Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Moon of the Crusted Snow, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Technology, Society, and Survival
Colonialism, Oppression, and Trauma
Selfishness vs. Selflessness
Gender, Power, and Wisdom
Summary
Analysis
In a pine forest, Evan Whitesky shoots and takes down a moose. This makes Evan happy—the extra food will be helpful in the winter. He pulls out a worn leather pouch and pinches some tobacco from it. He bounces the tobacco in his hand, makes a fist around it, and says a prayer—mostly in English, with some Ojibwe words sprinkled in. Evan prays for a bountiful season for his community and places the tobacco on the ground. It’s a customary for Anishinaabe hunters to make a tobacco offering to the Earth for each kill.
The Anishinaabe people are a First Nations community from Canada. Rice also refers to Anishinaabe using the word “Ojibwe.” Evan is Anishinaabe, and through his hunting, Rice establishes the fact that living off the land is an important facet of Anishinaabe culture. The tobacco ritual reminds the Anishinaabe to give something back to the land every time they take something from it, and to avoid needlessly exploiting its resources. Evan’s struggle to remember the ritual in his indigenous language suggests that a lot of indigenous knowledge has been lost to history, and that modern-day Anishinaabe people like Evan are torn between tradition and modern life.
Themes
Evan’s father (Dan) taught Evan how to hunt when he was little, and he’s been hunting ever since. Evan has done well this season: he’s caught several moose, as well as geese, rabbits, and lots of fish. That’s more than his family needs, so he’ll share the rest with the community; meat that’s flown in from the South is expensive. Evan also finds that the meat he hunts himself more satisfying, because hunting is an Anishinaabe tradition. Presently, he flips open his razor knife and cuts through the moose’s skin, exposing the muscle, before severing the moose’s hind quarter. He lugs sections of the moose over to his truck, piece by piece, as the sun sets.
Evan’s foresight in hunting throughout the year speaks to the importance Anishinaabe culture places on working hard and planning for unforeseen circumstances. Evan also embodies communal thinking, another important facet of Anishinaabe culture: he hunts with others in mind and plans to share his bounties rather than hoard them for himself.
Themes
After cutting up the moose, Evan pulls up to his simple house, noticing that the bedroom lights are off. His son Maiingan and daughter Nangohns must be asleep. Evan lugs the moose carcass to the shed, where it’ll sit until he can finish butchering it. Inside the house, Evan is surprised that it’s so quiet—but his partner, Nicole, explains that the satellite went offline, so there’s no television signal. Nicole cheers excitedly when Evan says he caught a moose. Evan reaches for a charger to plug in his phone. Nicole teases him for a kiss, and Evan happily complies.
Rice hints that there’s some kind of signal outage happening on the reservation—though the electricity still seems to be working, as Evan is able to charge his phone. Evan and Nicole’s ease in adapting to a night without television suggests that they are not overly dependent on technology. Rice also emphasizes the supportive and nurturing bond between Evan and Nicole—Evan clearly respects Nicole similarly to how he respects nature, suggesting that dynamic is another important facet of Anishinaabe culture.
Themes
Evan and Nicole have known each other for as long as Evan can remember; all his childhood memories are intertwined with memories of her. He remembers her teasing him about his baggy overalls and bowl haircut on the first day of kindergarten. He also remembers being so shy that he cried for his mother on the first day. They were a couple by high school, and they had two children after Nicole went to college in the South: Maiingan (who’s five) and Nangohns (who’s three). Evan hunts to provide for them.
Evan and Nicole have a long history rooted in growing up in a close-knit community. That Nicole is the high achiever of the duo (given her college education) also implies that women are strong figures in this community. Evan is also not afraid of showing his vulnerability in acknowledging his childhood lack of confidence. This establishes Evan as someone who is comfortable with emotional vulnerability and who sees women as his equals.
Themes
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Evan decides to finish butchering the moose in the morning—he’ll use one of his allotted hunting days from his maintenance job in the community. Nicole jokes that Evan will have to entertain her now that the television is busted, and he chuckles. In a few weeks, winter will set in, which means heavy snow and six months of isolation for their remote northern village. Evan decides to rest, knowing there’s a big day of butchering ahead. Nicole is on the same page: they need to prepare for the harsh winter.
Winters in this remote region are difficult and isolating, so Evan and Nicole are being diligent in preparing for the rough season ahead. Their preparedness (a hallmark of Anishinaabe values) will soon prove crucial to their survival during the fast-approaching winter. And even though their satellite service is still out, neither of them are particularly bothered—they don’t rely on technology to keep them entertained or happy.
Themes
