Northwind

Since Old Carl cares for him, Little Carl is the nickname for the other orphan boy living with Leif and the old men in the fish camp. Though Little Carl’s age is unclear, Leif’s descriptions suggest that the boy is quite young; Little Carl doesn’t even speak as Old Carl forces the children into a canoe and shoves them out into the water. Leif immediately understands his responsibility to care for the smaller boy: Leif “neither cried nor choked a sound at his fear and sadness because Little Carl was watching him” (22). When Little Carl falls ill, Leif is helpless to intervene, and after Little Carl’s death, Leif takes the loss hard despite being severely ill himself. Leif’s decision to prepare Little Carl’s body and find a proper burial place marks the first large choice Leif makes on his own and exemplifies his bravery and ability to make calculated decisions.

Throughout the rest of his journey, memories of the small, jovial little boy bring Leif comfort, reminding him of happier times in the fish camp before the plague; Leif’s efforts to preserve these memories through his storyboard reflect The Power of Story to Preserve Memory and Heal. In addition, Little Carl is a marker of the neutrality of nature toward humanity. Like Leif, Little Carl is a motherless boy fighting to survive in a harsh, uncaring world; his death establishes Leif’s profound vulnerability early on, as his innocence does not protect him from death. Though only in Leif’s life for a short time, Little Carl teaches Leif about true joy and becomes a sweet, tender fixture in Leif’s memories.

Old Carl is the oldest crew member of the ship and becomes a friend and mentor to Leif. The narrative begins as the ship abandons Old Carl and the other older crew members along with Leif and Little Carl in a remote fishing camp presumably because they are the least valuable members of the crew. Though Old Carl dies in the cholera outbreak, he remains alive in Leif’s memories; Leif recalls the old man’s companionship and wisdom throughout his journey north. Old Carl saves Leif’s life by forcing him to leave the camp, and in the early days of Leif’s journey north, the boy survives because of Old Carl’s investment in his life. Old Carl packs the canoe with tools for survival and, through his prior tutelage, imparts valuable wisdom that helps Leif find and preserve food. Once Leif is surviving on his own, it is Old Carl’s philosophies that fill his thoughts, and Leif is comforted by his old friend’s wisdom. Later in the story, Leif’s thoughts reveal that Old Carl saved his life more than once. Suffering under the abuse of the ship owners, Leif once considered dying by suicide by jumping overboard; Old Carl’s kindness encouraged him to remain and keep hope alive for a better future. Once Leif reaches the open ocean, he realizes the most important lesson he learned from Old Carl was to understand the smallness of his existence in the universe. Old Carl’s words to this effect emerge in Leif’s memories: “The ocean is so big […] and my boat is so small” (217). This paradigm shift allows Leif to understand his purpose and place in the world. Old Carl’s presence is thus key to Leif’s Self-Discovery Through Coming of Age, assisting Leif toward the understanding that he is only a small part of a great and vast system. Old Carl represents the value of the wisdom of elders and the importance of passing along knowledge from one generation to the next.

Mothers are an important motif throughout the narrative as Leif, though never having a mother of his own, is very attuned to the maternal presence in nature. A mother whale helps him get to shore when he is deathly sick. After his illness, he washes himself clean, the “mother waters” (36) carrying away his filth and his grief. Leif knows that he must never get between a mother bear and her cubs, and he watches the mother whales shepherd the young orcas in their cleaning ritual. Since his mother died in childbirth, Leif never knew her; he has no knowledge of her personality. She appears in his dreams as Leif’s subconscious crafts a version of a mother to which he can cling when he longs for maternal comfort. However, even his recurring “mother dream” emphasizes the distance between them:

He had dreamed the mother dream many times and it was always the same. She was with some other people, talking to them—he heard her voice as muffled sounds that were almost words—and she always had her back to him” (75-76).

His lack of full knowledge of his mother, even in his imagination, remains a significant impediment to his understanding of his sense of self.

Ultimately, Leif must accept that he will never fully know his mother. The narration describes his frustration: “[H]e could not see her face, wanted her to turn so he could see what she looked like, wanted to move around in the dream to see her, know more about her” (115). When a gray whale accompanies him for part of the journey, he imagines that it is his mother’s spirit reincarnated to guide and comfort him. However, he names the whale after his infant caregiver, Grace. In the absence of the physical presence of his mother, Leif searches for ways to manifest her closeness in nature. Leif eventually concedes that his dream mother must be real and uses his storyboards to communicate telepathically with his mother through his subconscious: “[S]he might be able to see the storyboard. And know of him” (226). The presence of mothers throughout the narrative, coupled with the achingly sad absence of Leif’s human mother, underscores the importance of maternal care in a child’s life. In searching for his mother’s face, Leif is searching for himself and the answer to why he is alive. Though he finds motherly comfort in Mother Nature, it will never fully replace the power of the love, care, and acceptance of a physical mother.