Read Aloud the Text Content
This audio was created by Woord's Text to Speech service by content creators from all around the world.
Text Content or SSML code:
Have you ever thought how simple it is to turn on the heater when it is cold or go to the store without worrying about the shortage of food and winter supplies? Well, for Evan Whitesky an Anishinaabe, things tend to get problematic. The moon of the crusted snow, a novel written by Waubgeshig Rice, tells a story of the Anishinabe community living in northern Ontario who start to face problems during a massive power outage. The writer describes this crisis from the Anishinabe perspective of how they face dangerous weather conditions. They have to survive throughout winter with limited supplies and without power with little to no knowledge of this problem. The aboriginal community starts to face challenges during this crisis because they face difficulties throughout each day; they start getting paranoid and worried because the villagers do not know what is happening; they have to deal with the shortage of supplies essential for everyone’s survival. The difficulties that the Anishinabe face during this crisis become severe and scary. Once the power goes out and all the cell services, the aboriginal community faces various challenges. When they realize that everything has been cut off, they become confused about what is going on because it has never happened before, where everything has been cut off at around the same time. At first, they faced the problem of having no satellite. “Satellite must still be out, he thought. They’re usually not talking this much.” (Rice 15). When Evan returns home from hunting, he goes back to rest, and when he wakes, he realizes that the cell service is gone and that the TVs are not working. This creates a massive problem because although the other issues have not come into play yet when they do, the satellites going out will be a huge problem. They will not be able to communicate over long distances,s and that becomes important later on when they could not contact Kevin, who was in Ontario studying and was stuck there. “Cell service outages were common. The cell tower had gone up only a few years before when the community was finally connected to the wider hydro grid.” (Rice 16). This proves that they are used to this happening because it has only been a couple of years since they got it, and before then, they lived all their lives without it. This is good but also problematic because, as stated before, once the power goes out and the winter gets harsher for them, it becomes a problem. When the power also cuts out, they get confused because the cell services also cut off a couple of days ago. “We don’t know what’s going on with power. Or the cellphones or the TV.” (Rice 37). When they start to get confused and worried because the power and cells are out, they wonder what could be happening down in central Ontario. This time power is essential because the energy they need to run most of the appliances they have in their house like the heaters or freezers where everyone stores their food, and since it went out, they start to worry and panic. Weather also becomes a problem as it starts to take effect throughout the story. As we see from this quote, “The weather and lack of maintenance often played havoc with that fine thought, though.” (Rice 19) it shows us that weather affects their pipes because, without proper maintenance, they will freeze over the winter, which is not good. It is the same as a total power going out, so with the pipes and energy out, it becomes increasingly difficult. “The snow came again overnight, pounding the small community at an unforgiving pace. Another thick layer of heavy snow lay on the roads, driveways, and rooftops, keeping Evan, Isaiah, and Tyler too busy to worry.” (Rice 66). This quote shows us how a blizzard hit and the band members are always busy clearing snow all the time, so it does not pile up and start to freeze, because of that they do not have time to worry because they are so busy that they have to keep cleaning for hours and hours during this harsh blizzard. With the lack of power and cell service and the severe weather conditions, the community faces a significant challenge of making it through the winter that’s quickly approaching.