Survival+II+KM

Type in the content of your page here. Katrin MacPhee English 2773 February 25th 2010 __Response to “A Reporter at Large: Survival of the Bark Canoe-I__” Although this is linked next to the second part of the article, this is actually a response to   part one. When locating the article in the library I accidentally took out the wrong part, and since I had already begun reading it, I decided to simply write a response to it. Sorry for any confusion this may cause! The article begins with a description of Henri Vaillancourt, a twenty four year old from Greenville, New Hampshire who’s passion, who’s life work, is the construction of the highest quality, traditional birch bark canoes. McPhee watches Henri at work for several weeks, observing, listening, absorbing everything this master has to say about his work, well, his obsession, really. That is, whether intentional or not, the impression the reader gains of the article’s subject. He seems to care for nothing, even for no one else, as he cares for birch bark canoes. They are his life-he builds them, speaks about them, in what McPhee describes as a compulsive manner. We are barely introduced into any other facet of his life. This may be the product of McPhee’s own editing, or it may be because Henri really doesn’t have much of a life outside of his canoes. McPhee relates many of the details involved in building a canoe, and, as with many of his other topics, what may have appeared to be a fairly simple topic is shown to be   staggeringly complex, a universe in and of itself. I felt a bit like I was drowning in a pool full of specialized knowledge. This is not simply the product of McPhee’s descriptions. He includes whole paragraphs of Henri’s thoughts about his work. I actually find all the detail to be a positive feature of the piece, and indeed, of much of McPhee’s writing. As a reader, you have to stretch, to focus, to make any sense of the descriptions at all. I found myself actually making hand gestures as I was reading to try and locate the particular piece McPhee was describing on a canoe. In the end, you cannot help but to learn a lot from articles such as these about topics you probably would never have bothered yourself with! In the latter part of the article McPhee, along with three other men, accompany Henri on a canoeing expedition (birch bark, of course), in the lakes and rivers of Northern Maine. As the first part of the article finishes they are a couple of days into the trip. What I found interesting in this article was that McPhee seems to have removed himself more than in other articles of his that I have read. He seems to be letting his companions, especially Henri, speak for themselves. He doesn’t delve into the background information of his topic as he has done in other pieces-there is a little information about the construction of birch bark canoes and their use by Native Americans, but little else. His style seems much more pared down in this piece-it is written simply, almost plainly. There is little of the humour and clever turns of phrase I am accustomed to in his work. However, McPhee’s voice does sneak in in some parts, and, interestingly enough, they come in the form of little criticisms about Henri. He adds notes like ‘in what I thought at the time was a sign of modesty...” and “in an uncharacteristically poetic description...” He also includes negative details about Henri’s personality, like his refusal to relinquish the stern of the canoe, the position of power, at any time. Through subtle hints such as these, I feel that he is setting the reader up for Henri’s fall. It seems as though McPhee is hinting at the darker aspects of Henri’s personality that will be shown to us in greater detail later. It is still hard to determine whether or not McPhee admires him, or whether or not he finds him odd. He certainly seems to respect his skill, his passion for his work, he describes him as an artist. Still, he does seem to find Henri’s single-minded obsession a bit odd. Indeed, the piece is really more about Henri than about canoes, and it seems almost like a psychological study. It seems to be asking what kind of young man chooses to dedicate his entire life to the perfection of an obscure art. The other thing I found noteworthy about this piece were his descriptions of the country they were canoeing through-his detailed observations of the loon were quite beautiful.