for being a bleak and empty wilderness, to respecting and appreciating it for it’s numerous wonders. Initially, Charlie describes the tundra as “a curving emptiness” (Mowat 175). When one looks at a plain white room with nothing in it perhaps the word empty would come to mind; lifeless, hollow and minimal. This word is used by Charlie to describe what he first sees in the vast wintery lands. This means at this point he perceives the tundra as lifeless, and as something that can provide nothing for his cause. This point is also verified when Konala first tries to fish, and Charlie describes the lakes she’s fishing in as a “lousy little pond” (Mowat 174). With the use of “lousy” in his description, it is obvious that Charlie thinks very little of what the “pond” could hold. He does not think that anything could live in such a place and cannot appreciate all that it could provide. By the end of the story after spending such a long
Change can happen in any place at any time. They can be tiny tweaks in personality or life turning revelations. These changes can catch one off guard and take them on an unforgettable adventure. Charlie Lavery a former WWII pilot is flying an airplane over a remote tundra region accompanied by an Eskimo woman named Konala when his plane fails him and they crash land. Charlie deciding that he could walk to the nearest civilization ditches Konala and begins the long hike. Days later Konala finds him dying, and during the process of being nursed back to health learns many important things and changes himself. Throughout the progression of Mowat’s short story “Walk Well, My Brother”, the protagonist Charlie Lavery undergoes several major changes. Charlie learns to understand and appreciate the tundra, grows to care and bond with Konala, and masters the skills and confidence necessary to find his way home. Primarily, Charlie’s understanding of, and view on the tundra is revolutionized. He goes from hating it for being a bleak and empty wilderness, to respecting and appreciating it for it’s numerous wonders. Initially, Charlie describes the tundra as “a curving emptiness” (Mowat 175). When one looks at a plain white room with nothing in it perhaps the word empty would come to mind; lifeless, hollow and minimal. This word is used by Charlie to describe what he first sees in the vast wintery lands. This means at this point he perceives the tundra as lifeless, and as something that can provide nothing for his cause. This point is also verified when Konala first tries to fish, and Charlie describes the lakes she’s fishing in as a “lousy little pond” (Mowat 174). With the use of “lousy” in his description, it is obvious that Charlie thinks very little of what the “pond” could hold. He does not think that anything could live in such a place and cannot appreciate all that it could provide. By the end of the story after spending such a long
Cited: Mowat, Farley. “Walk Well, My Brother.” Literary Experiences: Volume 1. Ed. John E. Oster, Margaret L. Iveson and Jill Kedersha McClay. Scarborough: Prentice-Hall Canada Incorporation, 1989. 170-182. Print.