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Melody Dillee
Mrs. Martin
Honors Classics in Literature
3 November 2011
Weather in “Blue Winds Dancing”
The weather in “Blue Winds Dancing” can symbolize many different things. In this story,
by Thomas S. Whitecloud, the different types of weather set the tone for the story. The weather
in “Blue Winds Dancing” symbolizes coming home, purity, and, new beginnings. Coming home,
purity and new beginnings are represented by the clear night sky, and by the snow.
The moon and stars in clear night skies symbolize being led home. The man in “Blue
Winds Dancing” is going home, “There is a moon out tonight. Moons and stars and clouds tipped
with moonlight. And there is fall wind blowing in my heart. Ever since this evening, when
against a fading sky I saw geese wedge southward. They were going home…. Now I try to study,
but against the pages I see them again, driving southward. Going home” (“Blue Winds
Dancing”). He is comparing himself to the geese; he is also on a journey back to his home. The
moon and stars symbolize leading him on his long journey back home.
Snow, in “Blue Winds Dancing”, can symbolize many different things. The snow
symbolizes purity; the Native Americans are more pure than the civilization of the white people.
Society has taken much away from the white people:
Still, I know my people have many things that civilization has taken from the
whites. They know how to give; how to tear one’s piece of meat in two and share
it with one’s brother. They know how to sing- how to make each man his song
and sing them; for their music they do not need to listen to other man singing over
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a radio. They know how to make things with their hands, how to shape beads into
design and make a thing of beauty from a piece of birch bark. (“Blue Winds
Dancing”)
The civilization of the white people has caused them to lose knowledge of many things. The
Native Americans are still very pure and have not lost that knowledge. Purity is just one of the
many things that snow symbolizes.
In “Blue Winds Dancing”, by Thomas S. Whitecloud, snow can also symbolize new
beginnings and happiness. The man tries to start-over when he reaches home, “I try to forget
everything but the night, and it is a part of me that I am one with my people and we are all part of
something universal” (“Blue Winds Dancing”). He wants to forget his life from when he was
away from his home and make a fresh start. After the man’s journey, he has finally made it
home, “I am happy. It is beautiful. I am home” (“Blue Winds Dancing”). The man, in the story,
establishes a new beginning when he returns to his home. The snow in this story symbolizes his
rebirth and the purity of his people.
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Works Cited
Whitecloud, Thomas S. "Blue Winds Dancing." Web.
<http://kareyperkins.com/classes/420/bluewindsdancing.pdf>.