The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

A detailed Summary of The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

The impact that death has upon individuals is quite significant. It represents freedom, it predetermines ones future and it affects relationships. In both "The boat," and "Vision," Alistair MacLeod's stories both revolve around the awful deaths. In both the stories, the events rise out of seasonal, reproductive life cycles, which make life more boring and forces death into the characters. The deaths seen include both the death of humans and the death of animals, such as we see in Vision. The deaths affect the actual characters who die and lots of other people around them.

Death changes the lives of the characters in "The boat." It affects the father, mother and particularly the narrator. The death also sets both the father and narrator free and it predetermines all their futures and relationships. The death in, "The boat," is of the father. He does not enjoy life, and he has an unpleasant time, just by being alive. His death sets people free, but it also is negative for his wife as she is left to fend for herself.

The foreshadowing of death by the introductory reflections creates an effect of suspense, and anticipation. In detailing the cigarette butts as, "gray corpses on the overflowing ashtray," MacLeod is alre

The father is finally set free from life when he dies. He dies in an awful way, "the fish had eaten his testicles and the gulls had pecked out his eyes." This is like the way his life is and has always been. He was never built to be a fisherman, "[He] did not tan, and the salt water irritated his skin." The father is forced into fishing by the expectation of his previous family. He likes to broaden his mind in his spare time by reading books. He is prosaic and he only continues fishing to keep the family traditions. In all his spare time he does not spend any time by the water. He has nothing to look forward to in life, so he becomes lazy and spends most of his time in his room.

Death has many impacts in these two stories by Alistair MacLeod. It represents both good and bad impacts. The major impacts demonstrated by Macleod are the issues of freedom associated with death; the predetermining of ones future, and the way that death affects relationships. We are shown these impacts in both positive and negative ways, with freedom mainly being positive, and the effects on people's relationships varying between stories. Death is a major impact that puts people under emotional stress, dealing with it. The physical side of death has been proved as violent and fearful, but there is no escaping it for any of the characters.

The narrator is set free after the death of his father. It is considered for him to follow his father as a fisherman, as his father did with his father. He had said one night that he would remain with his father as long as he lived and that they would fish the sea together. He keeps to his promise, and he only lets himself free when his father dies. When he does this, he breaks the, "link in the chain of tradition." He has always made out that he loved fishing to his father and the rest of his family that he loved fishing to his father, and he is forced not to quit by comments he receives such as, "you have given added years to his life," (p17) by his mother. He was never built to be a fisherman, and the death of his father puts him off even more. The death caused him to suffer emotionally, causing him to be, "afraid to be alone with death."

Like in, "The Boat," Macleod uses foreshadowing to create a sense of rightness to the reader as the story unfolds. When the boat leaves the port to take Alex and Angus to Canna, everything is fine and it is sunny. As the boat journey proceeds the weather quickly deteriorates and it quickly becomes wet and rainy. This negative weather foreshadows the events of the blind woman's house burning down, which kills her and all her faithful animals.

The other main character that is greatly affected by death is the mother. She has very deep morals and standards. She thinks that she is st

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Approximate Word count = 1872
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English