93 pages • 3 hours read
Waubgeshig RiceMoon of the Crusted Snow
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more. For select classroom titles, we also provide Teaching Guides with discussion and quiz questions to prompt student engagement.
Essay Topics
The crusted snow is a symbol that appears several times throughout the novel. Examine the instances where it is mentioned. What is the significance of this symbol? How do the characters who encounter it interpret the crusted snow?
Generational trauma due to years of colonization and cultural erasure has left deep scars in the First Nation community in the novel. How do these shared traumas affect the lives of the main characters? How has their society responded and/or adapted to them?
Dan, Evan, and Nicole all have seemingly prophetic dreams throughout the novel. What is the significance of these dreams? To what extent do they come true?
Aileen Jones is the most prominent elder in Moon of the Crusted Snow. Examine her role in her community. What is the importance of such an elder to the younger generations she interacts with?
Examine Justin Scott as the novel’s antagonist. How does he come into power in the community? What critique does Rice use Scott to make about the relations between First Nations and white society?
What is the “apocalypse” in Moon of the Crusted Snow? What factors make it affect society differently in cities like Gibson and Toronto than on the reservation?
Nicole McCloud and other women in Moon of the Crusted Snow play a largely supportive role throughout the novel. However, their contributions to daily life are essential to survival in the northern winters. What roles do women play in the novel? What do these roles signify about the community’s social structure?
Moon of the Crusted Snow depicts different modes of leadership in times of crisis. Examine these models of leadership. What works? What does not? What factors make one mode of leadership more effective than another?
Chapter 25 contains an extended section in which Dan tells his grandchildren a story about the trickster figure Nanabush. What is the importance of this story? How does storytelling figure into the lives of the characters in Moon of the Crusted Snow?
Moon of the Crusted Snow ends with the bittersweet scene of Nicole leaving behind the home she and Evan worked so hard to create. To what extent can the ending be read as hopeful? What evidence is there that they will reestablish their community?
