thesis of medicine walk

Medicine Walk: A story of a native family, but really one about the universality of tragedy

This article was published more than 10 years ago. Some information may no longer be current.

Author Richard Wagamese Jane Dixon

In a recent conversation with Shelagh Rogers and Joseph Boyden about storytelling as redemption, Richard Wagamese spoke about the role of stories in his life. Throughout his writing career, first as a journalist and then as a novelist, he said he'd sought clarity and connection between native people and settlers. "The story of Canada is the story of her relationship with native people," he said. "If we lean over the back fence and share part of that story with the person on the other side of the fence, we bring each other closer."

At best, the history of native-settler relations in Canada is a series of tragic misunderstandings between nations. Wagamese is no stranger to the complicated and beleaguered nature of that project, on both sides of the fence. He has been outspoken about the problems with the Assembly of First Nations while also being a passionate supporter of Idle No More. "To be Indian in Canada today is to learn from history so it's never repeated," he wrote in this newspaper last year. "It's to be a spiritual warrior in a quest for the greatest good."

In this new novel, Wagamese presents his reader with the problem of reconciliation writ small. Franklin Starlight, 16 and raised by a guardian for most of his life, receives a summons from his biological father, who is an alcoholic dying of liver failure in a hardscrabble mill town. The request is hard to stomach: the man who has been a heartbreaking disappointment on the handful of occasions they've met wants his son to take him out on the land and bury him like a warrior in the way of his ancestors. Franklin balks only briefly, taking up his filial duty like the honourable man he's been raised to be, walking out on the land behind the horse that carries the broken shell of his father. He's an impressive young man, tough and able to support them both in the wilderness with a handful of simple tools. There is quiet strength and beauty in his self-reliance, and he is a credit to the farmer who raised him.

Over the course of their journey to his final resting place, Eldon Starlight is finally able to speak the truths that have poisoned their lives. The land is the healing presence that allows him to pull off layer after layer of the tragedy precipitated by the death of his father in the Second World War and cemented in his own experience in the theatre of war. Alcoholism is the connective tissue between and beyond these events, the lure of oblivion that Eldon is unable to resist. Wagamese's portrait of the disease is sensitive and compassionate, but he is unflinching about the role it plays in allowing Eldon's trauma to remain unresolved and therefore still potent in the family system. When Eldon accuses Frank of an inability to understand war because he'd never fought in one, Frank says "Not one of my own, leastways," he says. "I'm still livin' the one you never finished."

Storytelling is Wagamese's life project (he is also an oral storyteller) and this is very much a novel about the role of stories in our lives, those we tell ourselves about ourselves and those we agree to live by. He renders Eldon's past as filmic and vivid as a nightmare, and the present he shares with his son as elliptical and plainspoken but shot through with moments of uncommon wisdom. It's a canny narrative contrast that heightens the effect of the difficult truth that lies between them: Wagamese understands that the stories we don't tell are as important as the ones we do. "Mosta the big talk in my life got left unsaid," Eldon says. "Makes it tough to say anything real or hard."

If Eldon can be read as an incarnation of what has gone wrong in this country, Franklin (named after Benjamin) is the lightning rod for change on the path that native-settler relations could take and Wagamese's cri de coeur for the Canada that could be. His acclaimed 2012 novel Indian Horse balanced hard truths about native-settler relations with the beauty of sport. In this novel, he's working on a different plane altogether: he has mixed the blood of his characters so thoroughly that it's sometimes tricky to keep heritage straight, and that seems this novel's radical point.

To be alive is to be vulnerable to the myriad shocks and disappointments of the human condition, but Medicine Walk is also testament to the redemptive power of love and compassion. Franklin isn't the first child to be dealt a hand "from the bottom of the deck" or to lose a parent to alcohol. Alcoholism observes no ethnic boundaries and neither does family dysfunction. If I may borrow his own elegant metaphor, Richard Wagamese has moved beyond talking over the fence. He's come around to the gate now, opened it, and invited his readers to share a familiar meal.

Christine Fischer Guy's debut novel, The Umbrella Mender, appears in September.

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Themes of Medicine Walk

We contemplate our thoughts and writers’ ideas by reading the writings of history’s most fascinating minds. Reading is a practice in empathy or walking in someone else’s shoes for a moment, and it trains our imaginations to dream big. Character, setting, theme, and world perspective are essential considerations for all fiction writers. While these components determine whether a novel succeeds or fails, historical fiction has the added task of bringing the past to life. Richard Wagamese is regarded as a significant stylist in contemporary American literature. His style is full of emotions and is developed substantially through the use of phrases, and it is characterized by short plain structured sentences and colloquial language. Richard’s novel Medicine Walk illustrates his enthusiasm for life and the pursuit of adventure, as well as the themes of loss, connection to nature, and the importance of stories.

The literary theme in the novel Medicine Walk is the central idea and the underlying meaning Richard explores in the novel. The theme expresses the truth about human behavior and thought in a way that words cannot. It allows the readers to empathize with the characters and their hardships and become emotionally invested in the ending. The theme of a work of fiction is its perspective on life and how people act, but it is not provided directly to the reader; instead, it is designed to teach the reader. Medicine Walk is a literary fiction that tells the narrative of Franklin Starlight, an unusually mature 16-year-old who an elderly family friend raises after being abandoned by his drunken father. On the other hand, he enjoys the virtual peace of not dealing with his immediate relatives.

Medicine Walk themes are essential because they are the story’s reason and idea. Franklin’s journey toward acceptance and forgiveness of his drunk father, a journey that begins to heal the traumas of a parentless childhood, is symbolized by the title medicine walk. The theme of loss is just one of the many parts that make up the story, exemplified by the protagonist. The central characters in Medicine Walk are confronted with significant losses, to which they respond in a variety of ways. Eldon Starlight has suffered several losses, one of which is his estrangement from his mother, also his greatest friend.

Eldon’s love, Angie, dies in labor due to neglect, and she was killed in the Korean War. Eldon’s drinking impacts his wife since it contributed to her death. “She had a chance if she had made it here in time” (222), the doctor explains to Eldon as he approaches him as Eldon drinks to cope with his losses. Bunky, on the other hand, copes with the loss of Angie by deciding to raise her kid, Franklin, because Eldon is unqualified to care for him. “He said he would raise ya cuz he owed Angie,” Eldon says when he initially brings Frank to Bunky’s farm. I did not get it, so I asked him, and all he did was stare down at you for the longest time. Then he said she “brought him back to life.” Bunky copes with his loss by giving Frank life the same way that Angie had given him life.

On the other hand, Franklin must bear all of these losses, including his father’s death. “Sometimes when something gets taken away from you, it seems like there is a hole at your center where you can feel the wind blow through,” Bunky says as Frank returns home from burying his father. “I always went to where the wind blows,” (170) he tells Frank, to cope with his loss. The novel implies that genuine love often leads to significant losses through the relationship between love and sadness. As a result, people react to grief in different ways: accepting the loss, which leads to increased love for others, as in the case of the older man, or resisting it, which leads to increased anguish, as in the case of Eldon.

Franklin’s relationship to nature is another central theme in the story; due to Bunky’s upbringing, he is at ease in nature, which provides him with peace and a link to his ancestors. Both Eldon and Bunky have suffered traumatic losses, but while Eldon reacts by turning to alcohol, he respects his loss by rearing Franklin. For both Frank and the old guy, nature is a source of comfort and security. The countryside of the land in British Columbia is nearly a character in and of itself, where the land is the kid’s closest companion aside from the old guy. He defines the open land as a “genuine location where a person can learn to see properly—whether by pursuing an animal for hours through the forest or simply understanding the rhythms of it” since it is “free from artificial structures like a school rather than childhood hobbies” (290), he finds calm and contentment.

Regardless of Frank’s academic challenges, the older man teaches him to cherish what is true, as the terrain had become what the old man referred to as accurate by the time they got down the other side. Eldon has never been able to connect with nature in the same way for the majority of his life, and he suffers immensely as a result. Because he struggled to live as a child, Eldon does not have Frank’s attachment to nature. His family was very busy looking for jobs to hunt and live off the land, so he spent his time in the woods salvaging wood to sell. As a result, he spent his life bouncing around from place to place, never settling down.

Medicine Walk is based on several different memories and story threads. The central theme follows the little boy traveling into the wilderness with Eldon’s dying father. Along the way, Frank recalls experiences from his childhood bond with his father, and the father, more importantly, reveals memories from his own life. Eldon only has the father’s stories to pass on to the child before he dies, and Frank only has his mother’s stories, who died before he was born. When the child contemplates his father’s stories, he finds it challenging to piece together disparate memories. He tells the older man his father’s stories when he returns home following Eldon’s death, as he repeats the rhythms of their life together.

The Medicine Walk novel indicates that no one’s stories are their own and that people’s self-understanding is dependent on the stories others tell them. It is based on the kid’s process of hearing his father’s stories and hesitantly absorbing them into his life that Eldon spends his life avoiding levels because they remind him of his sad background. Storytelling is crucial to being a whole person. It not only has an emotional impact on him, but it also hinders him from opening up and chatting to others. Frank loved the stories his mother told him by candlelight as a boy, but the stories attracted a lover who abused her and drove Eldon out of his mother’s life for good. Eldon begins to believe that stories only bring suffering due to this, and he begins to hold his own stories inside and becomes quiet about them.

Though he opposes it, Angie begins to influence Eldon’s perspective on stories, and he takes a long time to act on it. She observes Eldon’s inner monologue and advises that hearing a narrative “takes you back to a story you have been carrying for a long time.” (280). Frank gives Bunky the entire narrative of Eldon’s life at the end of the book because Eldon is no longer alive to tell it himself. It indicates that Frank has absorbed Becka’s lesson—that people are, in the end, their stories—and has recognized the importance of tales in the healing process. Hearing Eldon’s experiences have given him a more profound sense of wholeness, and he now offers Bunky the same opportunity, bringing things complete circle.

In conclusion, Medicine Walk is a deliberate period set aside for delving deeply into a particular subject, entering a condition of profound listening, and connecting with nature as a powerful mirror. Through the channel of open time and spontaneous travel in a natural setting, Richard’s characters in Medicine Walk novel urge the readers to examine their relationship with nature and the characters’ life paths. The three main themes in Medicine Walk, love and loss, connection to nature, and the concept of memories and stories, all exhibit this

Works Cited

Wagamese, Richard.  Medicine Walk: A Novel . Milkweed editions, 2015.

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Main Street Morgantown to hold Arts Walk

Main Street Morgantown will hold its Summer Arts Walk from 11 a.m.-3 p.m. July 13 in Downtown Morgantown.

The public is encouraged to see the many artisans, makers and sellers offering an array of handmade goods, along with live music and food trucks.

The event continues a vibrant events calendar of over 40 downtown events in conjunction with Main Street Morgantown’s 40th anniversary celebration.

Returning by popular demand, the Vintage Pop-Up Market, a hit at past events like Small Business Saturday and the Spring Arts Walk, will be located at Walnut and High streets. Organized by Morgantown Art Party, this addition will showcase a dozen vendors offering unique vintage items.

The Summer Arts Walk theme, “100 Years of Entertainment,” celebrates the centennial of the Metropolitan Theatre and Don Knotts’ birthday, as part of a community-wide celebration with a focus on the arts and entertainment history of downtown Morgantown.

This Summer Arts Walk complements the City of Morgantown and Morgantown Magazine in their celebration, “A Century of Entertainment: Morgantown’s Metropolitan Theatre and Don Knotts Commemorate 100-Year Milestone.” Events will take place at the Metropolitan Theatre July 20-24 and feature various offerings, including a marathon of films featuring the legendary Don Knotts, special guest speakers and performances.

Main Street Morgantown events attract significant foot traffic downtown, drawing people of all ages across the city and state. This year marks the 40th anniversary of Main Street Morgantown, and the organization, along with its affiliates, will host more than 40 events downtown in 2024.

Main Street Morgantown organizes Arts Walks with support from the City of Morgantown, Monongalia County Commission, Morgantown Parking Authority and West Virginia University. For updates on featured artists and their locations, follow @mainstreetmorgantown on Facebook and Instagram.

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Cells grown in microgravity show 3D structures that could be used in medicine

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In a paper published in the journal Life Sciences in Space Research , Hong-Yun Nie of PLA-Peking University Teaching Hospital, Beijing, China, and colleagues review recent progress in understanding the impact of microgravity on the biological behavior of various types of stem cells: self-renewing cells that can differentiate into different cell types.

Cultures of stem cells grown in microgravity seem to exhibit the formation of 3D tissue-like structures, which closely resemble some aspects of human physiology. This suggests a wide range of potential applications for microgravity as a tool in the field of space life science, opening up entirely new avenues for tissue engineering and regenerative medicine.

The human-tissue-like 3D cell structure grown in microgravity could be used for applications like drug testing and for screening potential health risks. The authors add that artificial cartilage, blood vessels , and other organs generated under microgravity conditions are of high quality, seeming to avoid some of the immune problems caused by the use of scaffolds in traditional tissue engineering.

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A sustainable mhealth intervention to promote physical activity for healthy aging: a pilot study of the “every walk you take” citizen science initiative.

1. Introduction

2. materials and methods, 2.1. community of stakeholders, 2.2. intervention prototype, 2.3. pilot study, 2.3.1. formative session, 2.3.2. data collection, 2.4. statistical analysis, 3.1. co-design and validation of the mhealth intervention, 3.2. pilot study, 4. discussion, 4.1. every walk you take: an innovative approach, 4.2. citizen science as a tool to improve health literacy, 4.3. barriers to and facilitators of active living, 4.4. the “every walk you take” initiative and the sustainable development goals, 4.5. strengths and limitations, 5. conclusions, author contributions, institutional review board statement, informed consent statement, data availability statement, acknowledgments, conflicts of interest.

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Share and Cite

Naik, P.; Álamo-Junquera, D.; Igual, L.; Serrajordi, M.; Pérez, A.; Pericas, C.; Pagès-Fernández, C.; Katapally, T.R.; Grau, M. A Sustainable mHealth Intervention to Promote Physical Activity for Healthy Aging: A Pilot Study of the “Every Walk You Take” Citizen Science Initiative. Sustainability 2024 , 16 , 5338. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135338

Naik P, Álamo-Junquera D, Igual L, Serrajordi M, Pérez A, Pericas C, Pagès-Fernández C, Katapally TR, Grau M. A Sustainable mHealth Intervention to Promote Physical Activity for Healthy Aging: A Pilot Study of the “Every Walk You Take” Citizen Science Initiative. Sustainability . 2024; 16(13):5338. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135338

Naik, Preet, Dolores Álamo-Junquera, Laura Igual, Marc Serrajordi, Albert Pérez, Carles Pericas, Constança Pagès-Fernández, Tarun Reddy Katapally, and María Grau. 2024. "A Sustainable mHealth Intervention to Promote Physical Activity for Healthy Aging: A Pilot Study of the “Every Walk You Take” Citizen Science Initiative" Sustainability 16, no. 13: 5338. https://doi.org/10.3390/su16135338

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Medicine Walk

By richard wagamese, medicine walk summary and analysis of medicine walk chapters 1-3.

Medicine Walk opens with “the kid” and “the old man,” where the kid takes his mare out of the barn for a journey. The old man milks the cow and suggests that the kid, later revealed to be Franklin Starlight, get himself some breakfast. The kid (Starlight) says that he has eaten already, and so the old man holds out a wad of a few bills to the kid, which Frank hesitantly takes. Unspoken between the two is that Franklin Starlight must visit his father, in town. The old man is not Frank’s father, but seems to be his caregiver. The old man merely says to Frank “He’s gonna be sick. You know that, don’tcha?” The unmarked pronoun “he” refers to Frank’s father.

Frank knows his father will be sick because sickness is normal for his father, and the old man warns Frank that visiting won’t be pretty. We don't yet know why exactly Frank’s dad is always sick. Frank replies that visiting is never pretty, but says “still, he’s my dad.” The old man dismisses this reference to Franklin’s relationship with his father, instead just warning Franklin to be careful because Frank’s father lies when he’s sick. Despite the old man’s suggestion that Frank not go, Frank insists that he go visit his father because of the familial connection the two share.

Frank sets out on the journey to his father, riding the mare. Wagamese includes a description of both the scenery that surrounds Frank and a physical description of Frank himself. Frank travels over the rugged beauty of British Columbia, where “the dark green fir leaned to a sullen greyness” and the bursts of color from the leaves strike Franklin like lightning bugs in a field. Frank smokes as he rides, and closes his eyes in attempt to hear the movement of animals in the bush. Frank is described as being big for his age, raw-boned and angular. While others read Frank as moody and pensive, Frank is neither of these descriptors. Rather, Frank appreciates being alone, the solitude of riding in the mountains, and has never experienced being alone as loneliness.

Chapter 2 begins with Franklin arriving in the town where his father resides, the town being an ugly thing that “lay spread out along the edges of the river like a bruise.” The kids from Parson’s Gap, the town, provoke Frank and throw stones at him. Frank keeps his head down and continues to ride. The town is filled with dilapidated houses, and Frank arrives at a farmhouse that belongs to friends of the old man, a family of mixed white and Indigenous descent. It is here that Frank leaves his horse and ventures off to find his father.

The evening is purple around Frank, and as he walks further into town he rolls a smoke. Franklin notices the working men of the town standing in their yards, drinking beer and smoking, but they pay Franklin no mind because of his “size” and “tattered look.” Frank arrives at the main street and then walks further on to the seedier part of town, where the bars are ablaze with laughter, smoke, and grime. Frank passes these, too, eventually arriving at a row of dim, unwelcoming rooming houses. It is here that Frank asks a nearby intoxicated woman if she knows his father, Eldon Starlight . The woman replies by asking Frank for a smoke instead of directly responding to his question, and so Frank proceeds to roll her a cigarette. The woman, a prostitute, puts her hand over Frank’s hand and eyes him suggestively. Frank once again inquires about his father. The woman replies that Frank’s father is probably passed out drunk outside of the bar, but asks if Frank would like to spend time with her instead. Frank declines and thanks the woman, to which she says “Suit yourself, Indian.”

Chapter 3 begins with Frank approaching a leaning, dilapidated rooming house where his father is said to be. There are men sitting on the front porch of the house, but Frank chooses to ignore them. Frank tries the door, which is locked, and turns to face the men. The first asks Frank “who the hell are you?” and spits tobacco juice at Frank’s feet. Frank tells the men that he is Eldon Starlight’s son, and the men joke about Eldon not even being aware he had a son. The men offer Frank a drink, which Frank declines. After passing around a jug of wine amongst themselves, one of the men asks Frank what brings him to the house. Frank replies “I’m aiming to see him,” and the men warn Frank that his father “isn’t right.” Frank assures the men he knows, and so the men unlock the door to the house and let Frank inside. One of the men farts loudly as the door closes behind Frank, and the men break out in laughter.

The interior of the house is drab and murky, with threadbare carpets and spiderwebs. The house is primarily a men’s boarding house, with “men sounds coming from every room.” Cursing, belches, raised voices directed at women. Frank comes to his father’s room. The door is shut, but murmurs seep through the door, along with the clink of a bottle on the floor. Frank knocks and opens the door to find a barren room, save Frank’s father in bed with a woman against his chest. The room is strewn with empty bottles and fast-food boxes, scattered clothing, hardware, a disassembled bicycle, and a crusted hot plate.

Franklin’s father, Eldon, does not recognize Frank. Frank introduces himself, and his father says “Got big, didn’t ya?” Eldon has become decrepit with alcohol and age, but his eyes still burn through the slack skin on his face. Eldon offers Frank a drink, which Frank declines, and a smoke, which Frank also declines in favor of Frank’s own hand-rolled cigarettes. Eldon introduces Frank to Deirdre , the prostitute Eldon is in bed with, and Eldon offers Frank a “turn” with her as well. Frank declines. Frank asks why Eldon summoned him. Eldon sips his bottle, and informs Frank that he has an agenda, that the two of them need to talk, but it shouldn’t be in the boarding house. Eldon offers to take Frank out to eat, to which Frank replies “guess you’re doing the father thing now.” Eldon replies that it’s really just a matter of being hungry, and exits the room. Frank looks back into the room, and then follows his father out.

These first three chapters establish the nature of the relationships Frank holds with the old man and Frank's father. Chapter 1 expresses the sense of duty Frank feels towards his biological father, and expresses the normalcy of his father’s addiction. The effect of having the unmarked pronoun “he,” where Eldon’s name goes unspoken, means that both the old man and the kid know only one “he” who could be sick—Eldon, Frank’s father. The way Frank responds reveals his sense of duty towards his father: Frank must make the journey because Eldon is his father, sick or not.

This first chapter is important to characterizing Frank and to characterizing Frank’s perception of his father, where Frank privileges Eldon’s relationality over Eldon’s expected behavior. Duty calls, and so Frank must answer. Equally important is Wagamese’s omission of names; Frank is “the kid” in the first chapter, and the old man is just “the old man.” It is only through characters’ interactions and the stories they tell, later on in the novel, that readers learn names and their significance. The only necessary expository context in this first chapter is the nature of the relationships the characters share, not the names of the characters.

As Frank rides out of the bush into town, Wagamese reveals the importance of land in the novel through the vivid description of the scenery. There is a simile where the bursts of color from the leaves are compared to lightning bugs in the darkness. The simile likens flora to fauna, nature to nature, and so readers understand the beauty that Frank sees in the land and its creatures.

The dilapidated houses of the town can be understood as a symbol of Frank’s relationship with his father, Eldon. Frank does not like the town, much as he dislikes his troubled connection to his alcoholic father. To Frank, the town is decrepit and ugly; so, too, is Frank’s relationship with Eldon. Frank wishes to leave the town as soon as he arrives.

Chapter 2 is important in clarifying setting and, by extension, characterizing Eldon. In this town, Frank is subject to a kind of violent racialization when the prostitute says “Suit yourself, Indian” after Frank turns her down. It is a difficult place, a site in which the townspeople reject Frank for his being Indigenous. Frank’s father is the type of man who hangs around drunks and prostitutes, and this rough setting is the context in which Frank and Eldon reunite.

The imagery of the scattered boxes and broken items in Eldon’s room further articulates Eldon’s dysfunction. Eldon does not immediately recognize Frank, and this testifies to their distance and Eldon’s absence in the relationship. Eldon is clearly not prepared to have Frank visit him, despite Eldon asking Frank to do so. What is more, Chapter 3 expresses a kind of role-reversal characteristic in relationships between alcoholics and their children, wherein Eldon inappropriately offers his 16-year-old son booze, cigarettes, and a prostitute, while Frank has to take his father out to lunch.

Medicine Walk Questions and Answers

The Question and Answer section for Medicine Walk is a great resource to ask questions, find answers, and discuss the novel.

Why did frank had to come back to Nechako On pg:173?

What chapter are you referring to?

Medicine walk

In chapter 17, the story catapults back into the Korean War, where Jimmy and Eldon sit in the trenches.

Please tell me a one good question about Medicine Walk By Richard Wagamese from pg: 169-210.

Study Guide for Medicine Walk

Medicine Walk study guide contains a biography of Richard Wagamese, literature essays, quiz questions, major themes, characters, and a full summary and analysis.

• About Medicine Walk
• Medicine Walk Summary
• Character List

Medicine Walk

Richard wagamese, ask litcharts ai: the answer to your questions.

The kid (Franklin Starlight)

Eldon starlight (father), the old man (bunky), angie pratt, becka charlie.

Jimmy Weaseltail

Eldon’s mother.