preview

Joseph Boyden's Wenjack

Decent Essays

The book Wenjack by Joseph Boyden tells the story of young boy named Chanie who escapes from a residential school in order to find his way home. Chanie leaves with 2 friends, and the book is the story of their journey. Chanie is never alone as he tries to make the journey home, he is supported by his family memories, the brothers and the terrible memories from the school drive him to move forward and successfully escape.

The terrible experiences Chanie went through at the residential school make him want to run away and finally escape the residential school. He is tired of getting abused every day and not being able to have a normal life. He misses his family and he just wants to see them so he decides to just run away and try to escape his problems. The author writes “The Fish Bellies are good at catching Indian children. One day I will run. One day they won't hurt me anymore.”(Boyden 3) One of the main reasons Chanie wants to escape the residential school is that he is raped by his teacher, the other children who try to run away are beaten, and he is not allowed to speak his own language. All of these things make for a terrible experience and Chanie knows that he and his friends …show more content…

The crow says, “When he caught up to the 2 brothers, no words were exchanged nor any judgement or anger as the two boys rose from their haunches and bounded off into the growing darkness, Charlie following as best he could.”(8) Chanie has tuberculosis and cannot run as fast as the brothers so they wait for him to catch up and then they start to run again. At night the brothers collect resources and start a fire to try and keep everyone warm at night while they are resting until the morning when they start to run again. The brothers try and protect Chanie and tell him what way he has to run in order to not get caught by the

Get Access