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Hubert Evans’ “classic” novel Mist on the River
Book review as cultural history
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Prince Rupert as big City Originally published in 1954 Evan’s novel is sometimes seen as a significant contribution to Canadian literature, even trail blazing, in its ‘realistic’ and sympathetic treatment of native peoples. Cy Pitt is a young man taking the CN train “Indian special” down river to Prince Rupert to work in a cannery. (“They didn’t want us riding with the white people so they gave us a special train for the trip down river during cannery season”. As one elder put it to me several years ago.) The “mist on the river” of the title refers to Cy’s state of mind as he decides on a future course for his life and by extension his people. Prince Rupert, with its, now gone, CN Park and its totem poles is depicted, as is a Cow Bay of brothels, bars and drunken brawls, but those looking for a glimpse of Rupert past will have to look elsewhere for this novel is “psychological” rather than descriptive. |
Cole’s Notes version of the Novel
Evan’s was a prolific writer, and his reputation has waxed and waned with time. Presently he is remembered for a non-fiction BC Book literary prize. The Alan Twigg biography, right, dates from Evans’ last rise from obscurity. Twigg has a good summary of Mist on the River. He sees it as important for the ‘realistic’ and sensitive treatment of 1st nations. Young Cy Pitt is torn between the ‘choosing’ either his home village rooted in the past, or the modern and sinful Prince Rupert. His sister, June, who come with him and their mother to work in cannery for the summer, faces the same dilemma. Bright, attractive, and outgoing, her ‘choice’ will be easier. Their mother with her soap berries trading goods represents the past both children are embarrassed by. Cy’s future wife, Miriam, is an orphan and she is being brought up by her grandfather Paul Leget (the name has echoes in Tsimshian history). Paul represents a past which is trying to control the present
generation and thus much of the novel’s workings are depicting this struggle at
moral and psychological level. (see Twigg pages 109-114). |
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Sub-text:
assimilate into white culture |
A
Great Novel it Ain’t
Whatever
Mist on the River’s place in BC literature, it is a readable but
forgettable novel. What
about the sub-text? Evan’s sees native people as ‘just folks’ and ‘just like
us’. Laudable, especially in the racist 1950s, but hardly of more than historical
interest now. Evan’s
and his wife were missionaries of sorts. She was a school teacher at Kitimat
and Kispiox. They had a Quaker background. The book’s message is that Cy and June will succeed where Dot (a ‘fallen woman’ relative) will not because they realize their own self worth. That self-esteem came, in part, from the Haneys, the only whites given a prominent role in the novel. The Haneys (like Hubert Evans) accepted and respected them, but because the Haneys took the time and effort to teach them well in English and accounting etc they will succeed. The
sub-text seems to be-- roots in the land and the community are fine—but one
has to leave behind Paul Leget with his broken English and useless cedar canoe
building skills. Speak
English in the house, understand the inner workings of a pick-up truck,
forget the nonsense about ‘swamp roots’ for healing—that is Evans’ message. Because
Evan’s sees Cy as just like the fellow in rural Manitoba or Ontario who has
to choose between staying on the farm and migrating to the city lights he
misses what is uniquely Tsimshian or Gitskan. A
generation will pass before the moral significance of remembering how to
carve the cedar canoe will re-emerge. |
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Cannery Culture |
June
goes to be an employee in a fashion shop in Vancouver, working for a native
woman who has married a successful (white?) seiner. Cy does not go back to the cannery, this entry into the wage economy is rejected for small scale logging in his home territory. Paul
Leget wouldn’t have been going back to the boat shop at the cannery either because
he was fired (Paul conveniently dies- allowing the novel it’s denouement). We
have to look elsewhere though to understand these ‘personal’ decisions. The
canneries were disappearing too, as was the prominent role of ‘Indians” in
the economics of salmon canning. |