Owls in the Family

In accordance with Farley Mowat’s focus on environmental factors, the novel opens by juxtaposing the icy imagery of winter with the new life of spring, emphasizing Billy and his friends’ connection to the natural world around them. Billy’s notes that despite the snowdrifts along the river, “we felt another breath, a gentle one, blowing from the distant wheat fields and smelling like warm sun shining on soft mud” (1). Thus, Billy’s eager descriptions conjure up an image of spring, implying that the chapters ahead will be full of new beginnings just as the new season brings a fresh start to the world. In the wide, wild lands beyond the city, the boys embrace the new season and set out to achieve their goal of finding a baby owl and taking in the splendor of their surroundings, and this dynamic of returning to the wilder world will continue throughout the novel. Not only do the prairies offer adventure, but they also allow the boys to gain a closer connection to the animals, such as gophers, jackrabbits, crows, and magpies. To emphasize and celebrate the boys’ intimate knowledge of their surroundings, Mowat employs a variety of similes when describing the landscape, emphasizing both Billy’s familiarity with the nuances of the land and his necessarily childish perception of it. For example, he describes the myriad of gopher burrows as being “so thick, sometimes, [that] it looked as if the fields had yellow measles” (1). Billy’s deep love of the rural Canadian prairie is conveyed in how he describes it, for in his quest to get owls as pets, he notes that every spring makes him wish that “school had never been invented” (19). The season represents the most exciting time of the year, when new life is being born on the prairies, and Billy longs to be out there surrounded by it. Mowat’s use of vivid imagery thus conveys Billy’s intimate relationship with nature.

Mowat’s tendency to anthropomorphize the animals of the story takes shape quite early in the narrative and is frequently demonstrated on the boys’ foray into the prairie in search of owls’ nests. For example, upon being attacked by a crow, Bruce addresses the crow directly as though it can understand his words; he even goes so far as to threaten to steal the crows’ young, assuming that the crow will make the connection between its current actions and the retribution it will face. Despite this whimsically adversarial stance, he treats the bird as a being with faculties and emotions equal to his own, not as a lesser animal, and thus he and his friends display a close relationship to nature even though their actions often disrupt the peace that surrounds them. Similarly, when Billy feeds the gopher a crust of his lunch, Bruce says, “Got no sense [...] You might have been a coyote,” to which Billy replies, “He’s got more sense than you. Do I look like a coyote?” (5). The boys simply assume that the gopher has the same ability that they do to draw these types of conclusions. Additionally, Billy notes that the gopher didn’t respond, as though the gopher would be a verbal participant in this scene. Such exchanges demonstrate that the boys regard the animals as near-equals. Their connection with nature is also shown in the compassion they feel for the young owls that died in the storm, for not only do they hold an impromptu funeral for the lost lives, but they also strive to take care of the surviving owl, offering him food and warmth rather than just snatching him up. Billy is also knowledgeable enough to understand that Wol most likely survived the storm because he was the biggest (and therefore the oldest) owl of the three, and he also demonstrates a wealth of knowledge on what to feed the owl and how to help it survive.

Additionally, Billy makes a clear distinction between an animal that is a pet and an animal that is a member of the family, for while all the wild animals are pets, only Mutt, his dog, is family. While this distinction does not excuse his sometimes callous behavior toward certain animals, it does help to explain his relative indifference to the distress he inflicts upon the ones he designates as “pets.” His descriptions of catching gophers by yanking twine around their necks and keeping his snakes in a cardboard box under the back porch imply that his pets are more akin to belongings than to companions to him, like Mutt.

With the arrival of the owls, it soon becomes clear that Mutt will not be the only animal “family” by the time the story has concluded. Wol’s tendency to cause chaos does not faze Billy, who often makes excuses for Wol and avoids placing any blame on the owl, just as he would protect an errant younger brother. According to Billy, the incident with the gophers occurs merely because Wol is lonely and too young to know anything about gophers. Similarly, it’s not Wol’s fault that Offy leaves, as she is “an odd sort of girl” anyway (29). Even Billy’s father, who is upset at the maid’s departure, does not stay angry at Wol for long. Billy shows a tenderness toward the owl that he does not always show his other “pets,” placing Wol in the position of a family member.

While Billy does not blame Wol for any of the mischief that the owl inadvertently causes, he does tend to attribute a range of human emotions to his feathered companion. In Billy’s eyes, the owl is “lonely” in the new cage and “nervous” of the pigeons that Billy hopes will help cure his loneliness. This personification of the owl renders him a more sympathetic character than he would be otherwise. Without such a sensitive characterization, his natural tendency to harass the gophers, who are his natural prey, might be construed as malicious, but when the owl is known to be lonely, chasing the gophers can seem like mere curiosity and desire for friendship. Whether or not such a perception of the owl’s actions is realistic, this trend nonetheless plays a central role in developing the animals around Billy as characters in their own right: They are individuals with wants, needs, and even ambitions for causing mischief similar to that of the boys themselves. Thus, it comes as no surprise when Wol is observed to act protectively toward his newfound “little brother,” Weeps. When Billy attempts to feed the owl, he notes that Wol hisses at him “as if he were saying: ‘You leave that bird alone, or you’ll have me to deal with!’” (33). Again, Billy attributes human thoughts and emotions to the owl, making the bird a more sympathetic and relatable character in the larger context of the story.

This anthropomorphizing also has a dark side. In a sharp and often paradoxical contrast to their sensitivity for animals, Billy and his friends often behave remarkably cruelly to certain animals when it suits them. For example, Bruce climbs the trees to steal the crow’s eggs simply to punish the crow for its naturally defensive behavior. He mentions no need for the eggs nor the desire to do anything productive with them. In this case, his actions are motivated by a desire to seek retribution against a creature without similar moral agency. Additionally, the boys’ stated purpose of keeping wild owls as pets is problematic in and of itself, especially from an environmental perspective. In order to achieve this dubious goal, they must remove the birds from their nests while they are still too young to be capable of fending for themselves. The boys do not consider what impact their actions will have on either the young owls or the adult birds who are their parents. Similarly, Billy’s indifference to the news that Weep’s family was shot by a .22 rifle betrays a fundamental indifference to the general issue of human interference in animals’ natural lives, despite his laudable action in saving Weeps from further harm. He also has no response when he hears that Weeps was going to be used as a toy for the boy’s dog. This information is conveyed matter-of-factly, as though it is just a part of life in rural Canada and is not worth further comment.

Although the boys continue to demonstrate a rather ambiguous relationship to the animals that share their world, they also display a strong sense of determination when it comes to pursing their stated goals, and this attribute rings true throughout their many adventures in the story. Even in the novel’s initial chapters, the boys show tenacity: In their attempts to locate and acquire a young owl, they encounter many obstacles and work together to brainstorm creative solutions. Thus, although they themselves are unable to obtain owls from the nest, they contrive to enlist the help of their teacher, and whenever a new deterrent to their plan arises, they work together to find a solution. This continued determination surfaces again and again as the story progresses, and although the boys sometimes lag in their efforts temporarily, they generally work hard toward their goals, knowing that the end result will be worth the trouble.