Dogsong

“The coughing came from outside, came from the tobacco which came from outside and Russell hated it.”

The book opens with Russel hearing his father’s cough. The cough is a reminder of the harm that comes with intrusions from the world outside of his village, in this case imported tobacco. His father’s smoking, coupled with the noise and smell of imported snowmachines, adds to the dissatisfaction that Russel feels with the modern way of life his village is adopting.

“He wanted to go on and say father, I’m not happy with myself, but he did not. It was not the sort of thing you talked about, this feeling he had, unless you could find out what was causing it. He did not know enough of the feeling to talk.”

Russel loves his father and is uncomfortable expressing his unhappiness. He has tried to fit in with his father’s way of living with modern conveniences but still feels angry and unsettled. Russel hates the diesel smells, imported tobacco, and other modern intrusions but is still unsure why. It is not until Russel speaks with the shaman Oogruk that he realizes how deep his need is to connect to his Inuit roots.

“Russell had heard about the songs his father spoke of. They were private and belonged only to the person who owned them. Now almost no one had a song.”

This is the first mention of the Inuit song and the tradition that each Inuit has their own individual song. In this quote the concept of Inuit song is introduced, coupled with the revelation that this core tradition is almost extinct. Finding a song is the heart of the book, and while this quote shows that Russel was aware of the songs and their rarity, Russel has not yet connected that loss with his unsettled