Mitchell give us this small community with all its strengths and weaknesses. We follow other characters, particularly the teachers and principle of the local school. From page 13.īut it is not just Brian that we follow in this novel. He is always drawn to the Prairie and to a wild boy who lives there.Īnd all about him was the wind now, a pervasive sighing trough great emptiness, as though the prairie itself was breathing in long gusting breaths, unhampered by the buildings of town, warm and living against his face and in his hair. He learns about life, faith and human failings from his experiences and the adults he interacts with. He had an ability to let us into his characters thoughts.Īs Brian grows up, sharing the town with his friends and his dog Jappy, we meet many of the people who live around him. Brian’s thoughts and feelings, expressed in internal dialogue, are so like a four-year old child’s.

His mother and father ignore him, his Grandmother shoos him out of the house. When we first meet Brian he is angry over all the attention his sick baby brother is getting. He is surrounded by odd characters, his Uncle Sean, Old Ben and Saint Sammy who lives in a piano crate.

I learned about this classic Canadian novel that by reading other Canadian novels.įirst published in 1947, this is a story about a boy growing up in a small town on the Saskatchewan prairie during the 1930’s.īrian O’Connal lives on the edge of the prairie with his Mother, Father, Grandmother and younger brother.

Who Has Seen the Wind by W.O. Mitchell