The short story walk well, my brother is written by Farley Mowat who is a Canadian renowned author. It has been adapted in a movie referred to as the snow walker. The main character who we take concern in Charles but in the movie he is fabricated by the title, black pepper. Other characters that have been carried to the movie, Anabella Piugattuk with the name kanaalaq, in the story, James Cromwell being Walter sheep shepherd, kiersten warren being Estelle, Jon Griesbeing pierce, Robin Dunne being Carl, Malcolm Scott, being warren, and Michael Buble who is Hap. Charles appears to be the main character since were it not for him the whole story wouldn’t continue. He appears to be the key character and every undertaking revolves around him.
Mowat presents Charles as the character every reader would love to hate on first sight but who develops gradually as he adapts to the new environment and the company of the Eskimo lady. At first Charles is an arrogant man who is portrayed as having very high ego that he protects too much. He is angry, bitter, and a man who is self absorbed. He also thinks only about himself, this can be portrayed by the way he treats kanaalaq without even the slightest recognition of her needs. He likes using harsh words due of the time he refers kanaalaq as an animal. This shows the insensitive nature of him. Charles rose from a group of elite who believes that the can do each and everything without any help and care take care of themselves.
On the contrary the one who helps the development of Charles behavior is kanaalaq. Kanaalaq helps shape up Charles in a way because she hides her pride, she doesn’t become angry so easily, she is not arrogant in the ways she talks, and she is also persevering since were it not for endurance to all the insults Charles hurls at her, she could have done something wrong to him. Charles at first is prejudiced against kanaalaq since she appears to be primitive; he fails to understand the fact that one should never judge a book by its cover. He views her as being below him. This is evident since after the clash, she offers him uncooked fish but instead of refusing it the way we would expect a scholar to do, he proceed to shout at her, telling her to eat it and on the same time calling her an animal. This is the best character, the reader would hate.
Being a man who is not flexible, even after the fish is roasted, he proceed refusing to eat it and instead goes for his can of cold baked beans. The nature has a way of leveling all the people and lowering the pride of the so called, high profile people. Things get sour for Charles when the plane clash, being lost in the tundra awakens his humane senses and for the first time he shows his fear. This is one of the ways that nature transforms him (Mowat, 2004).
Kanaalaq is a woman who having lived in the wilderness for many years has experience in all the ways of that place. She lives with a tuberculosis disease and now the pilot has to take her to a place referred to as yellow knife where it’s the only place she can get treated. Charles due to his inhuman nature at the first time is reluctant to take her but when he is offered a form of payment using ivory, he is inclined to take her for treatment. This shows the value he attaches to the material possessions compared to value and respect of life. The unimaginable happens when he is on the way to trade with the so called natives, the plane clashes in tundra. It is explained that the plane clashed since the route he took to the trading position was not his usual route. But this leaves the reader with a probing question that whether the accident happened due to the flight path being unusual or is it just fate that drove him?
It remains impossible that is the usualness of the path as a key issue, and then he was not competent in his profession although it has been indicated he was from a class of elite. At tundra, civilization was so many miles away so he had to find way of survival since here he would not survive with his hostile nature and lack of basic human understanding. It seems that even as the story flows, mowat intention to show that human beings can be changed and can adapt to the environment depending on the situation they are in can be implied. After the crash, Charles is still unchanged and still holds on his crude belief that kanaalaq is primitive and decided to leave and search for direction alone, but the woman still holds onto him, though being sick, she follows him. Charlie being an elite and has never been into a wilderness, unless when flying with airplanes, could not make it in the wilderness. To him living in such a place was a thing that would not ring his mind. He is easily threatened by insects, cold, and hunger. Kanaalaq is good enough that she teaches him the tactics of survival in that place.
Charles swallows his pride by starting to learn how to fish, hunt, and also how to prepare footwear which are water proof and therefore can be used during the winter. They also both of them learn who they can communicate. Since he is willing to learn, kanaalaq explains to him about the Inuit’s world spirit. On seeing a plane that had crashed before, Charles collects the parts which are usable while kanaalaq prepares a grave for the pilot of the place and also packing the tools which she thinks Charles would need in order to survive (Mowat, Walk Well, My Brother, 2004).
From the story Charles is transformed form the arrogant, man with high ego, inhuman, unrespectable has negative attitude to people who are not of his class to a man who seems to respect what other people believes, and also has learnt that non-civilized also posses vast knowledge. Charles attitude to survival changes and learns that that one should try to live with the fundamentals of survival. His attitude towards nature changes as he learns that nature always tends to take its course though it might not be beneficial to everyone. Charles also learnt to appreciate that he can be able to learn for people who are completely different from him.