Dogsong

Paulsen uses food as a symbol of survival and contentment in the extreme Arctic environment. The hunting, preparation, and eating of meat and fat are described in detail. For example, Oogruk eats the caribou eye by popping it in his mouth and “using his gums to crush it and swallow the juice noisily” (19). Frozen caches of meat are essential to survival in the Arctic, and they are frequently referred to, often descriptively, as in “the meat under one arm like large red pages from a thick book” (24). The frozen meat is symbolic of the Inuit’s successful interaction with nature: The Arctic provides both sustenance and a way for humans to store the sustenance. Paulsen’s descriptions of the food and its consumption evoke feelings of satisfaction and satiation; food is enjoyed in silence and never taken for granted.

The preparation of food also symbolizes the cultural difference between the old Inuit and modern missionary lifestyles. The Inuit traditionally eat their meat raw, but the missionaries arrived and told the Inuit people that they needed to cook meat for food safety. The notion that you must control nature by killing any worms and bugs in the meat rather than living with nature and eating meat as provided by nature underscores the different approaches taken by the two cultures.