Medicine Walk Literary Elements

Fiction, Interwoven Familial Narrative

The backcountry/bush of British Columbia

The novel is written in third-person perspective. It is told primarily from the point of view of Franklin Starlight, the main character.

Melancholy, reflective, empathic

The protagonist is Franklin Starlight. The antagonist is Frank's father Eldon, and more broadly, the alcoholism and intergenerational trauma that he embodies.

The major conflict in the novel is Frank's relationship with his alcoholic father, Eldon, and Frank's attempts to come to terms with this relationship as Eldon is passing away.

The climax of the novel occurs just before Eldon's death. Eldon tells Frank a final story about Frank's mother, Angie Pratt. Eldon passes away shortly after this story.

"Different fella now but I knew him good at one time. Least I thought I did."

"He smells funny," the kid said.

"He's been rinsed through pretty good."

"With that whisky?" the kid asked.

"Yes, sir. Some men take to it. I never did."

"Why not? Does it do bad things?"

The old man looked at him over his shoulder. "Keeps varmints away," he said.

The old man saying that he knew Eldon at one time, or at least thought he did, foreshadows the revelation of the past that Eldon and the old man share. Specifically, this remark foreshadows Eldon's story of Angie and Bunky, who turns out to be the old man.

"Son of a bitch!" Eldon said. "That sucker went three pounds or I'm fucked."

"Drunk is what you are," the kid said.

"Hell, it's your birthday, kid. A little celebratin' is all I done."

Eldon's assertion that "a little celebratin' is all I done" is an understatement, because Eldon has gotten very drunk. This is an understatement both because of the degree of Eldon's "celebratin'," and because it minimizes what Eldon has done by drinking on Frank's birthday. Eldon promised Frank he would be sober all day, and so Eldon's drinking is in fact another broken promise he made to Frank.

Frank and Eldon's last name "Starlight" alludes to their dual role as storytellers. Jimmy Weaseltail tells Eldon, when he is younger, that the Starlights were meant to be storytellers and orators. The last name "Starlight" alludes to the importance of stories within the novel, as well as alluding to the bond that Eldon and Frank forge through stories during Eldon's final days.

The old man teaches Frank about Frank's Indigenous heritage and about honoring the land, despite the old man being white. This is a paradox because Eldon, Frank's biological father, is Indigenous, but Eldon does not teach Frank this knowledge.

The old man marks Frank's face with blood while the two of them are hunting. This parallels Jimmy's marking Eldon's face with blood during the Korean War, when Eldon promises he will bury Jimmy in the warrior way if Jimmy dies.

“They lowered their heads, their snouts poking near the ground, and watched him. And then they began to dance, or at least that’s how it seemed to him. One by one they began to weave sinuously back and forth, cutting between each other, snout to tail, a walk then half-trot until one of them nipped at the tail of another and they exploded into a frenzy of playfulness…They vanished into the trees, winked out of view as though the woods had folded itself around them, cocooned them, the chrysalis impermeable, whole, wound of the fibers of time, and the kid wondered what shape they would bear when they emerged into the moonstruck glades.”

In this passage, Wagamesse personifies the coyotes that Frank watches. They "dance" before Frank, after watching Frank curiously. Wagamese also personifies the forest in this passage as he writes "as though the woods had folded itself around them, cocooned them." Wagamese here gives the woods the capacity for human action.