The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

by

Alistair MacLeod

Teachers and parents! Our Teacher Edition on The Lost Salt Gift of Blood makes teaching easy.

The Grandfather (Ira) Character Analysis

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:
Distance and Alienation Theme Icon
).
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: John (speaker), The Grandfather (Ira) (speaker), The Narrator, Jennifer
Related Symbols: Gulls
Page Number: 128-129
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: The Narrator (speaker), John, The Grandfather (Ira), The Grandmother
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 130
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: The Grandfather (Ira) (speaker), The Narrator, John, The Grandmother, Jennifer
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 134
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: The Grandfather (Ira) (speaker), John, The Grandmother, Jennifer
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 134
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: The Narrator, The Grandfather (Ira), Jennifer
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 136
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: John (speaker), The Narrator, The Grandfather (Ira), The Grandmother
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis:
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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:
Distance and Alienation Theme Icon
).
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: John (speaker), The Grandfather (Ira) (speaker), The Narrator, Jennifer
Related Symbols: Gulls
Page Number: 128-129
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: The Narrator (speaker), John, The Grandfather (Ira), The Grandmother
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 130
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: The Grandfather (Ira) (speaker), The Narrator, John, The Grandmother, Jennifer
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 134
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: The Grandfather (Ira) (speaker), John, The Grandmother, Jennifer
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 134
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: The Narrator, The Grandfather (Ira), Jennifer
Related Symbols: Fog
Page Number: 136
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: John (speaker), The Narrator, The Grandfather (Ira), The Grandmother
Page Number: 140
Explanation and Analysis: