Two Old Women is probably the most enjoyable book in this class to date, in my personal opinion. It is a sweet little fable about two elderly women from an Alaskan tribe who, abandoned for the winter, must manage to survive on their own. Two Old Women is supposedly an ancient Alaskan story passed down through the generations via oral tradition. One thing that struck me about this story was that I could not think of any parallel fables coming from Anglo-American or European lore. It is not uncommon to find similar stories or myths produced by discreet cultures that had never met. It is certainly possible that there is a parallel story originating somewhere, but I could not think of one.
Another aspect of the story that I found delightful was how morally grey it was. Though it could certainly be classified as a morality tale, there is no absolute right or wrong and there are no “good guys” and “bad guys.” In abandoning the women, members of the tribe knew that they were doing something unethical, and yet they were still acting within the constraints of a defined moral code; they believed that they needed to sacrifice the two women for the good of the whole tribe. The women, on the other hand, brought their abandonment upon themselves in some ways by complaining and not working as hard as they perhaps should have. As a result of the tribe’s actions, both parties suffer, but when they meet up again in the end, everyone is stronger and wiser because of it.
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