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Summary Of Walk Well My Brother By Farley Mowat

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As a plane crashes somewhere in northern Canada, two passengers have been left to survive on their own, but first, they must recognize and put aside their significant differences. In the short story “Walk Well My Brother” by Farley Mowat, Charlie, a white, male, airplane operator, and Konala, a young, indigenous, woman living in Yellowknife. Charlie has many differences from Konala. Charlie is ignorant while Konala is intelligent, Charlie is selfish while Konala is selfless, and Charlie is not good at dealing with stressful situations and Konala, on the other hand, is very good at dealing with stressful situations.
To begin, In the short story “Walk Well My Brother” the characters Charlie and Konala are different because Charlie is ignorant …show more content…

At this point in the story, the plane that Charlie was operating crashes in an isolated place in northern Canada. This trait of ignorance in Charlie is evident in the following quote just after the plane crash; “he began to climb the slope [...] Konala was squatting by a tiny fire seemingly unaware that he is deserting her” (Mowat 175). This quote shows that Charlie is ignorant because by deserting Konala he is very ignorant of the skills she possessed in the cold and unforgiving environment that they were in. Charlie thought that Konala would be of no help. Therefore he deserted her. The trait of intelligence in Konala is portrayed in various places in the story, but it is most evident after Konala saves Charlie from death after he deserted her. The trait of intelligence is seen in Konala when the author states, “Konala gave him the completed skin boots carefully lined with …show more content…

At this point in the story, Charlie and Konala are traveling for help while at the same time looking for food and new places to stay in the night. A bear is spotted by Konala in the field, and it is heading towards them Konala “swerved away, even though this brought her closer to the bear. [...] she was attempting to distract the beast”(Mowat 80). During this time in the story, Konala is taking care of, feeding, and giving Charlie all the means to live. This act of courage by Konala clearly shows the selflessness and kindness of herself to the extent that she distracted a bear to give Charlie a better chance of surviving. Charlie’s characteristic of selfishness is seen throughout the story but most of all during the beginning of the story when Charlie was in Yellowknife. A young Eskimo touched his arm and pointed to the tent, as he went over he said, “Theses huskies might have a few white fox pelts to trade” (Mowat 171). This quote shows that the only reason Charlie went into the tent was not to see if everything was okay but it was to see if there was anything he could get out of walking over to the tent, in turn being very selfish. At this point in the story Charlie is asked to fly Konala to a hospital, and at first, he says no, but one of the other men shows “two walrus tusks [...] of exceptional quality”(Mowat 172).

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