Kiss Of The Fur Queen Tomson Highway Analysis

In the opening passage of Tomson Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen, Abraham Okimasis, a caribou hunter participating in an intense race, strives to reach the finish line with his exhausted self and huskies. Although the chance of success is slim, he perpetuates. Through the use of literary devices, Highway captures Okimasis’ breathless experience during the race; notably, he emphasizes the significance of past promises in empowering one to overcome obstacles to reach his or her ultimate goal.

In the beginning of the passage, Highway paints a descriptive picture of the race’s setting through which he foreshadows Okimasis’ obscure result. The race occurs near the end of a February day in Manitoba; Okimasis and his companions, the huskies, drive

“through the orange-rose-tinted dusk.” Highway’s description of the dusk’s colors establishes a gloomy atmosphere for the passage. Dusk marks the end of daylight and the beginning of nighttime; it is the time when the glowing sun has to leave and when darkness dominates. Therefore, dusk usually signifies the end joy and hope, and the start of fear and despair. Okimasis’ situation is similar to dusk: his victory is unsecured, like the orange-rose tint being threatened by darkness. Okimasis and his fatigued huskies, however, still continue. The temporal setting foreshadows the hopeless outcome of the race. It generates a pervading sense of discouragement but, at the same time, Okimasis’ resistance to defeat.
The passage progresses as Okimasis struggles to surpass other racers. In addition to his fierce actions, Okimasis’s repeated sobs— “mush”—terrorize the reader. The auditory effect of “mush” not only drives Okimasis to propel forward, but also voices his desperation. Created by Okismasis as his right hand “[snaps] moose-hide whip above his head,” the word “mush” carries his urge to surpass other participants—to gain victory. As a result, it lends a sense of urgency to the mood of the passage. It expresses Okimasis’ desperation. Because the race happens in the bitter cold of winter, Okimasis encounters numerous difficulties in trying to move through the snow with his sled and huskies. The intense race drains him. The desperate “mush” in his voice, as a result, resembles “a man about to sob.” As a male hunter and expected from the society, Okimasis must restrain his emotions. He must not cry because he refuses to be perceived as weak or powerless. So, for a man to sob, he must be very desperate; Okimasis perhaps desires to cry, to display his frustrations through tears. But he cannot. The simile effectively reinforces the race’s suspense and intensity. Okimasis is on pins and needles, awaiting victory.
In the rest of the passage, Highway shifts from dramatizing Okimasis’ experience in the race to the promise he has made with his wife in the past.

Okimasis recounts that he has promised his wife, Mariesis Okimasis that his anniversary gift for her will be “the silver cup, that holy chalice.” Highway’s use of symbolism— “holy chalice”— elevates the significance of the though-to-be ordinary cup to the one that carries marital meaning. In Christianity, the Holy Chalice, or the Holy Grail, is a treasured item, for it retains important historical and religious values. The item, though fictional, is so valuable that many conflicts and war had occurred in the world of literature. In this context, the holy chalice holds a meaning of an item being earnestly pursued. The fact that Okimasis urges to win the race, to win the “holy chalice” for his wife reveals his real motivation: Okimasis’ unconditional love for his wife. Because of his wife, Okimasis willingly races through the arduous weather condition, through the obstacles of the race, through the expenditure of his health— “to win the world championship just for her.” At this point, given the real motivation of Okimasis in the race, the reader hopefully sympathizes with him, with his desperation in the beginning of the passage. Victory or defeat, Okimasis has won the reader’s heart. With satisfaction, he “edged past musher number 54.” “[A] silvery white with bold black lettering,” Okimasis approaches the end of the race and

begins to see the banner now. Okimasis, however, can barely read the words on it. The image of a vague banner ahead of Okimasis prognosticates a future of uncertainty. Despite surpassing other mushers, Okimasis is still behind the other two. The passage ends with a cliffhanger: Is victory going to smile on him? Or is defeat going to doom his life?
Tomson Highway, using powerful literary devices, dramatizes Okimasis’ breathless experience during the intense race among other mushers.

Beyond that, Highway brings back Okimasis’s past promises with his wife to enrich the overall significance of the passage. The race is no longer a selfish desire to prove Okimasis’ superiority, but it becomes a quest for a buried love, for a miracle in his other half’s life. The author accentuates that meaningful past promises motivate one to rise through difficulties and empower him or her to achieve the present

goals.