Medicine Walk Themes

Medicine Walk is the story of 16-year-old Franklin Starlight’s journey to get to know his dying father. All his life, Frank (usually called “the kid” in the novel) has been raised by “the old man,” Bunky, who teaches him farming, love of the land, and how to be a good person. The kid only visits his biological father, Eldon Starlight, a handful of times, typically finding him drunk and unable to…

In the novel, the land of backwoods British Columbia is practically a character itself. Besides the old man, the land is the kid’s closest companion and the place where he is most himself. He describes the open land as “real,” a place where a person is free from artificial structures like school and can learn to truly “see”—whether by tracking an animal for hours through the forest or simply learning the rhythms of…

Medicine Walk takes place on multiple timelines. The primary one is the kid’s journey through the wilderness with his dying father, Eldon. Alongside this journey, the kid (Frank) recalls episodes from his childhood relationship with his father, and, most significantly, the father tells stories of his life. The father’s stories are all Eldon has to pass down to the kid before he dies, and they’re all the kid has of his mother, Angie…

All of the novel’s main characters are burdened with heavy losses that they respond to in various ways. Among Eldon Starlight’s many losses, he is estranged from his mother, his best friend was killed in the Korean War, and the love of his life, Angie, dies in childbirth because of Eldon’s own negligence. He copes with the grief of these losses by drinking. In contrast, the old man (Bunky) copes with losing…