Northern Lights

The Northern Lights symbolize Indigenous spiritual power in the novel. The lights are a sexual partner for the narrator as well as a revelatory force, since during the narrator’s night on the tundra she witnesses her ancestors in the lights. The lights are therefore a major spiritual force which causes the narrator’s pregnancy, an ultimately magical one as her children are shapeshifters who represent the forces of health and sickness, or happiness and sadness, in the world. The narrator’s relationship with the Northern Lights is explicitly contrasted with her relationship with Christianity, as unlike the prudish colonial Christianity which was involved in the colonization of the Arctic, the narrator’s relationship with the Northern Lights is explicitly sexual and magical.

The Seal

The seal represents the balance of health and sickness or sadness in the world. The seal is created when the...