The Shawl

The figure of the narrator/Aanakwad’s son functions differently in each of the two sections, and his shift from the third to the first person illustrates Erdrich’s use of point of view within “The Shawl.”

The first section of the story appears to be told using third-person omniscient narration, for the narrator has insight into the mind of Aanakwad, her husband, and Aanakwad’s five-year-old son. The narrator informs the reader that Aanakwad’s story has been told many times before, and in re-telling it, he places himself within a broader tradition of Anishinaabeg storytellers. Although he does discuss Aanakwad’s mental state, motivations, and desires, his primary focus is on the impact that her actions have on her husband and remaining son.

During the second section of the story, the narration switches from third to first person, and the reader learns that the narrator is, in fact, the son of the five-year-old boy in the first section; he is Aanakwad’s grandson. The story that he shared in the first section is, thus, not merely a local legend, but his own family’s complex and traumatic history. He adds to that story after switching to the first person, describing the alcohol addiction and domestic violence that characterized his father’s (Aanakwad’s son’s) household. Indeed, the young boy had postulated that his soul would “not be mended, except by terrible means” (364) and the narrator’s story makes those means clear.

The narrator/Aanakwad’s grandson resolves the drama of the first section and sets in motion a process of healing and forgiveness during the story’s concluding moments by providing his father with an alternate interpretation of Aanakwad’s daughter’s death. He is able to forgive his father for the many years of alcoholism, abuse, and neglect, and in doing so, encourages his father to forgive himself and his mother.

Aanakwad’s nine-year-old daughter is another complex figure within “The Shawl,” for much of her characterization is indirect and the reader sees her primarily through the eyes of her family members. In the first section of the text, Erdrich describes the difficulties that the girl experiences as the result of her mother’s unhappiness, but also notes how fiercely she is loved by her father. He does not easily acquiesce to Aanakwad’s demand that she bring the girl with her when she leaves to go live with her lover. The father is so distraught that he cannot look at her on their last morning together.

The narrator describes the way that the girl tends to her infant sibling and takes on her mother’s household chores when Aanakwad becomes too overcome by grief to function normally. The young girl seems to possess stronger maternal instincts than her mother and is willing to devote herself entirely to her family. She clearly places their needs above her own and although she falls asleep exhausted each day, she is driven by a strong, internal sense of familial duty.

She dies during a wolf attack on her mother’s wagon when they are en route to the father of her young half sibling. Although during the first section of “The Shawl,” the girl’s death is presented as a murder, the narrator provides a new interpretation in the second section. There, he argues that because the young girl possessed such a strong, self-sacrificing spirit, she must have willingly given up her life to save the rest of the people in her wagon. Seen against the backdrop of the young girl’s demonstrated willingness to place her family’s needs above her own, this version of events seems much more plausible than the explanation provided during the first section. This reshapes the character of Aanakwad’s daughter, positioning her as an agent rather than a passive figure and further establishing her as a standard bearer of traditional Anishinaabeg cultural values.