The Winter Room

The last section focuses on The Importance of Storytelling in Character Formation and Growth, and Uncle David’s stories incite the main conflict in the narrative about the nature of stories. Eldon notes that he and his brother never questioned or doubted Uncle David’s storytelling. For Eldon, the stories are fictional tales that connect with memory and the preservation of legacy. As he explains, through the stories, Uncle David’s memory “became part of [them]” (53). Wayne’s perspective on storytelling contrasts Eldon’s because, for him, the stories are connected to reality. Eldon notes that “somehow the stories had mixed in his mind so they had become a real part of his thinking” (54). Wayne’s doubts endanger the storytelling ritual and cause Eldon’s rage. This conflict about the boundaries between fiction and reality and the meaning of storytelling leads Eldon and Wayne to new realizations as their understanding of Uncle David grows. 

The story of Orud the Terrible derives from “old times,” as Uncle David explains and directly recalls legends and Viking stories of Norse mythology. According to Uncle David, Orud was a powerful and fearful Viking, a traveler and an explorer. Orud fell in love with Melena, a strong woman who resisted him. The legendary story includes their living in a cottage under the sea and Melena’s curse against Orud’s village. Melena’s curse functioned as an explanation for the suffering and troubles the village experienced. People connected the wind and waves that sank boats to Melena’s laughter and her hair spreading from the bottom of the sea. This suggests that Norse myths often helped people explain incomprehensible events and the mysteries of the natural world. These legends about death and rebirth have figures who often interact with the natural elements, depicting people Living Attuned to the Natural World, just as Eldon and his family are. The story also underscores that immigrants like Uncle David remained connected to their native culture, preserving their customs and traditional stories. In this way, Uncle David’s storytelling also transmits elements of Norwegian culture to Eldon and Wayne that might otherwise have been lost in the process of assimilation in America. 

Through storytelling, Uncle David also conveys life lessons that help Eldon develop his outlook on people and the world. For instance, Crazy Allen’s story helps Eldon confront his fear of death. As Uncle David narrates, Crazy Allen was a woodcutter who always used “jokes and humor” (51), teasing his friends, sometimes to extremes, to make them laugh. At the time of his death, Allen demonstrated fearlessness and allowed himself to freeze as a “joke” to his friend so that he struggled to carry his body to the undertaker. Therefore, Crazy Allen’s story conveys to Eldon the value of humor in human life as a positive attitude against fear and adversity. While death is usually never funny to Eldon, Crazy Allen’s story makes him “[laugh] at death” (53). This signifies an important change in Eldon’s developing consciousness as the stories help him forge a sense of self. 

The motif of brotherhood also expands in this section as Eldon and Wayne have their biggest fight yet after Wayne contests Uncle David’s story, “The Woodcutter.” While Uncle David narrates the story in the third person, Eldon’s father reveals it is the story of Uncle David’s own youth as an immigrant in America. Uncle David reminisces about his feats as a skilled and hard-working woodcutter who did miracles with an ax and was admired by everyone. Wayne is hurt by the story, arguing that Uncle David is lying. As he explains to Eldon, he is furious that Uncle David “put himself up as one of the heroes” (60). Because Wayne idealized heroic figures in his mind, he is reluctant to believe that a simple, old, and frail man like Uncle David could once be as strong and celebrated as a hero in a story. 

The scene where Uncle David reenacts his old feats is a transformative experience for the brothers. While Uncle David usually seems like a “broken” and “sad old man” (64), he momentarily summons a mysterious “power” that makes him look young again. The children cry, marveling as they see Uncle David cutting wood fast and with the same precision as he did in the story, and this reenactment is ultimately proof to himself—and the children—that he is the same man, the woodcutter. Even though he does not intend for Eldon and Wayne to see him, the children learn another lesson as Uncle David demonstrates a spiritual power that remains intact despite his struggles and old age. While the factual and fictional elements of his storytelling remain undetermined, Uncle David demonstrates that, apart from mythical figures, simple people like him are also capable of memorable and inspiring achievements. In this way, the brothers open their minds to all kinds of stories, and, without doubts anymore, they continue to be inspired by their uncle’s storytelling.