The soul of a girl
A review of Martin Vopěnka’s A Girl and a Soul: Fairytales from the Mountains
Themes like love, empathy, spirituality, environmentalism, parenting and politics in this book demonstrate an uncommon depth in the relationship between man, his neighbours, and nature.
Sister Death: Death is introduced as a nocturnal sojourner that goes around taking the lives of different creatures. The irony here is that death has a life; she converses with nature, and it feels like she has a conscience. Death only kills creatures that are feeble, in great pain, physical distress, or the aged.
One cannot get to Eternity except through Death and Eternity constantly hovers over Death like a big Sister protecting her sibling. The imagery crafted here is an excellent display of literary and artistic depth - portraying mortality and passage into life after death.
The Crazy Intruder: This story highlights the politics between domestic animals and animals that live in the wild. As the subjects of a story in African folklore, animals are perceived as inhabitants of their own kingdom and there is little or no reference to mankind as the progenitor of another system where animals live in harmony with them.
An interesting argument ensues when a homebred dog gets lost and upsets the tranquility of the mountains. This evokes a plethora of reactions from the various inhabitants of the mountains. It is amazing how in all the political show of power and quest for supremacy that goes on between the wild animals and the homebred dog, the wild animals help lead the dog to his human family after he declares that he would not be able to live without his human family as seen on p. 23; “Hunt?” Benny was puzzled. “I don’t know anything about that. I need people. They feed me.”
This speaks to the situation between classes of people on the opposite sides of life, entertaining various differences. However, only respect, love, empathy and kindness are the constants that guarantee the progress of man in a healthy equilibrium.
Mice: There is a relationship between humans - hikers and some mice. The mice depend on the remains and droppings from the food supplies the hikers bring to the mountain. If the hikers for any reason did not ‘turn up’, famine would fall on the mice and they would not have their usual feast. While these hikers were asleep, the mice began to cart away the food but an intruder, a rock marten gets away with the most prized food - salami.
This chapter ends on a comical note. The hikers assume that the mice ate the salami. The mice regret they didn’t. “It’s sad. They’re calling us names for something we didn’t do. God, if you are in heaven, give us a chance to right this wrong. Make sure that next time it really will be us who eat that salami”. (P. 35).
The Raven Tells of A Soul And A Girl: Father Raven, a very deep character, blessed with sufficient antiquity and wisdom to assume a certain level of omniscience in the book. His mind serves as a processor for the author to distil the morals from the story.
Raven is first exposed as undergoing intense worry about what would become of his life and that of his children when they set out into the world to establish their own families. As on p. 38; “At long last July brought a few summer days even to the mountains. “…Yet July was bringing Father Raven more melancholy thoughts than joy.”
He regretted avoiding his parents when he left home. We see the danger of neglecting love, togetherness in exchange for the pursuit of wealth. Most times, in the pursuit of wealth, happiness is lost. Individually, the reviewers took a break from reviewing at this point and simply called their parents.
The Raven And The Imprisoned Memory: We see a man who betrayed his lover, Susana. John wanted to explore his wild youth while disregarding Susana’s feelings. Now married with children, he finds himself empty and very unhappy.
The struggle between John and the memory of Susanna is evident on page 61. Susanna who had died, was now a memory in John’s mind. “… Susanna… you are Susanna, aren’t you?” “No, John, I am not Susanna,” her voice answered, “I am only a memory that oppresses you.” (P. 61). This story shows that our mind follow us everywhere we go. Vopěnka tries to show his readers that freedom and captivity are all in space and time and they come to us according to how we have lived our lives.
The Last Wolf: The wolf is the last because man killed all of his type. This piece averts the reader’s mind to the philosophy of environmentalism and wildlife conservation.
This chapter seems to create the awareness that in Czech tradition, animals that are carnivores have an ethical code that guides how they hunt. The moon calls the wolf to order in this regards as the wolf in an intriguing twist makes it clear that the moon is only saintly because she was not immersed in the harsh realities of being here on earth.
It is an analogy eulogizing the argument that those that judge do so because they do not inquire into the social causes of deviant behaviours, and thus lack empathy - “You see everything, but you are far away from it. “You don’t have to touch it. If I was in your place, I would be saintly too.” (pp. 74)
The Bear Who Lost His Own Self: This tragic tale is an analogy for a drug addict who defies the love and intervention of his friends and steers himself to his demise. Typical of most stories about addiction, there is the background tale of a turbulent childhood, rejection and intense loneliness. The loneliness is so acute that Growler finds it difficult and indeed, fails to accept the affection of the new bear-friends he finds in the future. This marks a downhill turn in his life and he dies not directly from his addiction but from the effect of it which renders him susceptible to great danger.
The co-reviewers of this piece interestingly found themselves present in most of the stories. This book is therapeutic, informative, entertaining, educative, and, a travel guide, showing some history and some beauty of the Czech Republic. As a very interesting read, it is highly recommended for both the old and the young alike.