Interpretation of „The Loons“by Margaret LaurenceThe short story "The Loons" tells the story of Piquette Tonnerre. She is a half-Indian girl who grows up under harsh circumstances in a society that suppresses half-breeds. The story is told through another
... suffers from this. The loons show no interest in humans and Piquette also has stopped caring about other people. She acts indifferently to her surroundings, and nowhere in the story can we see her showing any heartfelt feelings. As the birds have the chance to become familiar to a new environment near their invaders, Piquette marries a white man and has the chance to make a new life. Both the birds' chance and Piquette's attempt fail. Now they are forced to find another way of living. "Perhaps they had gone away to some far place of belonging. Perhaps they had been unable to find such a place, and had simply died out. This is a strange way to describe a group of birds and in this case I think the meaning is directed towards Piquette entirely. In the end she ceases to care if she lives or not, we understand this through her heavy drinking and her indifference to her own wellbeing, and at last she "dies out" because of this. The only one who heard the crying of the loons, according to the last line of the story, was Piquette. After all, even if she never had heard their actual mournful singing, she herself had experienced the very same as the birds. The loons also have a symbolic value in Vanessa's own life. She connects the crying of the loons with idyllic memories from her childhood. Along with all the other changes that have been made around her old summer-paradise, the disappearance of the loons ascertains that her childhood is long gone. Throughout “The Loons”, Margaret Laurence uses symbolism to enhance meaning and create a strong description of the events involved. One of the first things we learn of Piquette is that she has already failed grades in school and sometimes rarely attends (because of her illness). This could symbolise her inability to get ahead in life and get something better like a new life for herself. The loons are used as a metaphor to describe the lack o...