The Lost Salt Gift of Blood

The Lost Salt Gift of Blood is a combination of short stories written by Alistair McLeod who is an author based in Canada. Precisely, these short stories are closely related for they accentuate on close affiliations between men and women and also amongst children and their parents. Besides that, the author tries to highlight how sons are drawn to the regime outside their small communities, often by cravings of academic lives.  Also, themes such as tradition, transition, belonging, and family problems are featured in all the short stories. The return which is among the short stories is a tale of young boy who sets on a journey to visit his paternal grandparents who live in Cape Breton for the first time. Alex who is the central character is accompanied by her snooty mother and his father who has traditional affiliations despite being a lawyer living in Montreal. This paper seeks to address how The Return deals with and develops significant themes evident in other stories in the collection The Lost Salt Gift of Blood.

Theme of Tradition    

There is a depiction of the concept of tradition in the short story since men in Cape Breton are chauvinists. For instance, men take up the leadership roles because they are in charge of their families. Consequently, they work hard to provide for their families while the women stay at home and bear children. Also, Alex’s grandmother is a housewife who has eight sons, but she does not complain about it because she embraces their culture (MacLeod 371). Moreover, she is rigid to change and does not approve of her son’s intellectual desires.  Besides that, the author contrasts culture in Cape Breton Island with that in Montreal, and there is quite a difference. Also, there is a reflection of poverty on how the people of Breton dress because they do not have money to buy expensive clothes. On the other hand, Angus who is an attorney based in Montreal belongs to the upper class, and he can afford to buy his family fine linen. Besides that, Alex’s two cousins bully him for wearing expensive clothes for they do not associate it masculinity (Harsent 78). During the visit, ten-year-old Alex does not hesitate to compare his maternal grandfather George; an old man who lives in Montreal who loves to wear white shirts, dark suits, vests and expensive accessories. Although Alex is young, he cannot help but make n perceptive remark about his father who also stifled in the habit of wearing suits (MacLeod 426).

     As indicated in all McLeod’s stories, being a son comes with a lot of responsibility and expectations. For instance, Angus who is the eldest son abandons his traditions by wedding Mary who is not from his community. He later comes to regret his actions of affiliating with his city wife, and he even forgets to help his brother who is an alcoholic. Besides that, he forsakes his ancestral land and moves to Montreal where he raises his family. Instead of joining his father and brothers who are coal miners, Angus goes against the norms of his community and studies law. Consequently, the authors emblematically use violin music to highlight the Gaelic traditions which are hard for Angus to embrace. For instance, he gets to listen to violin music records when her wife is away for she does not like them. As unraveled in the tale, Mary does not like the rural area, unlike Angus who becomes emotional at first sight of Cape Breton (Harsent 98). Also, she does not take pride in their culture and tries all means to protect her son from the experiences.

     In Breton island, there is the issue of intoxication which is impelled by the hitches and the environmental threats which the natives face (MacLeod 391). On the contrary, laws governing alcohol consumption in Montreal are firmer for people are not allowed to take alcohol visibly unlike in Breton island where no one cares. As confirmed by his snobbish mother, it was the first time for Alex to see an adult sipping alcohol direct from the bottle while in the train. Alcohol bottles scattered on the train reel and there are drunk travelers too. Angus’ brother is a struggling fanatic of alcohol also and at some time tries to escape his fate by moving to the city, but he does not fit in and therefore returns to Breton (MacLeod 426).  Smoking is not allowed on the island for they live I fear of the explosion of the coal mines which can claim all their lives. Therefore, they practice tobacco chewing; a tradition which Mary likens to greenness and naivety. For instance, the beauty of work is juxtaposed with the inevitable march of change

Theme of belonging

 Throughout the two weeks’ vacation, Alex gets to interact with his paternal grandparents, cousins and even uncles. Additionally, he gets to realize he has been living in perhaps an uninteresting environment in his short life. For the first time in his life, Alex experiences the sense of connectedness to his extended family and feels an irresistible sense of unity, and at some point wishes, he had brothers and sisters of his own. Consequently, the community in Breton embraces family unity and therefore Angus disappoints his kinfolk by choosing to raise his own family away from his ancestral land (MacLeod 417). When Angus returns home he, experiences segregation for him no longer gets support from his family. Also, he feels like a stranger because none of his brothers has left their landscape, but instead they have all joined their seventy-six-year father in coal mining. When Alex’s grandmother refers him as one of them, she emphasizes the prominence of a clan, and therefore Alex experience’s a sense of belonging. However, Angus mother does not identify with Angus as a son but only takes pride in his four sons who still work in the coal mines. All the way through his stories, McLeod tries to highpoint that those who abandon their native landscape lose a great deal in the form of family support and traditions

The theme of contrast between the two different worlds

There are significant differences in the appearance of Montreal which is a metropolitan area and that of Cape Breton which is a countryside landscape. For instance, when the narrator arrives in his countryside for the first time, he is overwhelmed by what he sees. Cape Breton can be described as a little bliss on earth for the sea is cobalt which is detached from the greenness of the grassland by the sandy coastlines. Significantly, Alex does not have the chance to see wild animals from the urban setting he hails in. Despite the fact that the island is beautiful, it poses an environmental risk to the community. For instance, Andrew who is a brother to Angus perishes in a mine accident, and therefore locals bear in mind that nature can cause them grief anytime for it cannot manage it.

      On the other hand, people presiding in Montreal do not experience challenges posed by the surroundings, and there are less manual work and more automated devices which make life nontoxic and straightforward. Fundamentally, the two worlds are allegorically linked by the railway which makes it probable to travel between the modern and traditional domains through time and space. Besides being beautiful, Cape Breton has its unappealing sides too (MacLeod 426). For instance, the trains are slow, and the infrastructure found in the local town is not modern. On the other hand set-up in Montreal is up to date with tall and glassed buildings signifying authority and affluence. Additionally, Montreal is a postmodern city which is more dynamic compared to Cape Breton Island (Harsent 102). Time is moving much slower in Breton, and there are no economic changes and prosperities as identified in Montreal.

Theme of loss

McLeod expresses the concept of death through many ways. For instance, there is the loss of a sense of purpose, connections to family, identity and also loss through death. For example, Alex’s grandmother expresses her agony of losing three children at birth. Also, Angus brother who is a doctor commits suicide at the age of twenty-seven. Additionally, the miners at Cape Breton live in fear of explosions which can claim all their lives, and therefore they do not allow smoking. Consequently, they are prone to mine accidents, for instance, Angus’ brother succumbs to a mine accident. Despite having seven sons alive, Angus mother only identifies with the four who work in the coal mines with their father (MacLeod 426). She does not recognize Angus as her son for he has abandoned his culture and him no longer he connections with his family. Moreover, Angus brother who is a drunkard has lost a sense of purpose. For instance, he tries to escape his fate by moving to the city, but he ends up returning for he does not fit in.

Works Cited

Harsent, David. Salt. Faber & Faber, 2017.

MacLeod, Alexander. “The Canadian Short Story in English.”The Oxford Handbook of Canadian Literature (2015): 426.

MacLeod, Alistair. The lost salt gift of blood. New Canadian Library, 2010.