KISS of the fur Queen

I have to say that I had mixed feelings about Tomson Highway's "Kiss of the Fur Queen". On top of everything, it was very well written and very complex but simple enough for most to understand what the writer was trying to get us to take away from reading it. It was very interesting to find out that this novel was written based on a true story.

Born into a magical Cree world in snowy northern Manitoba in Canda, Champion and Ooneemeetoo Okimasis are all too soon torn from their family and thrust into the hostile world of a Catholic residential school. Their language is forbidden, their names are changed to Jeremiah and Gabriel, and both boys are abused by priests. As young boys, estranged from their own people and alienated from the culture imposed upon them, the Okimasis brothers fight to survive. Wherever they go, the Fur Queen--a wily, shape-shifting trickster--watches over them with a protective eye. For Jeremiah and Gabriel are destined to be artists. Through music and dance they soar.

To me ,the novel has so many connotation that for a long time after reading,I can not stop speculating. Tomson Highway ties an immense amount of topics into one text.But in my opinion ,the abuse which the brothers suffered at the Res School is the most important image of the novel.The issues of abuse are so important to the characters and the novel as a whole. It’s a rare book that takes something as horrifying and disturbing as abuse and makes it vital to the book—so vital that without it, the story would not only suffer but wouldn’t be there.

First, the experience of abuse have serious affects on both of the boys spirituality and sexuality.The boys may not pursue music and dance to the degree they did without the abuse they endure, especially Gabriel. The Okimasis brothers are repeatedly molested by Father LaFleur in some of the book's most painful and powerfully disturbing scenes. Gabriel, who is repeatedly associated with Jesus Christ, is a virtual sex pot, for which he is none-too-coincidentally "sacrificed" for in the end. For example, his sexual encounters with Greg are verbally reminiscent of his abuse from the priest. Jeremiah, a chronic denier of all things that require emotional involvement (ancestry, culture, admitting the truth of his past) becomes completely sexually cold, and the only moments in the book in which he seems truly aroused involve violence and young children.