55 pages • 1 hour read
Ivan DoigThe Whistling Season
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2006A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Geographical Context: Montana
During the Civil War, the U.S. government took steps to encourage American citizens to move to Montana Territory. According to the Homestead Act of 1862, a U.S. citizen could claim 160 acres with the provision that, over five years, they would live on and improve the land. Thousands of families, like the fictional Millirons, left other states for Montana, and found a land of extremes, with verdant farmland, glacial landscapes, devastating droughts, and deadly blizzards—not to mention abundant wildlife. In 1899, Montana became a state. By 1909, the year Rose comes from Minnesota to Marias Coulee, the population of Montana grew to over 500,000. In addition to the homesteaders, new residents came because of large infrastructure projects, such as the Big Ditch described in The Whistling Season. Others, including gold miners, were attracted to the state’s vast mineral wealth. In the 20th century, the population grew more slowly; by 1957, when the adult Paul Milliron narrates his story, Montana had around 667,000 people. The state’s current population is approximately 1.1 million, spread across 145,509 square miles, making it the fourth largest U.S. state by area.
The Millirons and other residents of Marias Coulee are homesteaders, still working to improve their land. Projects such as The Whistling Season's Big Ditch promised dependable water to many farmers who otherwise relied upon capricious weather. Unfortunately, 1910 started with a drought lasting through winter and spring—a fact reflected in the novel. The anxiety Rose expresses while waiting for Oliver to plow her fields indicates her reliance on the potential harvest to offset the money she has borrowed to buy Eunice’s house. Brose Turley, the trapper, finds his livelihood at risk as well when the dry weather changes the behavior of the animals he hunts.
Historical-Cultural Context: Early 20th Versus Mid-20th Century Culture
The split perspective of The Whistling Season highlights the contrasts between the mid-20th century and the time of Paul’s youth nearly five decades earlier. When Paul was young, he and others in his family all traveled by horseback. Automobiles, primarily Model T Fords, appeared as unreliable oddities. Unlike the horse-drawn wagons and carriages, cars could not cope with the deeply rutted roads around homesteads and building sites. Passenger rail was the means of long-distance travel in 1909. The Northern Pacific Railroad completed its transcontinental construction in 1883, making it possible to travel to Montana without a horse. By the time of the 1957 frame narrative, the first heavier-than-air flight has taken place, and Sputnik dominates the news. Lanterns, rather than electric lights, illuminate the Milliron house, and water comes from an outdoor pump. Boys and girls have separate bathrooms at school, but both are outhouses.
Driving his automobile past the farm his family still owns in Marais Coulee allows Paul to reflect on historical and personal changes. Two world wars, a global pandemic, and the Great Depression separate him from his childhood. Paul enjoys indoor plumbing and electricity, indoor climate control, dependable transportation, and turboprop airliners. To the educational leaders of Montana, these changes dictate the necessity of upgrading the state’s education system, beginning with the elimination of one-room schools. Paul disagrees, citing his own success: emerging as a qualified, well-educated public servant in the 1950s from a one-room school in the 1900s and 1910s.
Historical Context: The Homestead Community
Though the homesteaders, emigrants, and settlers of Montana from the 1860s through the mid-20th century were largely white, they were far from homogenous. Paul notes that the three dozen children attending Marias Coulee’s school divided themselves along ethnic lines, as either Swedes or Slavs. The Slavic children like and protect Paul and his brothers. When someone mistreats Toby on the school playground, the Slavic girls in his grade punish the offender. Doig nonetheless describes an underlying solidarity among the students: the children universally keep secret from their parents and others how they will celebrate Comet Night, they remain alert and silent as Brose enters the classroom to remove Eddie from school, and they maintain their best behavior while the state inspector administers standardized tests.
Apart from the alliances and conflicts among the children, the primary information Doig supplies about the community comes from gossip. While Oliver is scrupulous in his above-board dealings with Rose, the skepticism of adults in Marias Coulee filters to his sons through other children. Conscious of his station as a leader of the community, Oliver waits several months to marry Rose after proposing to her, demonstrating that she has not become pregnant out of wedlock. Though the homesteaders come from different nations, religions, and cultures, they share similar assumptions and prejudices about relationships.
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By Ivan Doig
