What is it that determines what a person is to become? Is it our genetic makeup or is it our environment - the sum of our experiences that brings our personalities upon us? In the short, loosely autobiographical story; `The Half-husky' the author; Margaret Lawrence, gives her day on this. Harvey's attitude and personality correspond with his environment; Vanessa's attitude is in tandem with her environment, and Nanuk has both a loving and a savage side. Is this simply his nature or is it the sum or his experiences? Margaret Laurence is suggesting that it is our experiences - the environment we live in - that determine what we are to become.

There is almost a direst correlation between Harvey and the environment in which he spent most of his life, more importantly the early years of his life, the developing years. Harvey is described as "lethargic" and...