Notes for Motorcycles and Sweetgrass



Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Chapter Two

Who is the man we meet in Chapter Two? What do we know about him? Look over the description of him on pages 19-21.

On pages 23 the old man suddenly feels that he is being called to the far north where he once roamed (23). He may suspect that he is being called by that face that had once stopped him from “wandering the country, and by that the body that had made him forget all the others (at the time anyway) and that smile that had made him hold his breadth” (22).

If he is the young man from the prelude and if she is the young woman from the river, does this information lead us to suspect that they had consummated their relationship sexually? What are your thoughts?

Chapter Three

Look over page 32. The black-clad rider favours a crow (as in raven) on the reserve with a few words in Crow: “I’m back” (32). What inferences can you draw from the dialogue?

Who is Maggie? What do we learn about her in this chapter? (35)

Maggie speaks with her mother in Anishnawbe, “but with not the same command” (39).

What inference can we make based on their use of Anishnawbe?

Chapter Four

“What about all that residential school stuff? What about Sammy Aandeg? Look at what the Bible did to him”

“No, the Bible didn’t do that. Men did. Don’t confuse the two” (41).

What is significant about these quotes?

On the subject of magic, Lillian tells Maggie that she wouldn’t understand because it is an Anishnawbe thing. Maggie replies that she is Anishnawbe, and her mother says, “No, child, you’re what they call nowadays a First Nations. They don’t necessarily mean the same thing” (45). What does she mean? Why is this important? What theme is revealed in this quote?

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