The Great Salt Lake Analysis

It seems to me that Refuge is more than anything else, about confronting death. In the very beginning of the book the author says “most of the women in my family are dead. Cancer. At thirty-four, I became the matriarch of my family. The losses I encountered at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge as Great Salt Lake was rising helped me to face the losses within my family. (pp. 3-4). The book tells of the time before the death of the author’s, Terry William’s mother who was struggling with cancer. It also tells her story of the flooding of the Great Salt Lake, which coincided with that time, focusing in especially on its effects on the birds of the region. Together these stories intertwine, and we see a clear picture of the effects of death and disaster, and the steps one takes to accept them.
Many times, in the book, the author is confronted with dead birds. During her childhood, the author spent much time with her grandmother out bird watching and while her mother was less involved in this, it is that the author very much connects birds with her family. We see the result of this connection when we see her encounter a dead whistling swan, “I knelt beside the bird, took off my deerskin gloves, and began smoothing feathers. Its body was still limp— the swan had not been dead long. I lifted both wings out from under its belly and spread them on the sand. Untangling the long neck which was wrapped around itself was more difficult, but finally I was able to straighten it, resting the swan’s chin flat against the shore”. (p. 121). The author and her family lived their entire lives at the Great Salt Lake. It seems to me that if the author felt such respect for a single swan, then how she felt for the area must have also been quite a powerful feeling