Bring on the tough stuff - there’s not just one right answer.
- Why do you think Erdrich wrote the poem from the perspective of the Windigo? How might the story be different if it was told by a third person narrator?
- How does our knowledge of the Windigo, as communicated to us by Erdrich in the epigraph, shape our interpretation of the poem? What might be lost if the poem lacked a title or the introduction?
- What do you think of the poem's ambiguous ending? Is it effective? Why or why not?
- Do you think the child survives? What evidence do we have that might give us a clue?
- How does Erdrich's telling of the Windigo story parallel (or deviate) from the one she mentions in the epigraph, with the girl and the hot lard?