The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
Introduction + Context
Plot Summary
Detailed Summary & Analysis
Themes
All Themes Distance and Alienation Cultural Heritage and Identity The Passage of Time
Quotes
Characters
All Characters The Narrator John The Grandfather (Ira) The Grandmother Jennifer John’s Friends The Salesman
Symbols
All Symbols Fog Gulls
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The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

by

Alistair MacLeod
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John’s Friends Character Analysis

When the narrator first meets John, he is fishing with a group of other boys in the harbor, all of whom live in the village and attend two local schools. The narrator attempts to explain his life in the Midwest to them, but is met with as much confusion as he himself feels in the same scene while struggling to cast a fishing line. Their camaraderie and encouragement of one another, as well as their immersion in the culture of Newfoundland to the point that they cannot understand a life elsewhere in North America, demonstrate by contrast the narrator’s alienation and loneliness in a world with which he is unfamiliar.

John’s Friends Quotes in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

The The Lost Salt Gift of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by John’s Friends or refer to John’s Friends. 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:
Distance and Alienation Theme Icon
).
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood Quotes

One of them used to have a tame seagull at his house, had it for seven years. His older brother found it on the rocks and brought it home. His grandfather called it Joey. […] It died last week and they held a funeral about a mile away from the shore where there was enough soil to dig a grave. Along the shore itself it is almost solid rock […] It’s the same with people, they say. All week they have been hopefully looking […] for another seagull but have not found one.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), John, John’s Friends
Related Symbols: Gulls
Distance and Alienation Theme Icon
The Passage of Time Theme Icon
Page Number: 123-124
Explanation and Analysis:
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John’s Friends Quotes in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

The The Lost Salt Gift of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by John’s Friends or refer to John’s Friends. 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:
Distance and Alienation Theme Icon
).
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood Quotes

One of them used to have a tame seagull at his house, had it for seven years. His older brother found it on the rocks and brought it home. His grandfather called it Joey. […] It died last week and they held a funeral about a mile away from the shore where there was enough soil to dig a grave. Along the shore itself it is almost solid rock […] It’s the same with people, they say. All week they have been hopefully looking […] for another seagull but have not found one.

Related Characters: The Narrator (speaker), John, John’s Friends
Related Symbols: Gulls
Distance and Alienation Theme Icon
The Passage of Time Theme Icon
Page Number: 123-124
Explanation and Analysis:
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