Windigo Analysis

This poem, written in free verse, more closely resembles the Native American tradition of oral storytelling, rather than a more structured, conventional poetic style. Though the poem is unrhymed an...

The speaker, as we can infer from the poem's first line, is the Windigo. The poem is told in the second person, the Windigo speaking in the "you" voice to the young child. Essential to note, howeve...

From what we know about Erdrich, the Windigo legend, and the physical descriptions of the landscape brimming with nature imagery, we can assume that the physical setting is a rural Native American...

Erdrich draws upon an extensive oral tradition in her writing, and with "Windigo," she adapts an ancient storytelling style—which relies on spoken performance—for a modern literary context. In...

In the case of "Windigo," the title is essential to dissecting the poem's meaning. Imagine, for a second, reading the poem without knowing its title. Who's doing the speaking here? And why does it...

The Windigo figure seems to be a favorite of Erdrich's, as it appears in several of her novels including Tracks and The Antelope Wife. "Windigo," however is Erdrich's first published work to f...

We're into the woods now. The form of this poem, at least, is straightforward enough. There are a few words here that might require a dictionary ("hackles"), and geographically specific terms ("sum...

In addition to her status as an award-winning author, Louise Erdrich owns Birchbark Books, an independent bookstore in Minneapolis dedicated entirely to Native American literature and art. (Source....

There is a certain tension implied in "Windigo" concerning the relationship between the beast and the child. At times it seems more sensual than violent (check out our "Detailed Summary" for more o...

"Windigo" (entire poem): This is a shout out not to a specific text, but rather to an entire oral history. As we know, the Windigo figure has appeared in countless Anishinaabe tales dating back hun...