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Jimenez
Tomas Jimenez

Professor Krista-Collier Jarvis

English 1040

23 May 2022

Animals: The Higher, Wiser Power

The comics collection Moonshot portrays the importance of animalism to Indigenous

culture through crucial animal characters such as the dog and wolves that teach life lessons and

repay those who are respectful to nature. In The Qallupiluk: Forgiven, the dog teaches the

Qallupiluk the importance and strength of forgiveness, when the Qallupiluk is defeated by the

Angakkuq and he receives a generous treatment, instead of the severe punishment he expected,

“You … who use ‘sin’ as an excuse to commit evil, now claim to understand the workings of

forgiveness? The Deep Mother was a girl once, and understands more of human ways that you

might guess. This is your punishment, Qallupiluk: to have what you have denied others”

(Qitsualik-Tinsley et al. 63. The Qallupiluk, a dark, sinful being assumes he will be treated as he

has treated his victims, possibly because he himself isn’t able to forgive his own actions but, the

dog wants to show that through punishment there is learning and reflection and the best way to

teach the Qallupiluk forgiveness, something he believes is insignificant, is by having him

experience its power. The wolves in the comic First Hunt signify how nature repays those who

treat it with respect when the young hunter spares the baby dear’s life and they help Esiban’s

hunt be successful “Did they cause his attention to slip? Or were these wolves just that quiet?”

(Odjick and Odjick 144). By sparing a baby deer’s life (killing it would have been taboo), Esiban

proves his honor as a hunter and his respect for nature earning the wolves’ guidance to the big

buck (Odjick and Odjick 143) and their help in distracting it to allow for an easy shot (Odjick
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and Odjick 144). The comics discuss the importance of animalism: the idea that spirits inhabit all

life and can control both the natural and supernatural, something modern society doesn’t follow

anymore but is crucial in indigenous culture as it teaches humans to be forgiving and selfless and

rewards them for swallowing their pride for nature instead of succumbing to greed at the cost of

a life.
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Works Cited

Odjick, Jay, and Joel Odjick. “Title of the comic.” Moonshot, edited by Hope Nicholson, vol.

1, no. 1, Alternate History Comics Inc, 2015, pp. 139-145.

Qitsualik-Tinsley, Rachel et al. “The Qallupiluk: Forgiven.” Moonshot, edited by Hope

Nicholson, vol. 1, no. 1, Alternate History Comics Inc, 2015, pp. 47-63.