Woodsong by Gary Paulsen

Paulsen with his team.

Woodsong is Gary Paulsen's biographical collection of memories with his beloved sled dogs in the wildness and beauty of nature. The story opens with one of the book's themes, blood. Paulsen is a young man and a beginning trapper when the story unfolds, caught amidst the brutality of nature. With one his first teams of dogs, he witnesses a doe being eaten alive by several wolves. This experience serves as a eye opening experience for Paulsen, who has never witnessed such barbaric lust for blood. Such an ignorance towards the natural world is the foundation upon which Paulsen documents further experiences in the woods. A native of Minnesota, Paulsen turns to beaver trapping with sled dogs as a means to pay the bills. His career path shifts, however, when he realizes that all living creatures contain certain characteristics that humans can identify with, rather than just the dogs that he works with. Paulsen then decides to defer from the trapping and killing of game, but continues to ride with his dogs. The story includes many dogs with distinct personalities. After being brutally injured by a tree branch, his dogs recognize the loss of their master and turn around to assist him. One licks Paulsen's wound just as they would tend to their own. The relationships between Paulsen and his team only flourish as the book continues. His sled dogs teach him to further understand the working nature of dogs, meditate on the meaning of life, and comprehend death. At the end of the story, Paulsen writes of his journey in the Iditarod dog race challenge. The meaning of competition takes on a whole new form as Paulsen writes of this experience, detailing the true nature of his relationships with his dogs. At the close of the race, Paulsen wishes to turn around and continue his journey alone with his dogs in a "primitive" state of being. His wife and best friend beckons him to the finish line, without whom Paulsen may never have returned.

Being a dog owner and lover is not necessarily a prerequisite for enjoying this book, but I would be lying if I wrote that it didn't help. My one year old Jack Russell Terrier and Pug mix (Guy) was by my side as I read the majority of this book. In the opening chapters of Paulsen's accounts, he recognizes a disconnect from his preconceived notions of dogs with their actual behavior. One grueling journey, Paulsen writes, provided this awakening. A dog in his team began to bleed from his rear. Fearing death, Paulsen pulled him from the team and placed him in the sled. Surely disliking this action, the dog pulled at Paulsen and begged to be rereleased to the team, even if it meant he would lose his life. This passion and devotion for work was misunderstood by Paulsen who projected his human emotions onto the animal. Paulsen failed to realize that the drive to work is inherit in the dog's personality - that even when facing death the dog will work until he is left with nothing. Projecting human emotions on to the natural world is completely expected when one treats an animal like a truly domesticated animal. Even my small dog resembles the character of a wolf during play at times. His tendencies are not as pronounced or aggressive as the breed of dog that Paulsen works with, yet it is still unwise to attribute too much human emotion to any animal that would be just find without our intervention. The loss of one particular dog in the book left me completely emptied of emotions after crying for some time! Woodsong examines the relationship of man to all of nature. Paulsen's interpretations of nature inform his decision to cease killing beavers, love his dogs, and become an aware adventurer. The ending of the book provides a seamless close to the core narrative of the text by suggesting that Paulsen does not at all identify with the concept of overbearing competitiveness. During the running of the Iditarod, Paulsen describes his experiences by using the same descriptive language that served to project the earlier story. The race portion of the book does not take the reader into a completely new terrain, but rather reinforces the true bonds between man and nature. I enjoyed this book whole-heartedly and would recommend it to anyone who has taken notice of the stillness of the outdoors. The events that Paulsen writes of are intended for mature audiences who can digest some of the violent but truthful realities of nature. Taken out of order, Woodsong provides a well documented narrative of visceral experience with the outdoors. Read as a complete work, Paulsen orchestrates a symphony from the still, cold, and quiet identity of the woods.

Before I provide a link containing a possible extension to this text, I MUST attach a photograph of my little sled dog. He is my teammate and best friend.

Guy leMonde

And now, for more information on the grueling events that entail the Iditarod race in Alaska....
http://www.iditarod.com/