I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
"I Heard the Owl Call My Name" by Margaret Craven is a poignant novel that explores the intersection of life and death through the eyes of Mark, a young Anglican vicar sent to a remote Kwakiutl Indian village in British Columbia. Unbeknownst to him, Mark has a terminal illness, and his bishop has chosen this assignment as a final opportunity for him to understand the meaning of life. The story unfolds in a village that is deeply rooted in its ancient traditions while grappling with the encroachment of modern influences and the loss of its cultural identity, as younger generations turn away from their ancestral ways.
As Mark immerses himself in village life, he faces the harsh realities of existence alongside the Kwakiutl people, learning their language and customs while developing meaningful connections. The narrative highlights the villagers' struggles, their rich cultural heritage, and the bittersweet nature of change. Craven's work serves as a sensitive documentation of a fading culture, intertwining personal and communal themes of sorrow, acceptance, and the inevitability of death. Ultimately, Mark's journey leads him to a profound understanding of life as he prepares for his own passing, culminating in a tragic yet serene conclusion that resonates with the themes of interconnection and legacy. This novel not only tells the story of Mark but also acts as a tribute to the Kwakiutl people's enduring spirit and rich cultural tapestry.
I Heard the Owl Call My Name by Margaret Craven
First published: 1967
Type of work: Social realism
Themes: Nature, death, race and ethnicity, family, and friendship
Time of work: The mid-1960’s
Recommended Ages: 15-18
Locale: Kingcome, British Columbia, Canada
Principal Characters:
Mark Brian , a twenty-seven-year-old Anglican priest who does not know that he has only two to three more years to liveJim Wallace , a young Kwakiutl Indian who helps Mark navigate the coastal waterways and who first admits Mark into his people’s way of lifeCaleb , the elderly canon who understands the Indians and prepares Mark for his life among themBishop , Mark’s superior, who decides to send Mark to Kingcome when he learns that the young man is dyingMarta , a kindly and knowing Kwakiutl grandmother
The Story
Mark Brian is sent by his bishop to a village of Kwakiutl Indians in Kingcome Inlet, in the Queen Charlotte Straits of British Columbia. He is dying but does not know it. The wise and caring bishop, who does, has specifically chosen this village as Mark’s last post so that Mark can learn “enough of the meaning of life to be ready to die.”
This ancient village of the “Salmon People” is itself dying as the old die off and the young become educated in the government school and move toward the white man’s way of life. Connected to the outside world by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and the church, the villagers know how to use generators, washing machines, and outboard motors, but their way of life remains comfortably rooted in the past— in their mythology, their decaying totems, and their ancient language. Their survival still depends largely on nature and the seasons, on clamming and fishing.
Life in the village is hard, and Mark has much to learn. The vicarage is crumbling, the church needs insulation, and the operation of the generator is conditional. The bishop promises him a new vicarage to be delivered by boat and set up by Mark whenever he is ready, but Mark recognizes his own limitations, gauges the attitude of his parishioners, and requests that the materials not be sent. Instead he cleans, scrubs, and patches, to the amusement of the cautious Indians, who also note his respect for their customs.
Weeks pass, and Mark begins to despair of ever really knowing the Indians. Then one day while watching the salmon with Jim, Mark recites a Kwakiutl prayer of respect to the fish, the “swimmer.” Mark’s prayer awakens an almost forgotten memory in the Indian and lifts the barrier between them.
In time, Mark understands the language, and as he begins to suffer the Indians’ hardships and sadnesses with them, they, in turn, come to know and accept him. They build his new vicarage for him. Then the elders ask his help in a matter of utmost concern to them—they want to move their ancestral dead from the disintegrating grave trees to new “hallowed” ground.
The time comes when Mark senses that a change in his life is near. He recalls how anxious the bishop had been that he come to this village. He recognizes, now, that his deep tiredness is more than temporary exhaustion. When he hears the “owl call his name,” consciousness awakens, and he knows that he is going to die. Although he is ready for death, the thought of going outside to die saddens him. When the Indians ask him to stay on, he feels great peace.
Before that time arrives, however, Mark is killed by a mudslide that sweeps down the mountainside and crashes onto his boat. He is laid to rest by the sorrowful Indians in their burial ground.
Context
Margaret Craven wrote I Heard the Owl Call My Name for two reasons: She wanted to write a novel, and she wanted to record what she could of the Kwakiutl’s dying culture. Craven, who was restricted to writing short fiction because of poor eyesight, wrote short stories for many years for The Saturday Evening Post and other large-circulation magazines before attempting the novel. I Heard the Owl Call My Name, which was published first in Canada, later became a best-seller, and was made into a film in the United States.
In 1965, at the age of sixty-four, Craven journeyed by small boat from Vancouver to a village of Kwakiutl Indians on the coast of British Columbia, in search of adventure and material for a story. In a setting of overwhelming, almost primeval beauty, she found the tribe of once-proud Kwakiutls now saddened by the loss of their young to the outside world and by the dying of old tribal ways. What Craven learned during the next several weeks of observing, interviewing, and note taking among the Indians, she thinly veiled in fiction as Mark’s story in order to record the Indians’ memories and way of life.
In I Heard the Owl Call My Name the Kwakiutl Indians have the aura of a people out of history. Still within the elders’ memory are the great dance potlatches, the eerie hamatsa cannibal dance, and the use of grave trees. Although Kingcome is now a Christian village, the old myths and dances still evoke a sense of other spiritual powers. The Indians’ stoicism, reflected in Craven’s unsentimental, economical style of writing, is also present in her characters, who convey so much in a touch, a glance, a few words, or in no words at all. The Indians possess a deep sense of self and place in the physical world. The reader feels the great sadness of these people and ponders with them whether in being assimilated into the white man’s world, the Indians are not losing a better way of life than they will be gaining.