63 pages • 2 hours read
Two Old Women
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Themes
The Sanctity of Human Life
The novella begs the question of whether human life is a privilege, and whether humans deserve to be treated differently than animals. In a culture where starvation is as common as the snow that buries the food supply, the fact that humans are made up of flesh carries more importance than the fact that humans might also be made up of souls. Fearing cannibalism is part of the two women’s lifestyle, and it hovers in the background of their travel as well.
The People leave the elderly and young children to die because they are not able to make a physical contribution; this is another example of categorizing humans as mere bodies instead of thinking, feeling people. While there is a physical gain in no longer having to care for the people left to die, there is a mental cost when human life is treated with such indifference—exemplified in both The Chief’s slowly deteriorating mental state and in Ozhii Nelii’s unending shame.
As a young woman, Sa’ “asked the men if they thought they were no better than the wolves who shun their old and weak” (57). In her direct comparison between animals and humans, she charges humans with a responsibility to make use of their compassion. As The People start to regret their decision to abandon the women, the novella appears to send the message that human life is sanctified rather than expendable.
The Cost of Ageism
In this text, there is often a distinct, and sometimes antagonistic, divide between the young and the old. The old often see the young as non-dependable figures who don’t respect hard work and take “shortcuts” (68). The young often think of the old as having outdated beliefs that rest in tradition rather than in reason; they often resist their elders’ choices to abandon the feeble. Shruh Zhuu is passionately against leaving his grandmother, but Ozhii Nelii silences him in fear that he will be punished for disrespecting his elders’ decision. When Sa’ was a child, she was abandoned because she also rejected her elders’ decision to abandon an old woman. The friction between young and old leads to many issues, such as Ch’idzigyaak’s unhappy marriage and the deaths of many loved people.
The futility of this age-is-equivalent-to-value mentality appears at many points throughout the book, especially as Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak achieve strenuous physical feats, such as hunting in subzero temperatures and crossing a barely frozen river. After Daagoo uses his sharp tracking powers to find the two old women and witnesses their triumph at such an old age, “he knew that he would never believe himself to be old and weak again” (105), proving that age is often determined by one’s mental, rather than physical, state.
The Importance of Physical and Mental Health
The most widespread message in this book is the call to nourish both physical and mental health. Throughout the narrative, those who choose to care for one aspect and not the other find themselves in trouble. Sa’ and Ch’idzigyaak first desired an undemanding physical life to meld with their comfortable mental state; as a result, they lost an appreciation for the life they were given. It is only when they are required to exert both physical and mental energy that they begin to find life satisfying. They remain for the most part unhappy until they start talking to each other long into the night, giving both their hands and their minds something to work with.
On a larger scale, The People enter a cyclic pattern of suffering because they only focus on the physical state of their tribe. The many children who died did not save them from facing the same harsh fate the following winter. When The People finally realize the value of the two women, and in turn, of other humans who are not capable of substantial physical output, they are a more successful society because their resources have expanded to include those with fortitude. Finding this physical and mental balance allows the tribe to thrive without ever “abandon[ing] any elder” (123) again, and it allows the women to die “truly happy” (123) instead of miserable and alone.
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