The Inuit way of life is very primitive, their way of life is simple and their only hope of surviving is by hunting whatever they can find, this ranges from narwhales to seals. They hunt only to survive not for commercial purposes and they use every single part of the animal. They use blubber to provide them vitamin C, and the fur is used to keep them warm through the year.
Choose 3 words or phrases, which help to effectively convey the thoughts and feelings Keri Herbert as she observed the hunting of the narwhal, and explain carefully the reasons for your choices.
Line 49 “in that split second my heart leap for both hunter and narwhal”; the author uses a metaphor for the leaping of the heart. The feelings displayed here showed that she couldn’t make up her mind who her feelings were for; the narwhale or the hunter. As this was the battle between the heart and the head.
“I urged the man on in my head;” shows her feelings for the men, the hunters who were responsible to feed their family as their survival depends on it.
“my heart urged the narwhal to dive, to leave, to survive” shows here emotional feelings for the narwhal. She wants them to leave so they could save their life.
How is the reader able to recognise that we the passage is not in the modern world?
The technical terms used in the whole passage shows that this event hasn’t been set in the modern world due to the use of local terms such as “pods”, “kayak” as well as “mattak”. The use of harpoons gives the readers the idea that the story is not based in the modern world, as the use of harpoon dated hundred years back to the olden times. The place mentioned where the hunters would stand the “fjord” would never have been seen by any person in the western world, as this feature is primitive to the icy cold regions of Greenland. The name of the cities helps the reader to understand that the setting of this incident is not in the western world due to the usage of the name of the place; Qaanaaq and Thule.
Based on the passage and the lifestyle of the Inuit people, do you think that there can be a balance between man/the modern world and nature?
In the olden times, hunting was done for the sole reason, to survive. Every part of the animal was used. They would go hunting when the animal was nearer, they wouldn’t waste their time and effort on hunting animals when they had enough food to survive on. This created a balance between the olden times and the nature. But nowadays, hunting is done for making money either by selling it to private zoos, killing them and selling their hides, tusks, fur and even claws. They do it in on a mass-scale and don’t give mercy to any of these animals whether big or small, they all end up being killed. They don’t kill them in order to survive or food but for money. They use harsh and painful methods to kill the animals and do it at a high rate, which makes most animals endangered such as elephants.
