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Who Has Seen The Wind Meaning Of

Who Has Seen The Wind: Meaning Of Life Essay, Research Paper


Who Has Seen the Wind: Meaning of Life


Mariusz Jakimik


Miss Rende


English ENG3A-05


March 11, 1997


From the time people are born, until they die, it is only a natural thing to


want to keep learning about their life and to figure out why they were put on


this earth. From the very beginning of life, babies want to touch and


experience everything around them. Throughout the novel, Who Has Seen the Wind


by W.O. Mitchell, Brian O’Connal has found himself with a tremendous hunger to


discover the real meaning of life. Clearly, then, Brian always searches for new


ways to learn about the world he lives in. One of the things that Brian shows


an interest in is God. Brian really wants to meet Him, not knowing that God is


something that cannot be seen, for He is a spirit. Brian would say “Lets go


over to his place”(7). Throughout the novel, Brian seems to be looking for God.


He has his own image of God in his mind, thinking that “God rides the vacuum


cleaner”(31). Brian learns the truth about God from different people like his


parents, Saint Sammy, Mr. Hislop, his grandma, and his friends. He discovers


that God is everywhere and in everyone, but He cannot be seen.


Furthermore, Brian is very much interested, like many other children his age,


about where living things come from. Being as young as he was, he always


thought that God delivered babies. After Brian witnessed his very first birth,


that of a rabbit, he became very confused and curious about what and how it


happened. Brian had a very uncomfortable conversation with his dad, Gerald


O’Connal, about where babies come from:


Remember I told you the pigeon grows inside the egg, the mother


lays the egg, and it hatches?…They don’t with rabbits. Rabbits


are different. The father plants a seed in the mother and the


baby grows from it. When it’s time, they come out.


Is that what he is doing when…


Yes Spalpeen, that’s what he is doing.(161-162)


This fascinated Brian very much.


Unquestionably, everything that is born and lives, must eventually die. Death


is an unavoidable fact of life, and cannot be escaped. The deaths in the novel


start out

from not very significant, to the very shocking ones. Brian was


becoming aware of death but was not influenced very much from such deaths like


the gopher, the rabbits and Mr. and Mrs. Wong. After his dog Jappy’s death,


Brian realizes how fragile life is. It was a complete shock to him when his dad


suddenly died. Brian did not know what to feel. It was as if Brian’s life was


over, and he felt lost and lonely without his father. Brian learned that


“People were forever born, people forever died, and never were again. Fathers


died, and sons were born. The prairie was forever, with its wind whispering for


man, but for Brian’s father-never.”(239)


Thus, Brian begins to realize that the world is full of strange and unexplained


things. Brian does not know why the two headed calf was born, so he concluded


that it must have been God’s mistake. The runt pig was another abnormal


experience for Brian. He felt sorry for it and wondered why such things are


born, and he did not want Ab to kill it. “You can’t kill my runt pig”(216), he


said. Furthermore, Brian wanted to get to know the Young Ben better, because he


felt a special connection to him. It was as though they had something in


common. Brian felt that he could learn something from the Young Ben,


something nobody else could teach him. Saint Sammy was another mysterious buy


to Brian that teaches him about God. Saint Sammy was an outcast in town because


he claimed that he knew God personally and had a special connection with Him.


Throughout the novel, Brian satisfies his need to understand life more by


experiencing many different situations. He learns that life is very


complicated and hard to comprehend. He becomes aware of God looking over us,


he also learned how wonderful birth is, and how sudden and tragic death is.


Brian really understood that birth is the exact opposite of death. He had seen


the circle of life turn right before him, and life and death were now familiar


to him. Life is full of unexplained events, but everything happens for a reason.


Even though Brian witnessed all this, it is only human nature to want to keep


learning about life and what it has to offer.


Works Cited


Mitchell, W.O, Who Has Seen the Wind Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Canada, 1947

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