Moon of the Crusted Snow: A Feminist Analysis

In the book “Moon of the Crusted Snow", the roles of the female and the males are clearly defined.  Evan, the hunter and protagonist is responsible for taking care of his family.  He hunts for the food to ensure that he is able to feed his family throughout the year.  He works for the community to ensure that service are provided and that during the winter months the roads are clean.  Once the community was faced with the crisis of losing power and any outside communication Evan became more strongly involved in helping the community adjust and do their part to conserve energy.  He worked with council to make important decisions about turning on the generators and tapping into the stored food supply once it became necessary.  Evan always took time to go door to door to ensure that people were safe, but he always returned home to his family and be with his wife and two children.  Evan’s wife Nicole role was to take care of the household.  She was loving wife, mother and supported her husband throughout the challenges faced by the community.  Her role as mother was defined after the loss of power and internet.  Now that the children were home from school she used this opportunity to tap into her knowledge of the land and the language to teach her children about their heritage.  She would spend time with them outside and inside they would do activities that would keep them busy. 

Within the community, many of the women had the same role, they were teachers of the old customs.  Eileen, who was know as “everyone’s auntie” would teach the young women about the rituals and would pray and smudge before any event that involved decision making for the community during the crisis.  Evan looked to her for advice because of her wisdom.

The leaders of the community, including the chief were all men and they guided the other men to enforce the rules that the council set in order to maintain order and try to contain ant violence that could occur once despair would set in. 

The antagonist is the book is Scott, the visitor from another community.  He was a white man that intimidated all the other men in the community.  Evan, who was set in his heritage, was very suspicious of Scott.  Scott showed his true colours when he shot another intruder from another community that tried to settle in their community.  Although this went against all beliefs, he was allowed to stay and prove that he could teach others how to survive.  When two young girls were found dead after a party that Scott was at, Evan reported that he thought that Scott had caused their deaths.  Scott’s eventual demise came at the hands of a young girl that settled in the community.  She confided in Nicole that Scott was evil, that she was under his control, and that she was afraid of him.