ENGC70H3 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Prairie Dog, Gift Economy, Baby Talk
Document Summary
The shimerdas live in a hole in the ground - they live almost like animals (ex. What is degraded when they first meet vs. what is validated by the end of the book. Reversal: jim the unburdened with no memories, and then the narrator jim who is filled with memories and regret. The values of positive and negative become reverse. The lack of freedom in the inability to forget - what is valued is memory; example of the mushrooms: first they are seen as gross fungi, and then later become valuable mushrooms to eat. Jim begins to value the earth entirely. Ntonia"s brother marek - can only make animal sounds; something not fully human and something part of the earth (and animals) Jim is sky" and ntonia is earth". Jim has blue eyes and ntonia has brown. Jim is a hawk while ntonia is a prairie dog.
