The Relationship between Human Beings and Nature

This is the narrative's primary thematic concern, embedded in both the plot and the journeys/experiences of the characters. It shows up primarily in the story of Omakayas, and there in several ways. In the first part of the book, she spends time with, and learns from, her grandmother, a powerful and respected healer who is clearly and consistently portrayed as having insight into nature and its ways that many others don't. Omakayas then has several experiences in which she develops her own insights - her encounters with the bears, her friendship with Andeg the crow, her experience of "communicating" with the same herbs that her grandmother is able to communicate with. By the end of the narrative, Omakayas comes to a more enlightened understanding of both nature and her place in it, and of one aspect of nature in particular -...