Solar Storms

Author

Linda Hogan

Publication Date

1994

Setting

1970s

Narrator

Angel Wing as an adult

Genre

Historical Fiction

Title Significance

Silent, but can be very harmful to some people and their ways of life

Angel Wing

Narrator - Hannah's daughter - taken care of by Bush

Bush

Harold was married to her before Loretta, then had Hannah

Dora-Rouge

Agnes' mom - Angel's great grandma

Agnes Iron

Harold's mother

John Husk

Agnes' bf

Tommy Grove

Angel's bf

Frenchie

family friend - daughter dies in hungry mouth

LaRue Marks Time

taxidermy guy - in love with Bush

Tulik

old man lives in Two Town - distant cousin of Dora Rouge - fights dambuilders

Aurora

Angel's sister - one of Hannah's daughters - Angel finds her when she goes to find Hannah and takes care of her

Loretta

Hannah's mom

Harold

Hannah's dad

Luther

Dora Rouge's dead husband - Dora communicates with him spiritually but once she bonds with Tulik begins to become quieter

Hundred-Year-Old Road

old people and tommy live here

Adam's Rib

where story starts

Fur Island (House of No)

Bush lives here, spider island is connected - no mirrors no bathroom - turtle bones in yard

God Island

Ammah island; full of life

Hungry Mouth of Water

nature's pac man, in middle of lake, sucks in everything, close to Adam's rib, frenchie's daughter dies here, never freezes over

Two - Town

Tulik's family stays here - going to be destroyed by building of dams

Flower Islands

Angel goes here to get magic medicine for Agnes; Angel takes too long a nap so Agnes dies

Angel's birth

Hannah cuts hair at the same time to disconnect herself from Angel (red hair) - Hannah locks midwife out of the house and midwife goes to Bush's house for help, find Angel in a tree

bear coat

Agnes' dead best friend - coat from childhood bear - was a snow bear that she killed for mercy

Water

represents volatility, change, life, new beginning - dams change way life can be lived with water

Land

altered by man and the water when the dams are built and the land is flooded

Hannah's ice heart

cold all the time (frozen) - connected to darkness inside of her (the hand) - she can't love

Cyanide smell

originates with Loretta - almond smell - stops with Angel and Aurora

Maniki

a girl who turned into a human (goal of life) - Angel's nickname

Wolverine

A LEGEND (NOT REAL)

Humans never see her/him

Footprints always show up around Hannah's house

Angel mimics Wolverine with footprints in the flour when trashing the army's food supply while protesting

Put nature first even at the expense of human life

the trickster, infamous figure in their legends

inspires Angel to sabotage the stores of food for the police and stuff

Maps

Bush uses old maps because of nature not of what man made

Dora Rouge's deal with water

trade a life to let them pass

Bush's songs

Husks believes that Bush's songs put things back together

Identity through place

Angel categorizes home through place

How does she grow, who does she become

How places changed her, affected her, defined her

Effects of colonialism

kill da animals, ruin nature, ruin ways of indigenous people

destroyed - tuliks house, two town, indigenous people

Scars

how other people view her scars - angel's scars inflicted by Hannah - Angel obsessed with them - not her own perception but others - other ppl say / think (Frenchie → When Angel attacks the mirror at the gathering

Tommy asks her "tell me about your scars" p 125

She says "what scars" to tommy

Angel says to reader that Bush said: "Only some people see scars and it is wounding they remember, I see it as proof of healing")

Nature vs. Man

oppose each other - progression of man inhibits progression of nature

What is family

not by blood - chosen family