Jack London's stories are specific, they carry a charge of indestructible faith in a person.
The writer went down in history and literature as a true humanist and idealist. His beliefs are obvious to every reader: strong, kind and fair male workers will change the world for the better. That was himself, who began to earn his
daily bread as a child. Selling newspapers, exhausting work at a cannery, hard work of a sailor ...
Jack London's works are easy to read: a dynamic story with clearly defined semantic details facilitates the work of those who want to write a short retelling of them. The Legend of Kish is no exception. This is a retelling of the legend of a 13-year-old Canadian Eskimo named Kish.
Story - for children
Why did the American writer choose not the strongest physically and not at all the most educated hunter as the main character of his story, but a teenage boy? Moreover, the events set forth by him are divorced from the spirit of the times; they date back to hoary antiquity. At that time, the whole life of the Eskimos was determined by tribal relations. Jack London, a vocation writer and a convinced socialist, was encouraged by the idea of social justice. The story of the boy’s mind, courage and kindness contains our brief retelling. “The Legend of Kish” introduces the reader to the difficult life of the Canadian Eskimos.
Scene
The tribe lives off the Canadian coast of the harsh Arctic Ocean, beyond the Arctic Circle.
There is such a layer of snow on the ground that it is impossible to move without skis. Dogs serve as a draft force for Eskimo sledges. Most of the year is polar night and
polar day. At the head of the tribe is the leader Klosh-Kwan. The Eskimos are destined to live together and to resist cold and hunger together. The tundra is a very harsh environment for living. Hunters are considered the breadwinners of the tribe. The fate of the tribe is sad, the hunters of which fail.
The feat of the hunter Bok, the father of Kish
Young Kish is proud of his father, who was the best hunter and died a glorious death, worthy of being remembered by subsequent generations of fellow tribesmen. During his life, he hunted for two, and when the booty was shared among his fellow tribesmen, Bok watched so that the old and weak could not be left out. This man had a big heart. When difficult times came and the best hunters of the tribe returned from hunting with nothing, and the old men, children and women seemed to have completely lost hope, he decided on a brave deed. The tribe, starving for hunger, urgently needed food. And a dedicated hunter dared to defeat a thunderstorm of a snow tundra - a bear.
The hunt turned out to be very dramatic, as evidenced by its brief retelling. “The Legend of Kish” tells us the story of the feat of a man exhausted by hunger, who clashed in a deadly duel with a powerful beast. Bok's hand was faithful, he managed to deliver a decisive blow to him with his faithful spear. However, the power of the owner of the tundra far exceeded the human. Even his last strength was enough to bend Bok and take his life.
Thanks to the dedication of its best hunter, the tribe then survived ...
Dishonest provision
The fate of the family of the deceased was not easy: the widow of Aikig and the son of Kish. The tares of self-interest and selfishness sprouted in the hearts of their fellow tribesmen: after the death of Bok the hunters of the tribe forgot about the fair and equal division of the booty and endowing all with sufficient meat.
The clan of the leader of Klosh-Kwan, a family of hunters: Ug-Gluk and Massuka, lived heartily. But at the same time, such tribes as Aikiga and Kish were undernourished in the tribe, as a brief retelling tells the readers. “The Legend of Kish” is the story of the establishment and establishment of the new leader of the Canadian Eskimo tribe, who firmly decided to put an end to this dishonesty and ugliness.
An innate mind and a rare, even for his adult compatriots, ability to speak distinguished a 13-year-old teenager.
Kish’s bold speech before the tribe
One evening, when the tribe gathered for advice in the largest igloo belonging to the leader, Kish unexpectedly took the floor. His performance was bold to recklessness. He opposed the greed of adult male hunters, being in the minority (the rest of the tribesmen were obviously afraid). At first, the boy reminded presumptuous hunters of the feat of his father. Then he formulated the main idea of his speech: families that have lost the hunter-breadwinner are also worthy to get good pieces of meat, not bones, during the division of prey. From the words of Kish it followed that both the experienced hunter Ug-Gluk and the most powerful man of the Massuk tribe acted unscrupulously.
The fact that the guy after such words was almost kicked out of the council, says "The Legend of Kish." The summary of the work contains a scene where the greedy hunters Ug-Gluk and Massuk tried to embarrass the boy with angry cries, and convince the tribesmen present that he did not have an advisory voice.
Young hunter goes to the tundra
But Kish, to their surprise, was not afraid of them, in fact, being a "hard nut". He answered them quite worthily and not childishly. His words surprised men with a firm faith in themselves and, again, with non-childish principles. He, obviously, expected the support of deprived and starving tribesmen. But they were silently afraid. Then Kish had to go all-in. A thirteen-year-old boy openly opposed himself to the strong right that prevailed in the tribe, when the best pieces were taken by strong men, and the widows and old men remained hungry, and promised to change them. How did that sound?
He recalled the fair division of the booty by his father Bok, formerly the best hunter of the tribe, whose feat begins in the story “The Legend of Kish”. The summary of his speech can be described as a statement of a fundamentally different society.
Then, at a meeting of the tribe, no one seriously took the boy’s words seriously. After him, coming out of the leader’s needle, ridicule was carried. But his words turned out to be not the child’s passion: the next day, Kish, armed with his father’s hunting equipment, went hunting in that direction, where the ocean ice closed in with snow covered land. The unexpectedly low temperature did not stop him.
The son was worthy of his father
On the third day of his absence, a fierce storm broke out. There was practically no hope that the guy would survive. And on the morning of the third day, he appeared in the village, when the tribe hunters were going to go after his corpse, and his desperate mother Aikiga, in anticipation of loss, tore her hair and smeared her face with soot.
The effect of the unexpected action was used to the full by the author of the story Jack London (“The Legend of Kish”). A brief retelling of the work reflects the main aspect of this event. Kish returned from the tundra with prey (he carried on his shoulder a weighty piece cut from the carcass of the bear he had killed). He triumphed because he turned out to be a worthy successor to his father. A bear killed by him on a hunt with two cubs was a prey of a super complex, which was only on the shoulder of an outstanding master of hunting. After all, a nursing bear attacks anyone who wanders into her possessions with incredible cruelty.
The chief earner of the tribe
Addressing the men of the tribe, the teenager said that they can bring his hunting trophy to the carcass village if they go with the sleds in his wake. So the hunters of the tribe were put to shame by a boy who provided the abundance of all his fellow tribesmen with bear meat. They were perplexed, because such a hunt was not on their shoulder. For fellow tribesmen, an ordinary boy suddenly acquired a mystery, mystery.
A brief retelling of the story “The Legend of Kish” confirms the seriousness of the protagonist’s intentions that he had previously expressed at the council in the Klosh-Kwan needle. He proved himself right with new hunting successes. The hunters openly envied the boy, who became the real breadwinner for his tribe. Evil tongues (and among them the first - Ug-Gluk) openly accused the young hunter of witchcraft. But their machinations were destroyed by the opinion of other tribes of Kish. Indeed, thanks to him, everyone, even widows and old people, were now well-fed. Following the female bear, the young bear first became a bear, and then the bear is really huge.
New home
Once a young, but already recognized as the best hunter, declared to the leader that he wanted to build a new spacious house (igloo) for himself and his mother. Having received a formal "good", Kish did not stop there. He knew his worth, and therefore, by right of the chief earner of the tribe, demanded that his fellow tribesmen build a new needle for him. This really made sense, because the hunt demanded complete dedication from the boy, and, being in the village, he had to restore strength. But now his mother, living in the most spacious igloo of the tribe, has become the most respected woman. Her self-esteem rose, women began to consult with her.
Fears of the Eskimos
The story is really mysterious. How to measure the strength of a bear and a teenage boy? The readers of the story are intrigued, and soon D. London tells them the secret (The Legend of Kish). A brief retelling of the work informs us of the secret advice of the hunters. Ug-Gluk continued to insist that the lucky young man used witchcraft and insisted on secretly sending Kish, when he went hunting, spies from the best hunters of the tribe. After a heated debate, they agreed with the old hunter. Skillful hunters Bone and Beam were obliged to look after Kish. They should have followed the boy, but not caught his eye.
A brief retelling of the tale “The Legend of Kish” at this stage should not be limited to a dry statement of the events of the plot, it should sound an assessment of the heroes. The fact is that there is a conflict in this work, but there are no negative characters. In the understanding of the Eskimos, the amazing successes of the boy border on a miracle. No wonder the cautious Ug-Gluk organizes surveillance of Kish. This is consistent with the views of the Eskimos on the outside world. They are convinced that witchcraft is a sin that can bring misfortune to all tribes. It is unacceptable. Convincing in his logic of the narrative Jack London ("The Tale of Kish"). The summary of the story further contains a convincing answer to the boy’s victories over huge bears, testifying to his main asset - his sharp mind.
Unusual hunting Kish. View from the outside
The hunters Bim and Bone really went as spies following the breadwinner of the tribe. They followed him like a shadow, and followed how he defeated a bear. His hunt seemed strange and mysterious to them. Returning to the village, they hastened to tell about what they saw.
From afar, Bim Bone noticed how the bear that met Kish did not pay any attention to him and followed his own path. However, the boy provoked him with loud screams and persecution. The predator rushed after him. Here Kish needed all his agility and quickness. However, the young hunter did not just flee into all the shoulder blades. On the way of the bear, he sometimes threw small light balls, and he immediately ate them during the chase.
But the beast was not destined to overtake the boy. He soon howled in pain. Obviously, these balls turned out to be fatal for him ... The bear weakened before our eyes, falling behind Kish. Soon, he turned back, then his tracks began to get confused ... The weakened giant began to roar in pain and roll helplessly on the ground. Then he was overtaken by Kish's verified fatal blow ...
Instead of a conclusion
The end of the story is somewhat reminiscent of the final scene of Gogol's “The Examiner” - universal amazement. The summary of the story “The Legend of Kish” in detail shows the denouement of the plot.
From the story of Beam and Bone, the Eskimos concluded that they were dealing with a sorcerer.
But soon they had to change their minds. When a crowd of hunters led by the leader broke into Kish's needle, he ate. Welcoming those who entered, he seated the guests according to seniority. Then the leader announced to the boy that he was accused of witchcraft and demanded an explanation.
The summary of the story “The Legend of Kish” originally describes the boy’s response. He clearly showed them his know-how in hunting for a bear. Initially, Kish cut off a piece of whalebone and showed the audience its elasticity and sharpness. Then he took a piece of it and rolled it into a ring. Then the boy put a whalebone in a small earthen hole and filled it with seal grease. The result was a ball, a simple device that first melted in the bear’s esophagus and then hit it.
After this revelation, fellow tribesmen began to respect Kish even more. When his time came, he replaced the head of the Klosh-Kwan tribe. Thanks to his intelligence, justice and wisdom, his fellow tribesmen not only respected him, but also loved him. Hundreds of years later, his name is remembered by subsequent generations of Canadian Eskimos.