Ducks: Two Years in the Oil Sands

“This push and pull defines us. It’s all over our music, our literature, our art, and our understanding of our place in the world.

To ‘have-not’ is a mental state as well as an economic one.”

As Katie introduces her home region of Cape Breton, she describes how ingrained transience has become to her people. They have been economically underprivileged for so long that it becomes natural to seek work elsewhere. Nonetheless, they retain a strong connection to their home, represented through Katie’s use of the first-person plural here (“us,” “our”).

“I learn that I can have opportunity or I can have home. I cannot have both, and either will always hurt.”

While Katie has a strong bond with her hometown of Mabou, she knows she can’t stay. Though she is taught this from childhood, it is still difficult to face this choice as an adult. Katie presents this as a simple fact rather than something up for debate, representing the class dynamics at play here. Richer people will always have more choices while working-class people have fewer.

“‘Dad! I can’t go to some stranger’s home for Thanksgiving! […] Well but what if they’re just being nice?’

‘I think, my daughter, that is the point.’”

This quote addresses The Value of Home and Camaraderie. Katie is invited to spend the holiday with family friends, which is their way of looking after their own. Katie’s idea of home and family expands in this instance; whereas it used to mean being with her immediate relatives (and she is therefore uncomfortable spending Thanksgiving with another family), it now includes friends.