The loons in the story " The loons", symbolizes the Piquette.

Throughout the story the author uses the powerful tool of symbolism to help us better understand the characteristics of the Piquette. The author in this story has used the loons as a metaphor in order to depict the Piquettes environment and the society in which she lives. By building a connation between the loons and the Piquette we can certainly better understand the meaning of this story. The imagery of the loons in Margaret Laurence's short story creates a connation between these disappearing creatures and Piquettae's character. Piquette's family, the Tonneres, build their shacks on the edge of town, much in the way the loons build their nests up shore and away from people. Piquette remains distant and often unnoticed, especially by Vanessa. "She dwells and moves somewhere within Vanessa's scope of vision, but Vanessa did not actually notice her very much. When Vanessa arrives at the cabin, she only notices Piquette after she is finished looking around. Later, when her father dies, Vanessa becomes so absorbed in her own pain that she hardly notices that Piquette stops going to school. The loons also go unnoticed as well, except at night when they begin to sing. Piquette also has a chance to be seen and heard like the loons when she speaks to Vanessa about her new boyfriend. For a brief moment, Vanessa sees Piquette. She can see that Piquette's "defiant face, momentarily, becomes unguarded and unmasked, and in her eyes there is a terrifying hope". Piquette is able to step out of the shadows and reveal her true self like the loons reveal themselves on the surface of the water at night. The loons and Piquette are both seen by Vanessa as special beings with deep connections with nature. She thinks that "Piquette must be in some way a daughter of the forest, a kind of junior prophetess of the wilds". Vanessa believes that Piquette holds certain secrets of nature that Indians must inherently know because they have been a part of nature for so long. The loons are viewed by Vanessa as ancient creatures, like the Indians. Her father remarks that loons must have sounded the same before any people came to the lake. He also says "you could say the same, of course, about sparrows or chipmunks, but somehow it only strikes you that way with the loons". By the same token, Piquette is really the same as any other person, but Indians strike Vanessa as being older, more magical race. It is difficult for Vanessa to feel any connection with Piquette because she remains so distant from her for the majority of the time they spend together. Vanessa admits that she does not want to see her and does not know what to say to her. "It seems that they had nothing to say to one another". As humans take over the lake, there is this same loss of connection between humans and loons. Piquette's death and the loons' disappearance go unnoticed for the most part and life goes on. When Vanessa realizes that the loons are gone, she muses about the cause of their disappearance. "Perhaps they had gone away to some far place of belonging. Perhaps they had been unable to find

such a place, and had simply dies out, having ceased to care any longer whether they lived or not". This statement reflects Piquettes experience of life. She leaves town and gets married in order to seek belonging, but she is not able to find this belonging and as a result, she loses concern for her life. She eats and drinks her life away until one day, she dies in a fire. Vanessa does not even realize that Piquette has died until her mother told her. When Vanessa finally hears about her death, she cannot forget the look she had once seen in Piquette's eyes, the same way that "no one who has heard [the cry of the loons] can ever forget it". It is clear by the many similarities between Piquette and the loons that she understands the loons better than anyone, and this is why Vanessa says, "Piquette might have been the only one, after all, who had heard the crying of the loons". Margaret Laurence uses the image of the loons to help Vanessa and the reader understand Piquette's character. At the same time, this story reflects the social background in which Metis people are struggling for entering the mainstream of the society, which is dominated by the White. Hard as the Metis people try, they found that they are forever remaining a ground of edged-people.