Character Analysis Of John Vaillant In The Novel 'The Golden Spruce'

Just north of Vancouver Island, there is an archipelago of islands shaped like an upside down triangle. Sitting just east of the Pacific fault line, experiencing upwards of fifty inches of rain per year, wind speeds as fast as 165 km/h, and heavily populated with trees weighing as much as three blue whales, one would expect the most turbulent part of these islands to be the environment, but they’d be wrong. The history of Haida Gwaii is one of the most complex and bloodiest in Canadian history. John Vaillant takes a look at this history and the way it forever changed the landscape of Haida Gwaii in the novel The Golden Spruce. By telling the stories of both the European loggers and the Haida, Vaillant demonstrated just how easily capitalism and greed can affect entire communities, the diplomacy between these communities, and how one tree brought these communities back together again.

Throughout this book, Vaillant outlines the often fatal sacrifices made by the loggers for their job and a paycheck. Spruce trees on the island were often hundreds of years old and could weigh more than three hundred tons, almost as much as three blue whales (pg. 16). Taking down these behemoths was an incredibly daunting task to even the most experienced of loggers, and was often fatal. Throughout this novel, Vaillant effectively portrays the struggles and sacrifices made by those in the logging industry just

However, in contrast to this fairly dark narrative, Vaillant uses techniques such as anthropomorphosis to depict the strong positive impact of the golden spruce on the world around it. Through the story of the actions of Grant Hadwin, Vaillant tells a story of greed and capitalism as a cautionary tale and then proceeds to show us how something as seemingly insignificant as a tree can bring people