Plot
What subtle early signs, beyond the power outage, suggest the community’s growing vulnerability?
What are the disappearance of communication signals and supply deliveries?
In what ways does Evan reflect the novel’s central internal conflict?
He is torn between modern dependence and traditional values, mirroring the community's cultural struggle.
How is disconnection used as both a literal and metaphorical theme?
Literally through loss of power and contact; metaphorically through cultural alienation and dependence on colonial systems.
what item does Evan use to help identify moose, after seeing the moose kill in the scene, and what did it indicate according to his father?
Evan uses a knife to indicate the moose kill. According to his father, the knife's markings on the moose indicates it is a new kill and has been hunted by him.
This Canadian province is implied as the general geographic setting.
What is Northern Ontario?
What narrative purpose does the delayed introduction of Justin Scott serve in the overall structure of the novel?
It builds tension and highlights the community's initial efforts at self-reliance before introducing external threat/conflict.
Why is Nicole’s role as a mother particularly significant in the context of cultural continuity?
She embodies resilience and hope, anchoring the next generation in traditional teachings despite the crisis.
What role does survival play beyond physical endurance?
It becomes spiritual and cultural, as survival is tied to reclaiming ancestral practices.
This broken connection represents dependence on colonized systems.
What is the loss of the power grid or satellite connection?
The title refers to this specific time in the traditional Indigenous calendar.
What is the late winter/early spring moon, when snow develops a crusted layer from thawing and refreezing?
How does the community’s method of dealing with death reflect its shifting moral compass during the crisis?
Deaths are met with increasing desensitization and practicality, showing a shift from ceremony to survival.
How does Kevin’s arc function as a warning within the novel?
His paranoia and eventual death serve as a cautionary tale about unchecked fear and loss of purpose.
How does the novel critique the myth of self-sufficiency within a colonial framework?
By showing how “self-sufficiency” built on colonial supply chains collapses, revealing it as false independence.
This creature, seen in a dream, represents warnings from the spirit world.
What is the raven?
How does the geographic remoteness of the community function as both a vulnerability and a strength?
It isolates them from resources but also protects them from external chaos and fosters resilience.
What does the gradual collapse of modern systems reveal about the illusion of security in the community’s daily life?
It exposes their dependence on colonial infrastructure and the fragility of that imposed order.
What makes Justin Scott a complex antagonist rather than a one-dimensional villain?
He presents himself as a helper but gradually reveals manipulation, symbolizing the historical violence of colonization.
In what way does fear serve both as a destructive and transformative force?
It leads to breakdowns in trust but also catalyzes the return to traditional practices and unity.
How does food — especially hunted meat vs. processed store goods — function symbolically?
Hunted food symbolizes self-reliance, tradition, and survival; processed goods represent dependency and decay.
What historical realities inform the novel’s portrayal of systemic failure in Indigenous communities?
Residential schools, infrastructure neglect, and colonial dependency structures.
How does the community’s final decision to leave the settlement represent a narrative turning point?
It marks a rebirth and reclamation of Indigenous knowledge, symbolizing cultural resurgence over dependence.
Why is the Elder Walter’s guidance essential not just culturally, but structurally within the narrative?
He bridges past and future, grounding the novel in Indigenous worldview and foreshadowing the community’s return to tradition.
What deeper commentary does the novel make about apocalypse from an Indigenous perspective?
It reframes “apocalypse” as ongoing, linking cultural genocide and historical trauma to present collapse.
Why is the hunting scene pivotal as a symbol of cultural reclamation?
It reconnects the characters with ancestral knowledge, community cooperation, and sustainable survival.
How does the cyclical nature of seasons contribute to the novel’s deeper commentary on Indigenous time and survival?
The return to winter and spring echoes cyclical worldviews, emphasizing continuity over linear destruction.