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Justin Scott
Aileen Jones is the community’s eldest member and spiritual guide. She’s is very old, frail, gentle, and kind—and this makes some people overlook her worth. Aileen is well-versed in traditional customs, and she often conducts sage rituals for the community. She’s also fluent in the community’s native language (Anishinaabemowin), and she uses myths to teach people how to live off the land. Aileen has also been teaching Nicole how to practice traditional medicine, and she encourages Evan to nurture Nicole, knowing that Nicole’s medicinal knowledge will be crucial to the community if the electricity never comes back on. As a frail old woman, Aileen is the kind of person who tends to be overlooked in a patriarchal society. Yet her wisdom, experience, community-oriented values, and indigenous knowledge prove essential to the community’s survival. Aileen explains to Evan that although the apocalyptic situation faced by the community seems dire, it’s similar to the oppression that previous generations endured when European settlers began displacing First Nations people. When Aileen dies during the harsh winter, much of her indigenous knowledge dies with her. Evan’s grief at her passing represents the collective cultural losses of First Nations people who were oppressed under colonialism. Although Aileen doesn’t survive the winter, the people who heed Aileen’s advice do—and they go on to rebuild their fractured community based on her teachings.
Aileen Jones Quotes in Moon of the Crusted Snow
The Moon of the Crusted Snow quotes below are all either spoken by Aileen Jones or refer to Aileen Jones . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 8 Quotes
When the ancestors of these Anishinaabe people were forced to settle in this unfamiliar land, distant from their traditional home near the Great Lakes, their culture withered under the pressure of the incomers’ Christianity. But people like Aileen […] had kept the old ways alive in secret. They whispered the stories and the language in each other’s ears, even when they were stolen from their families to endure forced and often violent assimilation at church-run residential schools far away from their homes. They had held out hope that one day their beautiful ways would be able to reemerge and flourish once again.
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Aileen Jones is the community’s oldest member and its spiritual guide. Rice leverages Aileen’s character to expose the hardships that the Anishinaabe people faced under colonialist oppression. Here, Aileen is blessing a meeting using a traditional Anishinaabe sage smudging ceremony. The Anishinaabe are a traditional First Nations community whose ancestral home is in Southern Canada, near the Great Lakes. Beginning in the 17th century, European settlers displaced the community, who then fled to the remote northern reaches of Canada, near the Arctic Circle. Rice argues that “old ways,” like the sage ceremony, were brutally suppressed under colonialist oppression, because incoming Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non invent
Chapter 16 Quotes
His rough, meaty palm dwarfed Evan’s. The handshake was half goodwill, half intimidation.
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A few weeks into the blackout, a stranger named Justin Scott arrives, seeking refuge on the reserve. Justin Scott is the story’s antagonist, and he embodies toxic masculine values: he thinks he’s better than other people because he’s a physically imposing man. He also uses his physical stature to intimidate others who are physically smaller than him, like Evan (as noted here). Scott’s also rash and aggressive, establishing his authority using violence and fear-mongering. He knows that he can get away with such behavior because of his large size in comparison to the other characters, who are often scared that Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusanti
Chapter 22 Quotes
“Well, you make sure you spend some time with her. Go for a walk in the bush. When the spring comes, ask her to show you some of the medicines. She'll know a lot now, if she remembers all the stuff from when I used to take her and all the young girls out there. It will be important if we don't get any new supplies in from the hospital down south.”
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In the middle of the long winter, Evan visits the community’s eldest member, Aileen Jones. Aileen is the wisest person in the community, and she has the most traditional Anishinaabe knowledge—she thus functions as the community’s spiritual guide. While some members of the community are more skeptical of Aileen’s guidance, Evan takes her advice very seriously and makes decisions based on her wisdom as he serves the community during the blizzard and blackout. Although Evan is unofficially in charge of managing the crisis, he takes all his advice from Aileen, because she knows the most—despite her unassuming stature as a Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. M
“You know, when young people come over, some of them […] say that this is the end of the world. The power’s out and we’ve run out of gas and no one’s come up from down south. […] There’s a word they say too […] Yes, apocalypse! What a silly word. […] Our world isn’t ending. It already ended. It ended when the Zhaagnaash [white person] came into our original home down south on that bay and took it from us. […] But then they followed us up here and started taking our children away from us! That's when our world ended again. […] We've had that over and over. But we always survived. We’re still here. And we'll still be here, even if the power and the radios don’t come back on and we never see any white people ever again.”
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One night, in the middle of the harsh, long winter, Aileen has a chat with Evan, who’s come to pay her a visit. Aileen is confused about why young people keep referring to the winter as the “apocalypse.” The word “apocalypse” implies that the Anishinaabe’s world is ending, meaning that this winter will destroy them all for good. Aileen’s confusion stems from the fact that knows the indigenous community has a strong survival instinct. She explains that the Anishinaabe faced many similar hardships—or situations when “the world ended”—under colonialist oppression. In comparing the so-called “apocalypse” that the community is currently Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti so
Chapter 29 Quotes
She had been his surrogate grandmother, his go-to elder whenever he had questions about the old ways, and he had loved her. […] The smell of sage smudge lingered in his nose, and the travelling song her family had sung for her rang in his ears.
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Toward the end of the story, Aileen (the community’s spiritual elder) dies. In this passage, Evan is collecting her body while grappling with his overwhelming grief. Evan had a deep, loving relationship with Aileen—she was like a close family member to him, so his grief over losing her is intense. The loss is even harder for Evan to bear because it’s intermingled with his sense of cultural loss. Evan looked to Aileen for guidance, and she taught him many things about his culture that he didn’t know before, including sage and tobacco rituals and much their indigenous Anishinaabemowin language. Though Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit neque odit. Tenetur qui dignissimos. Qui et ut. Voluptate labore corporis. Hic tempore laborum. Nisi quia ea. Quia soluta itaque. Deleniti nisi earum. Ad tenetur laboriosam. Eum accusamus harum. Accusantium iusto voluptas. Totam quae corporis. Impedit non ut. Incidunt rerum est. Aperiam doloremque eum. Animi soluta perspiciatis. Ut minima autem. Modi omnis iure. Sint qui qui. Qui similique praesentium. Ex consequatur magnam. Aliquid iste enim. Sequi aut maxime. Adipisci voluptate et. Voluptas suscipit alias. In et eveniet. Eaque et repellendus. Dolores aut voluptatibus
“No, they won’t listen to us. They’ll just call another damn meeting and do nothing. This is up to us.”
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As the book approaches its climax, Evan discovers that Scott stole a dead body, presumably to cannibalize it. Evan makes the discovery while he’s overwhelmed with grief from all the deaths he’s seen this winter. Aileen, the story’s spiritual guide, has just died. Her death symbolizes the profound cultural losses that First Nations people faced from the erasure of their culture under colonialism. Evan’s feelings is complex, multifaceted, and overwhelming: he’s grappling with personal grief as well as grief for his culture. In addition to losing Aileen, he’s lost the indigenous knowledge that elders like Aileen hadn’t yet passed on Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aper
Epilogue: Ziigwaan (Spring) Quotes
Their ancestors were displaced from their original homeland in the South and the white people who forced them here had never intended for them to survive. […] But they refused to wither completely, and a core of dedicated people had worked tirelessly to create their own settlement away from this town.
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The book’s Epilogue shows the Anishinaabe two years after the harsh winter that almost wiped out their community. Here, Rice reinforces how the book functions as parable capturing the harms of colonialist oppression on First Nations people. When early European settlers first arrived in the Americas, they inflicted tremendous violence on First Nations communities, forcing them to flee.Similarly, the Epilogue shows the people who survived the winter—notably Nicole, her children, and Evan and Nicole’s parents—packing up to relocate. The losses they endured throughout the harsh winter, and throughout Justin Scott’s violent intrusion into their community, fill the reserve with sadness—the Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta impedit ut. Ducimus possimus quo. Non inventore in. Eligendi atque placeat. Molestiae earum eum. Libero sit beatae. At a deserunt. Sint aperiam consequatur. Minima porro perferendis. Sit
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Aileen Jones Character Timeline in Moon of the Crusted Snow
The timeline below shows where the character Aileen Jones appears in Moon of the Crusted Snow. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 8
Terry begins the meeting by inviting a community elder named Aileen to lead them in a prayer. She’s nearly 90 years old, and she smiles sweetly...
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...Canadian government because of pressure by Christians settling in the Americas. But some people (like Aileen’s parents) kept the Anishinaabe traditions alive in secret. They spread them by word of mouth...
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Aileen takes the fan and disperses sage smoke around Evan’s body. Then, Evan walks clockwise around...
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...remain open, while everything else on the reserve will close for the time being. Meanwhile, Aileen sits calmly with a stoic smile on her face. Evan feels appeased, knowing Aileen has...
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Chapter 22
Evan rummages through a closet and pulls out a worn military blazer. Aileen sits by her stove, calmly sipping tea, and thanks Evan for coming by to check...
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Aileen says that when people come by, they say the word “apocalypse,” which she thinks it’s...
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...heads out into the snow, which has been falling for days, and waves goodbye to Aileen. Two weeks ago, the diesel ran out, so Evan does his rounds on foot. Terry’s...
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Chapter 28
...knocks on the door, looking for Evan, who’s in the bush. Tyler has bad news: Aileen just died.
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Chapter 29
Evan fights back tears as he and Tyler pull Aileen’s body across the snow. She died in bed, in her sleep. Aileen was like a...
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...need to rearrange the bodies to make more room. Evan agrees. If he can’t bury Aileen, he wants to at least give her “the dignity” of some space around her body....
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Evan and Tyler reshuffle three rows of corpses and move Aileen. Suddenly, Evan notices that a body is missing, and he immediately guesses that Scott took...
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