I cannot help but think that the panther, Sisa, in Power is a representation of the Taiga people.
The way the panther is described truly resonates with the image I have formulated of the Taiga people. Like the panther, the Taiga people embody a sense of grace, endangerment, power, vulnerability and knowing.... knowing of their current status in the world. Just as the panther "sees right through" Ama and Omishto and accepts its fate with bravery, the Taiga people have a sense of strength that makes them the graceful, powerful people they are (Hogan 64). But, just as the panther is endangered, so too are the Taiga people. The threat of the modern world makes them vulnerable to extinction and the Taiga people have fallen just as the panther has.
After thinking along these lines, it made Ama's decision to kill the panther all the more reasonable. It is more a suicide than it is a murder. Omishto points out to Ama shortly after the panther has been killed that, "You have killed yourself, Ama" (Hogan 67). This strikes me as true because Ama is very much a woman of the old ways, the Taiga ways. In killing the panther, which is the representation of the Taiga people, Ama has removed something from her essence as a person. And in a more literal sense, she has also condemned herself to legal punishment. Nonetheless, Ama's killing of the panther can be looked at as a way to relieve her people of the slow and shaming death of their essence.
Especially now that I explored the idea of the panther as a representation of the Taiga people, it hits dead on that the panther and the people are one in the same in all the ways that matter.
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2 comments:
I agree with you that Sisa the panther is representational of the Taiga people. I feel that this connection will be emphasized more and we will learn more about it as the novel progresses. I also feel that the killing of the panther represents Ama killing a part of herself, which is ironic because she does it to put the panther in a better place where it will not suffer with the modern world.
Colleen, your analysis of the relationship between Sisa and the Taiga people is great! All the minor aspects the Taiga and the panther have in common are interesting, i.e. grace; however, the suicide/ murder idea you discussed was the most interesting point. It helps us to better understand Ama and her devotion to her people and past.
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