For this close reading I chose to examine two passage from Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer in the Chapter Burning Cascade. This book examines the intersection of indigenous knowledge and scientific studies. Most of the chapters begin with an indigenous story, one that explains some natural phenomenon which in the case of this excerpt is how the salmon are able to find their way back to their home rivers. The first excerpt is:

“They are burning the headland. Flames race on the wind until they are stopped by the wet green wall of the forest. Fourteen hundred feet above the surf it blazes, a tower of fire: yellow, orange, and red, a massive flare. The burning prairie billows smoke, roiling white with undersides of salmon pink in the darkness. They mean for it to say, “Come, come, flesh of my flesh. My brothers. Come back to the river where your lives began. We have made a welcome feast in your honor.” Out at sea, beyond where the canoes can go, there is a pinprick of light on a pitch-black coast, a match in the darkness, flickering, beckoning below the white plume that drifts down the coast to mingle with the fog. A spark in the vastness. The time has come. As one body they turn to the east, toward the shore and the river of home. When they can smell the water of their natal stream, they pause in their journey and rest on the slackening tide. Above them all, on the headland, the sparkling tower of fire reflects on the water, kissing the reddened wave tops and glinting off silver scales.

By sunrise the headland is gray and white, as if dusted by an early snow. A cold drift of ash falls on the forest below and the wind carries the tang of burnt grass. But no one notices, for they are all standing along the river singing a welcome, a song of praise as the food swims up the river, fin to fin. The nets stay on the shore; the spears still hang in the houses. The hook-jawed leaders are allowed to pass, to guide the others and to carry the message to their upriver relatives that the people are grateful and full of respect.” (pg 456)

“Out beyond the surf they gather, tasting the waters of home. They see it against the dark of the headland. Someone has left a light on, blazing a tiny beacon into the night, calling the salmon back home.” (pg 476)

 

The first passage is describing how the people native to Oregon use fire to attract fish back to their native streams to catch them. It is an extremely visual passage and explains the path from lighting the forest on fire until the fish finally reach the river. The second passage connects back to the first as it is the same idea of using light to attract fish, but instead of a planned event it was an accident by a scientist.

 

In both passages the narrator is omniscient. This theme is consistent throughout all of the indigenous stories but in this specific passage it is extremely important. If the author had chosen to use a first-person perspective when describing the burning of the forest there would be no connection to the fish themselves. This interconnection between the fish and the people is further solidified by the second to last sentence where the fish are allowed to pass by the people until the elders decide to begin. The deliberate choice to highlight this interconnection is a way for the author to show how the native people were tied so closely to nature.

The choice of an omniscient point of view all allows Kimmerer to be much more deliberate with the imagery and personification that she uses to describe the fire. This use of imagery allows for the reader to feel the power of the moment “fourteen hundred feet above the surf it blazes.” To me that has the same feeling as a hero standing on a cliffs edge against the antagonist in a final bout. The personification of the fire again adds to its power as well as its importance. The author is clearly trying to illustrate how fire is both a tool for the people but has its own behaviors beyond their control. The narrators omniscient view also allows the fish to not be anthropomorphized as much as they could have been. Instead of needing to have the fish have their own personalities Kimmerer is able to simply describe the fire burning through an individual fish’s viewpoint as well as the entire schools response to the fire.

Another interesting decision that Kimmerer made is when describing anything in these passages she always uses at least 2 adjectives. This ties back into the very vivid imagery as it allows the reader to understand the objects in greater detail then if a tree was just described as “tall.” Her word choice is also more visual then would be necessary which again ties into the imagery and how it ingrains an image into the readers mind.

The opening sentences of the first paragraph and the second paragraph are antitheses of each other. That allows for a clear passage of time that is needed for the fish to return from the place “beyond where canoes can go.” The passage of time comes back to the idea of respect the author is trying to show that the native people have for the fish that they are hunting. They are patient enough to wait beyond the time the fire has burned out for the fish to come so they can be harvested.

I really enjoyed examining this passage more closely. I have never done a close reading before so it was definitely a difficult task but Kimmerer’s choices told a clear story of what she was hoping to achieve and the messages she was trying to pass along. Though I probably didn’t need to add in the last passage I felt that since the author added it at the end of the chapter as a clear juxtaposition to the first passage I should illustrate it here as well.