Honour In Windflower By Gabrielle Roy

Honour is the mindset and way an individual views himself. It is the esteem the one hold himself in front of others and the mirror. Honour is the respect that must be given to high-ranking dignitaries and to an individual’s own mother and father. Without it, the world is void of any respect for status or past successes. Honour is the acknowledgement of greatness. The loss of honour is received when a person wrongs himself or those he is associated with. This leaves that individual wallowing in guilt and hoping to recompense his actions. In the novel Windflower, Gabrielle Roy encompasses the consequences of losing one’s honour, regaining it and trying to find the certainty of retaining it. In the story, Elsa deals with the loss and revival

From believing that she must completely envelop Jimmy within white culture, Elsa turns around, denounces the white culture, and accepts the Inuit culture more that she did as a child. She takes Jimmy and travels across the river where Old Fort Chimo is located. ON the beach Elsa leaves most of her White belongings and carries only the most important of possessions to Uncle Ian’s cabin. Upon arriving, at uncle Ian’s cabin, Elsa and Jimmy are welcomed reluctantly by the old man. However, as time goes on, Uncle Ian warms up to the mother and son. Elsa now acts like an Inuit mother, teaching, cooking, and caring for her son and Uncle Ian. “She had just turned the last page of an interesting but somewhat complicated book and was beginning another.” (75) Elsa is now firmly convinced that this lifestyle is the way to keep Jimmy with her. Her confidence, however, is shattered once more by Roch Beaulieu, a policeman who tells Elsa that Jimmy must attend school. She becomes distressed. “He said he would come and take him by force’, she kept saying.” (91) Frightened by the thought that her son could be taken away from her once again, Elsa decides to run away. She decides to go with Uncle Ian and take Jimmy to Baffin Island, where no white person will steal him away from her. However, while travelling through the snowy wasteland, Jimmy falls ill. Frantically, Elsa wonders what to do. She has no medicine to heal her son and all of Ian’s Inuit remedies are far too unreliable to use. Elsa has no choice but to return to New Fort Chimo for the White People’s medicine. Elsa and Ian become stressed and fall onto their culture’s survival instincts. Her dying son spurs Elsa and Ian and, “ Her own senses were stirred by the fierce desire of the man.” (96) Jimmy catches a glimpse of the shadows created by her mother and uncles actions and is