As John, Toko, Orvo, and Armol’ travel, John’s flashbacks to his home are especially interesting. Over the course of the trip, as John’s initial suspicion and mistrust of the Chukchi people slowly (emphasis on slowly!) fades down, his images of home continue to return to him. As he faces mortality, in somewhat of a delirium, he mixes images of his Canadian hometown into his present reality in Siberia.

In the first day of the expedition to Anadyr’, John sees “Orvo’s flat smiling face, incredibly similar to the stylized picture of an Eskimo in the National University Museum in Toronto” (32). This connection in his imagination speaks to the utter cultural disconnect in his perception of Orvo. His only previous exposure to these people had been through a token image in a museum. Clearly, seeing such a stylized image of the Eskimo while back in Toronto had no strong impact on John, since he has no sense of respect or even interest in any of the Chukchi people at the beginning of the expedition.

Then, as John sleeps the first night, he hones in on the “blazing fires of maple-leaf fall” of his last autumn as a child at home, playing with his family, “watching squirrels cavort in the branches overhead.” These warm images of home are familiar to our (as in the western readers in our class) conceptions of childhood. While the flashback may have been a very typical afternoon for John, in his current position, traveling in Siberia, he romanticizes the otherwise normal visions of home. This romanticization of home, and nostalgia for the simple past is a theme we have seen multiple times in past readings: Turgenev, as he wrote from abroad in his Notes of a Hunter, Pasternak, reflecting on the nostalgia of the country-side.

(I also wonder if these connected images of his distant home with his reality can be considered an example of estrangement. I’m curious to discuss the concept of estrangement more, to understand whether it applies in this case.)

However, John’s romanticization of home as he finds himself in an unfamiliar place and culture,  contrasts sharply with Olenin’s denunciation of home, while in the Caucasus. As we continue to read this novel, I want to think more about comparing Olenin and John. Of course, the context of the stories are very different. However, both characters find themselves in a completely different culture. I think that while Olenin enters his Caucasus excursion with good intentions, John enters his situation with little intent to respect the Chukchi. And yet, we see that (so far) both Olenin and John are able to gain some level of connection with the locals, yet maintain their difference as outsiders. By the time they are back in Enmyn, Orvo tells John, “we’ve grown fond of you, but you could not bear this life of ours.” I feel that this will be the case for any of the outsiders who enter a different culture, in the works we continue to read going forward.