Selfishness vs. Selflessness Theme Analysis

Moon of the Crusted Snow pays tribute to the Anishinaabe people’s strong sense of community. When power and communications mysteriously go dark, isolating a remote Anishinaabe community from the outside world, the reservation’s residents must band together to survive a frigid winter off the grid. Their collective values like sharing food, supporting one another, and caring for the group’s most vulnerable members help many people in the community pull through. Several others, however (notably Justin Scott, a visitor in the community) act selfishly. They exploit vulnerable people to service their own needs, and they steal food, eventually causing the community to turn on them. In the end, only the people who prioritize their communal values (like protagonist Evan Whitesky’s family) survive to rebuild their society anew. Strong communal values are essential to the group’s survival—and such values also help combat the selfish urges that make people turn on one another in times of crisis.

Evan embodies the Anishinaabe people’s ethics of sharing and looking out for others. He has the foresight to gather food supplies for the community throughout the year, which helps many people stay alive during the crisis. Evan accounts for others, planning to “share with his parents, his siblings and their families, and his in-laws, and […] save some for others who might run out before winter’s end,” noting that this sort of thinking is “the community way.” Evan’s foresight and communal values end up keeping his family and friends alive—which, in turn, boosts everyone’s morale and ensures Evan’s loved ones (and their culture) will live on. Selflessly sharing resources (as opposed to selfishly hoarding them) is the most effective strategy for long-term survival. Similarly, community leaders Terry and Walter allocate canned food reserves according to people’s needs, prioritizing children (who need protein to grow) and the elderly (who are less capable of hunting for their own food). Some people object that this strategy is unfair, but Walter interjects, saying “This is a goddamn crisis! We have to act like a community. We're going to support each other until this all gets sorted out.” Walter believes that thinking communally is essential to their survival, and that being selfish will cause more deaths in the long run. Ultimately, Walter’s prediction proves correct: those who follow his advice and look out for one another (like Evan Whitesky’s family) end up surviving the winter. Those who act more selfishly suffer or die, having wrongly believed that selfish behavior would protect them and keep them alive.

Selfish behavior is ultimately futile because it demoralizes other people, causing them to turn on those who act selfishly. An outsider named Justin Scott (who seizes power among a faction of the community) forces his followers to hunt for food but takes most of it for himself. As the winter progresses, Scott’s followers grow weaker and less able to hunt, prompting Scott to resort to cannibalism. This suggests that selfish behavior is not a sustainable strategy for people’s well-being. A woman named Meghan also reveals that Scott punishes his followers if they don’t supply him with food. Scott’s exploitative tactics ultimately backfire when Meghan turns on him and shoots him in the back. Scott’s fate shows that although a person might assume that they’ll get more resources by looking out for themselves above others, selfishness actually sets them back, because it turns people against them. People who unite and care for one another grow closer, stronger, and more resilient—while those who act selfishly create discontentment and chaos, weakening their fragile alliances until they self-implode.