Previous
John
Ira, referred to as “the old man” and “the grandfather” throughout the story, is the father of the narrator’s old lover Jennifer and John’s grandfather. He supports his wife and John by fishing, and is teaching John to fish so that he will be able to carry on the family occupation as an adult. He is cordial to the narrator, treating him as a guest and, later, even a friend, and seems to approach his life calmly and philosophically, although he struggles at times in the story to express deep feelings like love or grief. He is almost impersonal when speaking about his daughter Jennifer’s death, capable of verbalizing his grief for her only through music, and shows no particular tenderness either toward John or toward his wife. Yet his love for John, which he describes in one of the story’s most moving passages, is the catalyst that leads the narrator to decide to leave John with his family in Newfoundland.
The Grandfather (Ira) Quotes in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
The The Lost Salt Gift of Blood quotes below are all either spoken by The Grandfather (Ira) or refer to The Grandfather (Ira). 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:
).
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood Quotes
“John here has the makings of a good fisherman,” says the old man. “He’s up at five most every morning when I am putting on the fire. He and the dog are already out along the shore and back before I’ve made tea.”
“When I was in Toronto,” says John, “no one was ever up before seven. I would make my own tea and wait. It was wonderful sad. There were gulls there though, flying over Toronto harbour. We went to see them on two Sundays.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
All three of them begin to sing, spanning easily the half-century that touches their extremes. The old and the young singing now their songs of loss in different comprehensions. Stranded here, alien of my middle generation, I tap my leather foot self-consciously […] The words sweep up and swirl about my head. Fog does not touch like snow yet it is more heavy and more dense. Oh moisture comes in many forms!
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“When she married in Toronto […] we figured that maybe John should be with her and with her husband. […] Well, what was wrong was that we missed him wonderful awful. […] Like us had no moorings, lost in the fog or the ice-floes in a snow squall. Nigh sick unto our hearts we was.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Well, it was all wrong the night before the going. The signs all bad […] But still I feels I has to go. It be foggy all the day […] And I says, small to myself, now here in the fog be the bad luck and the death but then there the plane be […] soon he comen through the fog […] Powerful strange how things will take one. That night they be killed.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
“Jennifer Farrell of Roncesvalles Avenue was instantly killed early this morning and her husband James died later […] The accident occurred about 2 A.M. when the pickup truck in which they were travelling went out of control on Queen St. W. […] It is thought that bad visibility caused by a heavy fog may have contributed to the accident. The Farrells were originally from Newfoundland.”
Related Characters:
Related Symbols:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
He opens his hand to reveal a smooth round stone. […] Suddenly he looks up to my eyes and thrusts the stone toward me. “Here,” he says, “would you like to have it?”
Even as I reach out my hand I turn my head to the others in the room. They are both looking out through the window to the sea.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
Get the entire The Lost Salt Gift of Blood LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
The Grandfather (Ira) Character Timeline in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
The timeline below shows where the character The Grandfather (Ira) appears in The Lost Salt Gift of Blood. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
The Lost Salt Gift of Blood
The old man throws a stick into the harbor for the dog, and the boys shout encouragement to...
(full context)
The narrator, the old man , and the dog walk along the road toward the houses, accompanied by the boys....
(full context)
...possess.” John talks about what he is learning in school and his lobster traps, which the old man helped him fix. The old man comments that “John here has the makings of a...
(full context)
After supper, the old man turns on the radio, tuning first to the weather forecast and then to a frequency...
(full context)
The old man suggests that John sing with them, and he does. As he taps his foot awkwardly...
(full context)
...uncomfortably for a moment,” before John begins his schoolwork and the woman begins to knit. The old man and the narrator go into the parlor, which has a wood-burning heater and an “old-fashioned...
(full context)
The old man takes out a collapsible card table, a battered checkerboard, and homemade checkers, bright blue and...
(full context)
...and John both bid them goodnight and go up to bed by “the same route.” The old man and the narrator continue playing checkers. Soon the old man fetches the “ostensible vinegar jug”...
(full context)
...difficult to talk at times […] difficult to achieve the actual act of saying.” Eventually the old man begins to tell the narrator about John’s trip to Toronto after John’s mother’s marriage. He...
(full context)
The old man goes upstairs and brings back an envelope. He shows the narrator a picture of “two...
(full context)
The old man continues telling the narrator about John’s time in Toronto, saying that “they”—the Farrells—“could have no...
(full context)
The old man shows the narrator a newspaper clipping describing the deaths of the Farrells, Jennifer and James,...
(full context)
The narrator and the old man urinate outside, where the wind is blowing violently. The narrator observes that “it will indeed...
(full context)
...next morning, the narrator gets up early as John is hurrying outside with the dog. The old man is smoking a pipe and boiling water, which he gives to the narrator to shave...
(full context)
...trying to “emphasize the ‘I.’” Neither of them respond. John and the dog return, and the old man asks John what he has found. John shows them a “smooth round stone,” “of the...
(full context)
After breakfast the narrator prepares to leave. He shakes the old man ’s hand, and the old woman thanks him, saying, “I don’t know if you know...
(full context)
