Mariusz JakimikJakimik 1Miss RendeEnglish ENG3A-05March 11, 1997From the time people are born, until they die, it is only a natural thing to want tokeep learning about their life and to figure out why they were put on this earth. From thevery beginning of life, babies want to touch and experience everything around them. Throughout the novel, Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell, Brian O’Connal hasfound himself with a tremendous hunger to discover the real meaning of life.

Clearly, then, Brian always searches for new ways to learn about the world he livesin. One of the things that Brian shows an interest in is God. Brian really wants to meetHim, not knowing that God is something that cannot be seen, for He is a spirit. Brianwould say “Lets go over to his place”(7). Throughout the novel, Brian seems to belooking for God. He has his own image of God in his mind, thinking that “God rides thevacuum cleaner”(31).

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Brian learns the truth about God from different people like hisparents, Saint Sammy, Mr. Hislop, his grandma, and his friends. He discovers that God iseverywhere and in everyone, but He cannot be seen.

Furthermore, Brian is very much interested, like many other children his age, aboutwhere living things come from. Being as young as he was, he always thought that Goddelivered babies. After Brian witnessed his very first birth, that of a rabbit, he becamevery confused and curious about what and how it happened.

Brian had a veryuncomfortable conversation with his dad, Gerald O’Connal, about where babies comefrom:Remember I told you the pigeon grows inside the egg, the mother lays the egg,and it hatches?…They don’t with rabbits.

Rabbits are different. The father Jakimik 2plants a seed in the mother and the baby grows from it. When it’s time, they come out. Is that what he is doing when…Yes Spalpeen, that’s what he is doing.

(161-162)This fascinated Brian very much.Unquestionably, everything that is born and lives, must eventually die. Death is anunavoidable fact of life, and cannot be escaped. The deaths in the novel start out from notvery significant, to the very shocking ones. Brian was becoming aware of death but wasnot influenced very much from such deaths like the gopher, the rabbits and Mr.

and Mrs.Wong. After his dog Jappy’s death, Brian realizes how fragile life is.

It was a completeshock to him when his dad suddenly died. Brian did not know what to feel. It was as ifBrian’s life was over, and he felt lost and lonely without his father. Brian learned that”People were forever born, people forever died, and never were again.

Fathers died, andsons were born. The prairie was forever, with its wind whispering for man, but for Brian’sfather-never.”(239)Thus, Brian begins to realize that the world is full of strange and unexplained things. Brian does not know why the two headed calf was born, so he concluded that it must havebeen God’s mistake. The runt pig was another abnormal experience for Brian.

He feltsorry for it and wondered why such things are born, and he did not want Ab to kill it.”You can’t kill my runt pig”(216), he said. Furthermore, Brian wanted to get to know theYoung Ben better, because he felt a special connection to him. It was as though they had Jakimik 3something in common. Brian felt that he could learn something from the Young Ben, something nobody else could teach him. Saint Sammy was another mysterious buy toBrian that teaches him about God.

Saint Sammy was an outcast in town because heclaimed that he knew God personally and had a special connection with Him.Throughout the novel, Brian satisfies his need to understand life more byexperiencing many different situations. He learns that life is very complicated and hardto comprehend. He becomes aware of God looking over us, he also learned howwonderful birth is, and how sudden and tragic death is. Brian really understood that birthis the exact opposite of death. He had seen the circle of life turn right before him, and lifeand death were now familiar to him. Life is full of unexplained events, but everythinghappens for a reason.

Even though Brian witnessed all this, it is only human nature towant to keep learning about life and what it has to offer.Works CitedMitchell, W.O, Who Has Seen the Wind Toronto, Ontario: Macmillan Canada, 1947Category: English


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