First-Year Reading Experience – 2006
Essay Contest
The University of Montana sponsors an essay contest as part of the First-year Reading Experience for entering students. This year, students were required to read Seth Kantner ’s book, Ordinary Wolves , and submit a 500- to 1000-word essay. Three prizes were given and excerpts from the essays are posted below.
First Prize: “A Million Miles Away” by Emily Lund
His first true encounters with city life, crowds, and shocking anonymity sweep him into a state of bewilderment and unanticipated alienation. In Takunak, he was in a distinct ethnic minority, but his sense of understanding was nearly level with that of a native. He knew the stories and the gossip and who lived where and who drank what. He was a perpetual outsider who was nevertheless rich in insiders' knowledge. In the city, the situation almost reverses itself. While he blends in on the outside, Cutuk has been transplanted to hitherto unseen society about which he knows nothing. The whites in Anchorage may not speak Inupiaq, but they use a whole other language, which he can only attempt to grasp. This strange tongue overflows with conventions and expressions as foreign to Cutuk as any Inupiaq phrase. Even though he stumbles his way through this bizarre new universe, gaining some nice, if somewhat sketchy, friends and a girlfriend in the process, the young Hawcly fails to truly connect with the society his father left and his mother returned to, a society that, if race equaled belonging, would truly be his.
Second Prize: “Wolves Will Survive” by Willa Fouts
Cutuk decides to go for the country life, but how is it possible to do the same and still manage to get an education and contribute to society? How can one find a balance between enjoying nature and modern technology? It confounds me. Here I am: typing on a laptop under an electric light, in the middle of a city with a grocery store across the way and a toilet that flushes too much water down the drain in the next room. How can one integrate this with hunting and growing one's own food and living without unnecessary commodities? This problem perplexes more than just myself, and it is up to all people to compromise and work together to find ways to blend different ways of life in a way that is beneficial to both the land and the people.Although I have seen old-timers' ways being tossed aside, I have yet to have witnessed the partial destruction of an entire culture, as with the natives in Ordinary Wolves. The TV, drugs, snow machines, and GPS systems cut the bonds that held their community together. There is no going back now, but there must be a way to compromise between the old and the new. This compromise in my life is what I am after, and yet, the most imminent question the book left on my mind is "how can I be a wolf?" Cutuk thinks himself a wolf when he returns to the old ways. He is being faithful to the land, but not the people. How can he be a wolf if he abandons his pack? Perhaps he is going in the more honorable and desirable direction, but he is not helping those who suffer or who are ignorant to change their ways. His is a lifestyle that is doomed to be destroyed if people do not act to preserve the wild lands and older cultures. Are wolves capable of compromising between the pack and the land; the old and the new? Or will they be lost forever?
Third Prize: "Role Models and Independent Leadership" by Vera Jones
Cutuk's inner leader emerges when he disposes of Enuk's bear figurine. This figurine symbolizes Cutuk's dependency upon and obsession with an unattainable Eskimo identity. Cutuk liberates himself from the shackles of this obsession by destroying the object that symbolizes it. "On the street I pushed my hand into my pocket and touched Enuk's bear. [.] 'Let go when I tell you,' I told my hand. [.] No raven flew overhead, no gust of wind in the trees. The planet turned east as I walked west," (Kantner 236). When Cutuk throws the figurine into the ditch, he metaphorically throws away his irrational dream of becoming Eskimo and adopts the goal of becoming himself. This newfound control over his own life is indicated by the verbal command he gives his hand and by the imagery Kantner implements to describe the scene. "The planet turned east as I walked west" demonstrates that Cutuk is no longer a puppet of his surroundings and that he can find his own way in the world. Cutuk's newfound independence from Enuk emerges near the conclusion of the novel: "'Well, Enuk,' I pressed the gold against my lips. It was cold and stank of porcupine. My stiff cheeks lifted in a smile. 'I missed you for a while there. I didn't know how to be alone,'" (319). Now that Cutuk has discovered and embraced his true identity, he finds comfort in his solitude and in his positive memories of Enuk whose example no longer haunts him.
Essay Contest Guidelines:
We invite all incoming first-year students to participate in The University of Montana 2006 First-Year Reading Experience Essay Contest.
Submit an essay about your reactions to Ordinary Wolves. The form of the essay is open. For example, it could be a personal reflection or a critical review of the book.
- The contest is open to all first-year students enrolled for the first time at The University of Montana—Missoula, beginning in Fall 2006.
- The essay should be from 500 to 1000 words in length.
- The student’s name should not appear on the essay. Attach a separate page with name and contact information.
Submission options:
Electronically as an email attachment (Word document) to arlene.walker-andrews@umontana.edu. Please type “First-Year Reading Experience Essay” in the message subject line.
OR
As a paper copy, accompanied by an electronic version saved to a clearly labeled disk. Mail these items, together with contact information, to:
Office of the Provost
University Hall 126
The University of Montana
Missoula, MT 59812-3344
- Entries must be received by October 7, 2006. You will receive a confirmation email from Dr. Arlene Walker-Andrews, indicating that your essay has been received. If you do not receive a message from Dr. Arlene Walker-Andrews, please email her at arlene.walker-andrews@umontana.edu.
- The essays will be judged by a committee of faculty, staff, and students.
- The winners will be notified by mail, phone, or email by October 15, 2006.
- There will be three place awards: First Place, $400; Second, $200; Third, $100. The winning essays will be published on the First-Year Reading Experience Website.
Contact the First-Year
Experience Committee
Webpages: Samantha Hines, Social Sciences Librarian
Last updated: 6 Nov. 2006