63 pages • 2 hours read
Velma WallisTwo Old Women
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 1993A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Symbols & Motifs
Stars
From the beginning to the end of the novella, stars connote the presence of a savior. Before Sa’ is born, her mother stares intently at the stars because they are the only things that can distract her from the pain of labor. She then names her daughter Sa’ after the stars’ power to turn miserable pain into something wonderful. Stars also play a comforting role when Ch’idzigyaak awakens after their first night alone and abandoned. Even though everything is dastardly wrong, she looks up to where “the northern lights still danced above” (21) and instead of grief or fear she is filled “with awe” (21). The women juxtapose the “deep cold surrounding them” (21) with the much more comforting “bowl of stars” (21) above them. When Daagoo and the young men are searching for Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak, they never would have found them if not for the “small lights of the many stars above” (95).
Babiche
The babiche—a lacing of rawhide strips which Ozhii Nelii gifts her mother before they abandon her—is a symbol of connection for Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak. This gift of connection contrasts the lack of connection that contributes to The People’s suffering. The community considers any talk that is not immediately pertinent to survival as a waste of energy. If one has time to talk, then one has time to work harder. Because conversation is not valued, the community does not get the chance to build deep, resonating relationships with other people, a necessity for survival.
Unlike the other community members, the women learn to value connections and therefore survive. The babiche represents access to connections; it often comes in handy when the women need to make connections they might otherwise die without. The babiche creates emotional connections, between mother and daughter and between Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak, and physical connections, such as when the two women use it to tie together their snowshoes and attach the sleds to their waists.
In the end, Ch’idzigyaak returns the babiche to her daughter, hinting that connections are cyclical in nature rather than dead-end paths. If the women only had Shruh Zhuu’s hatchet alone, they would have been in the same position as The People, one marked by dominance rather than interdependence. It was the addition of the babiche that allowed the two women to create and not just to destroy. With the babiche back in Ozhii Nelii’s hands, the importance of connection may be passed down to the younger generations, much like this story has.
Chickadee
Ch’idzigyaak is given her name because “she reminded her parents of a chickadee bird when she was born” (3). A chickadee’s famous call, “chick a dee dee dee,” is one of alarm which perfectly matches Ch’idzigyaak’s ever-suspicious nature. At many points throughout the novella, Ch’idzigyaak reaffirms her name. When she is first abandoned by her tribe and family, she has very little faith that Sa’ can help them survive. Her initial reticence to join in with Sa’ and her rallying cry shows her deep-seated suspicion. Much like a chickadee’s call, Ch’idzigyaak’s “hot, unbidden tears” (12) function as an alarm.
When The People discover their handmade camp, Ch’idzigyaak whines and starts to panic, another similarity to her namesake bird. Additionally, when The People come to them from a place of respect and regret, Ch’idzigyaak “still harbored fear about what was happening and needed confidence to face the future” (107). Even when they have been happily situated and respected among The People for some time Ch’idzigyaak still “harbored a secret fear in her heart that something bad had happened” to her family (116).
