The Lost Salt Gift Of Blood

The Story

during the beginning the narrator takes his time describing his surroundings adding comments about what he sees and feels just before he meets the small boys at the entrance of the harbor adding bits of pieces looking over the idea of the father looking for his son.

The Setting

The story takes place in Newfoundland where it follows the main character as he goes around in search for a house where his son lives.

In the beginning we follow the narrator going through the harbour and setting up the setting as he briefly describes the harbour and the surrounding features while adding points like the time of day the animals around and the people he sees

We then move on to the grandfathers house as the narrator goes to meet his son after his mothers death, the setting here is still vibrant and happy but when the day turned to night the story true colours started poping in.

We then go to the airport/plane where the father soon leaves to go back home.

Airports mainly represent the beginning or the end of a quest as people usually go to airports to leave or to go to places, here in the story the narrator is going back to his home where he just made the decision of leaving his son without telling him the truth here we know what was his whole point of going to Newfoundland and here we end up seeing him leaving his quest unfulfilled as he listens up on the other person coming back to his family. did he complete his quest yes he saw his son but did he end it I believe he did.

this part of the story mostly takes place at dusk where the sun is out and the life giving happy mood is slowly going away and the night (bad stuff) comes out.

here we get different colours "the sun is flashing everything in gold" not only talking about the suns archetype but also the colour gold. usually the sun is presented as the life giver but the narrator describes the sun flashing everything in gold more specifically signifying in a more positive mood. He then describes the harbour as a "womb nurturing the life that now lies". wombs are where baby lay dormant living innocently as the narrator talks about how peaceful the harbour is.

Characters

the father/business men

this character shares a lot of negative traits as he wonders through the harbour. he acts differently from the others and sees thing more in a negative way.

during this story the narrator(father) shares many traits with the outcast type of character. not only does he himself say it but his identity in the harbour only strengthens his character. we are lead to believe that he either once lived their then moved but when he gets their he does a good job of isolating himself even though he is with family

Grandfather/grandmother

in this story both the grandfather and the grandmother both share the role of the mentor to john and bring the story into their perspective as they add to the the fathers conflict.

Son

the son while cheerful seems very innocent where he didn't add to the story but was what drove the story to take place, keep in mind he lost his mom and the kid acts fine.

this character seems to be more of a platonic ideal archetype character by the way his character works. we don't really go inside of his character except for his interest but he plays the role as a source than anything else.

dog

in the story the dogs serves as the a side comfort making the dog a friendly beast character. we don't get much into it but we see the dog their making the other character happier.

Plot

the journey or quest

the plot of the story is simple but is complex on why the fathers reunion with his son is a journey, one could look at it and just conclude that he got what he wanted but didn't succeed in his journey by bringing his son back with him but what was his plans to begin with. He got back news of his lover dying and his son being alone so he wanted to go get his son to give his son a better life out in the city, he saw his son living happily with his grandparents and saw his affect towards them and decided to leave. he didn't complete his quest but did succeed on his journey with his son.

Themes

Even thought the theme seem unclear whether the father decision on leaving the son for a second time seem to be the best option having other ways to end the story it did create a fulfillment or acceptance of one's destiny archetype as the father was able to see his son and come to the conclusion that John would have lived better living with his grandparents even while he only got to see his some for only a day he did show compassion to his son as he accepted the fact that he would have been taking his life away from him adding a positive to his character.