Moon of the Crusted Snow Essay Sample

Waubgeshig Rice's novel Moon of the Crested Snow imparts to the reader the message that no matter what happens, people must stick together and help one another. This message is revealed through the kindness of Evan shown through his dialogue with the children, Aileen's knowledge symbolized by her death, and Scott’s selfish acts driven into the plot.

Evans' act of kindness helps the readers understand how people should act and help others in a crisis. The community was able to survive longer through each other's willingness to share food. The author’s use of dialogue between Evan and his children helps establish how kindhearted he is.

Evan has just finished inventorying all of the animals he's hunted in preparation for winter, and he notes that he's been gathering food for his entire town. He is someone who considers the needs of others, particularly those who may be vulnerable in the coming winter. Though Evan is unaware of it, the community will soon be cut off from the outside world due to a severe blackout, and his foresight in collecting food for the community will be key in saving many people's lives.

Rice implies throughout the novel that such a sharing act is important to the community's survival. Evan's proclivity to consider the collective needs of others benefits those in his orbit both practically with food and emotionally with teamwork. This mentality assists them in sticking together and surviving the severe winter.

Dan has just completed telling his extended family an Anishinaabe story about a mythical figure named Nanabush. In the story, winter is approaching, and Nanabush finds a large flock of geese and gleefully kills them all, despite the fact that he doesn't need that many geese to survive. Then one day, all of his geese were stolen, leaving him with no food for the winter as there were no geese left to hunt. Evan asks the kids if they got the moral of the story, to which Maiingan responds, "Don't be greedy!"

From the story Dan had told, Evans wants his children to understand and teach them not to be greedy and always share with others, which is why he asks the children if they can “think of any other important lessons in the story”. He wants his children to follow his morals and wants them to help others like him. Alieen's role as a community guide while bringing it together develops the author's message. The death of Aileen is used by Alice to symbolize her efforts to bring the town together.

Evan pays a visit to Aileen Jones, the community's eldest member, in the middle of the harsh winter. Aileen is the most experienced member of the community. Because she knows the most, Evan follows all of Aileen's advice and makes judgments based on her wisdom while serving the community during the snow and blackout. Aileen encourages men in the community, such as Evan, to nurture and learn from their women, trusting in their wisdom as caregivers and medical healers, believing that their insights will be key to the community's survival. Nicole ends up sustaining the survivors and taking them to safety thanks to Aileen's assistance. Aileen is trying to teach others what she knows from her experience like with Nicole and other young females. Furthermore she’s bringing the community together with her knowledge as they are helping one another in difficult times, which is the core message.

Aileen dies near the end of the story. Evan is collecting her body at this moment while dealing with his overwhelming grief. Evan took guidance from Aileen, and she taught him and others many things they didn't know before. With what she knew, she had helped the community as the spiritual guide. So his grief at her death is intense, showing how essential she was to the community because her knowledge enabled individuals like Nicole to support one another. Her death was also a symbol of her impact, and it was exploited to convey Alice's message.

Consequences that Scott faces for his selfish actions shows why people should work together as a community. The plot (particularly, the climax) is used by the author to depict what happens to a selfish person like Scott.

Meghan Connor, a settler in the community controlled by antagonist Justin Scott, has just informed Nicole that Scott is harassing his supporters. He's basically ordering people who are physically weaker and smaller than him to follow his orders. Meghan now explains that Scott hoards all of the food and wood that he forces his followers to gather; they are becoming "skinnier," while Scott appears to be growing "larger."

Scott, a demanding and violent authority figure, is taking advantage of his followers in order to protect himself. His community's segment has become sick, weak, and severely malnourished under his rule. They'll soon be too frail to carry out his orders. Scott believes that being selfish will help him gain power, but he fails to recognise how much he exploits his followers, and he fails to understand that they will be unable to serve him if they are sick and dying. As the winter progresses, several of his followers leave and seek shelter elsewhere. Scott's faction decreases as a result, and his power slowly vanishes. As Scott's people get weaker, it forces him to resort to cannibalism. This shows that selfishness is a poor leadership practice, as selfish leaders will eventually lose their followers' support and fail. Therefore proving working as a community and helping each other is a better approach to survive during these challenging circumstances.

Evan, Isaiah, and Tyler confront Justin Scott towards the end of the book, knowing that he has stolen a dead body to cannibalize. The situation escalates, and Scott shoots Evan, despite their best efforts to prevent a violent confrontation. Scott's "head burst[s] open" before he can shoot anyone else. One of his own supporters, Meghan Connor, shot him.

Meghan murders Scott for abusing and oppressing her. Due to Scott's misogynistic attitude, his male supporters forced Megan to collect food for them. They also took all of Meghan's food and threatened to harm her. Meghan has grown to despise her tormentors, and she seized this opportunity to kill Scott. Although Scott believed that oppressing Meghan will help him, he was unaware of the amount of hatred he had provoked in her and that she had been waiting for a chance to turn on him. Scott's end demonstrates that, while selfishness may lead one to believe that they will get more riches by prioritizing themselves above others, it actually backfires by turning people against them. People who unite and care for one another grow closer, stronger, and more resilient. For example, while Alieen does not survive the winter, those who follow her advice do and go on to rebuild their fractured community based on her teachings, whereas those who act selfishly suffer or die, such as Scott, who assumed that selfish behavior would protect and keep him alive.