Julie of the Wolves: Part 3: Kapugen, the Hunter Summary & Analysis

Catching the hare is a sign that the start of the new cycle will mark a positive shift in Miyax’s journey. Point Hope is the actual name of the town where Miyax is heading, but her journey toward Point Hope also symbolizes the hope for a better life in San Francisco that motivates her to push forward. 

The novel interweaves Miyax’s brief moments of good fortune with ominous descriptions of her natural surroundings to emphasize the sheer brutality of the Arctic tundra and the resilience Miyax and her people must possess to survive there.

Miyax isn’t a superstitious character, so her unease and feeling that someone is watching her is an ominous sign that something is off. The vanished hare is also suspicious. So far, only one character has attempted to steal from Miyax: Jello. When Miyax sings a song about Amaroq, she pays tribute to Amaroq and Kapugen: her decision to calm herself with music embodies Kapugen’s advice to respond proactively to fear instead of succumbing to it.

Carving is a traditional Inuit trade that connects Miyax with her culture. The appearance of the North Star is an example of how the natural world exists in a state of balance. Although the impending winter will immerse Miyax in near-complete darkness, this darkness makes visible the North Star, which she can use to guide her to Point Hope. Miyax’s inability to discern Jello’s voice offsets her joy at hearing her pack: Jello could be nearby and poised to initiate another attack on Miyax.

Miyax’s shame about letting fear paralyze her and not heeding Kapugen’s advice causes her to dismiss the gut instinct that she is in danger. In this way, Miyax’s admiration for Kapugen prevents her from assessing reality objectively. As a result, she can’t react in time to defend herself against Jello, and he steals her pack, which contains the tools most critical to her survival. When Miyax says “my tombstone,” she acknowledges the gravity of her situation: she has no food for sustenance, no tools, and no community to protect her in her newly vulnerable state. 

The reassurance that the wolf urine brings Miyax suggests that it came from one of her packmates instead of Jello. Knowing that she has the support of her wolf community allows her to replace the resignation she felt last night with strength a renewed sense of hope. Realizing how helpless she is without the most essential tools renews Miyax's appreciation for the “wise” Inuit men at the seal camp who rejected the “man-made gadgets” modern society invented to conquer and exploit nature. These men adjusted their lives to fit the demands of nature rather than relying on tools to mold nature to conform to their needs.

Jello’s attack on Miyax showed that he had no qualms about fulfilling his own needs at her expense. Amaroq turns on Jello because Jello has broken the pack’s code of conduct by putting his own needs above Miyax, whom Amaroq considers a member of his pack. The fact that Amaroq killed Jello is undeniable proof of Miyax’s acceptance in the wolf pack. Miyax returns Amaroq’s affection when she refers to him as her “adopted father.” She no longer cares about making it to San Francisco because the companionship she’s found in Amaroq and his pack is more meaningful than anything she thinks she could find in society.

Amaroq’s attack on Jello touches Miyax. San Francisco loses its appeal for Miyax once she realizes that the wolves have given her a stronger sense of community and acceptance than her relationships in society. As she takes in the “painted earth” of the tundra, she realizes that she feels most at home in nature.

Miyax demonstrates how comfortable she is in nature when she resourcefully repurposes frozen sticks of grass to construct a tent. Seeing the lemming reminds Miyax of Kapugen’s philosophy about the natural order that governs all living things. Miyax grins at the fox that stole her would-be meal because she has a newfound appreciation for the interconnected natural world they both inhabit. She has faith that if she is patient, the balance of the universe will ensure that she has a turn to eat, too.  

Miyax’s patience pays off as Kapu emerges with a bounty that is exponentially better than the lemming the fox snatched away from her. As usual, Miyax shares her meal with Kapu, reciprocating his act of goodwill in bringing her the caribou leg in the first place. Miyax’s dancing further proves her shifting attitude toward the non-indigenous world: she’s increasingly turning to traditional Inuit culture instead of Amy’s letter for reassurance. Miyax’s realization that the old ways “have purpose” and aren’t “foolish” emphasizes her renewed commitment to Inuit culture. She thinks that reclaiming her people’s traditions will lead her to a better life, and she’s begun to see San Francisco as a naïve pipe dream.

Miyax sleeps peacefully, reassured by her wolf pack’s protection and by the survival skills and wisdom that her traditional upbringing imparted onto her.

Miyax finds meaning and fulfillment in using the traditional skills and wisdom she had to abandon when she lived in town. She honors the caribou by using its frozen skin to build a sled rather than wasting this part of the animal.   

Like the wise old men from the seal camp, Miyax adjusts her life to conform to the natural world: she uses the sun to tell time and the skua’s  presence to determine her relative location. Miyax’s lack of excitement to see the oil dream shows how significantly her priorities have shifted since first getting lost. Although she initially thought the modern world could give her a better life, her experiences in the wilderness suggest that she feels more at peace in nature.   

Amaroq’s barks alert Miyax to the danger the grizzly bear poses. Once more, Miyax’s participation in the wolf community offers her more protection than any personal resilience ever could.

If the wolves didn’t awaken the grizzly bear, something else must have roused it from hibernation. Miyax’s puzzlement hints at the possibility that she and the wolves aren’t alone on the tundra, and that danger is on the horizon. 

Because the allure of a bounty incentivizes gussak hunters to kill indiscriminately, they pose even more of a danger to the wolves than the grizzly bear. The gussaks’ attitude toward hunting directly opposes the Inuit attitude. While the Inuit hunt only what they “need” out of respect for the animals who sacrifice their bodies to clothe and feed them, the gussaks have no respect for the animals they kill and no sense of humankind’s place in the interconnected natural world. Greed motivates the gussaks to hunt beyond what they need, which throws the natural world into chaotic unbalance.

Miyax upholds her obligation to her wolf pack, warning them about the danger of civilization, just as they warned her about the grizzly bear. In addition, she employs the traditional skill of carving to pay homage to Amaroq, which emphasizes Inuit culture’s respect for nature. Beyond this, the Amaroq comb illustrates the deep bond between Miyax and the wolves that’s developed over the time they’ve spent together.

Miyax names the golden plover Tornait to honor Kapugen and her Inuit heritage. She references Kapugen’s “spirit of the birds” song in Part I when she toasts to the owlet and bunting she brought back to her campsite and recalls the Feast of the Bird celebration her old village would celebrate. The compassion Miyax extends to Tornait reaffirms her selflessness and culturally inherited respect for nature. 

It’s interesting that Miyax reflects on Tornait’s loneliness but never on her own. In fact, she seems content with the companionship her animal friends provide her and might even prefer their company to that of other humans. This emphasizes the degree to which Miyax prefers nature to society, perhaps because she’s encountered people (like Daniel) who are even more brutal than animals.

Although Miyax has become quite proficient in communicating with the wolves, this passage suggests that certain gaps remain in her grasp on their language: the wolves are unreceptive to Miyax’s attempts to convey happiness and appear distracted by something that Miyax cannot discern. 

To Miyax, a just leader undertakes the “experience and schooling” necessary for them to honor past traditions. She sees Amaroq training Kapu to assume his role as pack leader as similar to how Kapugen passed his knowledge of Inuit culture on to her. Realizing that Amaroq is training Kapu to take over as pack leader signals to Miyax that the wolves’ cycle of life is continuing, and that she, too, should move on with her life.

The plane is yet another indicator that Miyax is nearing civilization. The plane’s zigzag pattern, which follows the path of a river, is additional evidence that she is nearing the end of her journey. Amaroq’s earlier signal for Miyax to stay put suggests that he senses the presence of danger—maybe Miyax should be more concerned about the plane than she appears to be.

Because traditional Inuit hunters like Kapugen don’t use modern technology to hunt, the men on this plane are probably gussak hunters. This poses a grave threat for Amaroq’s pack, since gussak hunters receive a bounty for the wolves they kill.

The hunters’ modern technology renders the wolves powerless. Amaroq’s death affects Miyax deeply; now, she has lost both her biological father, Kapugen, and her adopted father, Amaroq.  Amaroq’s death also symbolizes humanity’s cruelty, and the helplessness of nature to withstand humans’ brutality.

The images that Miyax sees when she looks at the plane come from the descriptions of San Francisco that Amy included in her letters. The fact that Miyax associates the plane with these images shows that she views the gussak hunters as emblematic of non-indigenous culture as a whole. Miyax seems to question whether she can morally bring herself to associate with the same culture that created the monsters who killed her dear friend.     

The hunters’ laughter adds an additional layer of cruelty to their killing of Amaroq. Their flippancy also reinforces gussaks’ lack of respect for nature. In Miyax’s Inuit culture, hunters give thanks to animals’ souls and use every part of the animals they kill. When the gussaks fail to retrieve Amaroq’s body, it’s clear to Miyax that they respect neither his body nor his soul. Miyax demonstrates her resilience yet again when she sets aside her grief for Amaroq to tend to Kapu’s wounds.

Nails’s mournful howl reflects the strength of his bond with Amaroq; Kapugen was right when he told Miyax that wolves love each other. When northern lights appear overhead, it’s as though all of the natural world grieves for Amaroq. Miyax finds comfort in the Inuit belief that Amaroq’s spirit didn’t die with his body and lives on within her. 

Amaroq’s death destroys whatever naïve illusions Miyax might have had about non-indigenous society and modernity. She no longer believes that traveling San Francisco will offer her a better life than the one she had in Barrow or Mekoryuk, because she no longer believes that the culture in San Francisco and the culture that produced the men who killed Amaroq are meaningfully different. To Miyax, non-indigenous society as a whole threatens her Inuit culture and everything she holds dear.

The novel invites a loose comparison between the wolves’ confusion and the human experience of grief. This further develops the idea that wolves are highly social, complex creatures who form meaningful bonds with one another. Miyax honors Amaroq’s spirit by looking out for his pack, guiding them to a place where they might have better opportunities to hunt. 

Kapu’s leadership restores order to the pack. Miyax knows that Amaroq’s wisdom will guide Kapu through this new phase of his life, just as Kapugen’s wisdom has guided her. 

Up until now, Miyax has remained torn between her desire to preserve the traditional Inuit way of life and her curiosity about life in San Francisco. The trauma of witnessing Amaroq’s murder is a turning point for Miyax: it shows her that people can be more brutal than anything nature has thrown her way thus far.

Miyax finds fulfilment in preserving her Inuit culture and honoring Amaroq’s spirit. The book draws Miyax’s beliefs and customs from various Alaska Native cultures, namely the Yup’ik and Iñupiat peoples. Although the Yup’ik didn’t build icehouses (igloos), the Iñupiat would use icehouses as temporary shelter during hunting trips.

The book includes the detail that Miyax’s voice is faint from disuse to emphasize how isolated she’s been for such a sustained period of time—it’s been months since she’s interacted with another human. Miyax’s realization that “she no longer care[s]” affirms her rejection of society. The names of towns are social constructs imposed onto land by humans and therefore mean nothing to her. As far as Miyax is concerned, all that matters about a particular place is whether it offers her the natural resources—food, water, shelter—necessary for survival. 

English is Miyax’s second language, so she might not understand Roland’s words. On the other hand, Miyax’s refusal to respond to English doubles as her symbolic rejection of non-indigenous culture. Once more, Miyax’s willingness to share her limited resources with these strangers demonstrates the value she places on community. Ptarmigan is a type of grouse that is native to the Arctic tundra.

Miyax feels mostly fulfilled by her life in nature, but her sudden desire to talk to the family of hunters suggests that she’s missed the company of people. While Miyax’s current lifestyle allows her to carve, hunt, and undertake other traditional Inuit customs, she misses having a community of like-minded people with whom to share these cultural experiences. Miyax’s desire to preserve her Inuit culture by passing it along to others, just as Kapugen had done for her, entices her to travel to Kangik. 

Miyax initially refuses the non-indigenous foods Atik and Uma offer her because all aspects of non-indigenous or modern culture remind her of Amaroq’s death. The fact that Atik and Uma pack these foods illustrates how widespread assimilation has become across Alaska.

Uma’s story about Atik’s mentor, Kapugen, seems to suggest the impossible: that Miyax’s father is alive, after all. 

The revelations Miyax gleans from Uma’s unbelievable story challenges everything that Miyax has believed about Kapugen’s disappearance. Uma seems to imply that Kapugen arrived in Kangik in an intact kayak, which contradicts Martha’s account of his disappearance, as she said that pieces of Kapugen’s destroyed kayak washed up on the shore. Did Kapugen swim ashore, build a new kayak, and arrive in Kangik sometime later? Or is it possible that Kapugen was never lost in the first place—that he voluntarily left the seal camp to start a new life, and Martha simply lied to Miyax?

Miyax’s excessive admiration for Kapugen inhibits her from feeling angry or betrayed by his (possibly voluntary) absence from her life. Instead, she feels pure joy at this fortunate turn of fate. When she sings “Amaroq, Amaroq,” she celebrates both of her fathers: the adopted wolf father who unexpectedly exited her life and the biological father who has just as suddenly returned.

Miyax’s habit of carrying Tornait in the hood of a parka comes from a real Inuit custom. Inuit mothers wear a parka called an amauti, or amautik, which features a built-in pouch below the hood in which they carry their babies. When Miyax tells Kapu she has to go because “[her] own Amaroq lives,” she points to the love wolves have for one another: in Miyax’s mind, Kapu’s love for Amaroq is no different than her love for Kapugen. Finally, the book discloses the important detail that this is the last time Miyax will see her pack. At this point, it’s unclear what this means for Miyax’s future. Although she initially seemed so confident in her decision to reject society entirely, the opportunity to reunite with her beloved father might be enough to convince her to return to society. 

Miyax wants to resume the traditional lifestyle that she and Kapugen enjoyed at the seal camp: she imagines them “liv[ing] as they were meant to live—with the cold and the birds and the beasts.” Miyax hopes that her reunion with Kapugen will allow them to reclaim the shared life that Miyax’s sudden move to Mekoryuk cut short.

Although Miyax prefers the natural world to life in society, Kangik, at first glance, appears to be a fair compromise between these two worlds. Though it’s more modernized than Miyax’s solitary life in the wilderness, it’s a traditional, “old-fashioned” Inuit town lacking in the modern conveniences that towns like Barrow have adopted. However, the woman Miyax sees leaving Kapugen’s house might suggest that Kapugen has changed more than Miyax wants to believe. 

Kapugen’s failure to recognize Tornait as a golden plover is another sign that Kapugen has changed—or that he has never been quite as flawless as Miyax has made him out to be. The ignorance Kapugen displays here doesn’t fit with the infinitely wise Kapugen who exists in her memories. The fact that Kapugen initially uses English to address Miyax also suggests that he’s not as committed to traditional Inuit culture as Miyax imagined he would be.

Seeing decorations that remind Miyax of life at the seal camp temporarily quell whatever concerns she might have that Kapugen isn’t the way she thought he’d be. It’s a little odd that Kapugen doesn’t recognize his daughter until she tells him who she is, but it has been years since they’ve seen each other, and Kapugen’s initial confusion doesn’t seem to faze Miyax. She also doesn’t seem bothered by the fact that he willfully abandoned her to start a new life.

Miyax is willing to ignore many warning signs that Kapugen isn’t the man she thought he was, but she draws the line once she realizes he’s married a gussak. Miyax views Kapugen’s marriage to a white woman as an attack on the Inuit culture they once revered.  As Miyax looks around the room, she realizes that she’s surrounded by modern appliances—unavoidable proof of Kapugen’s assimilation into non-indigenous society. When Miyax sees Kapugen’s helmet and goggles, she realizes that he is no better than the gussak hunters who so callously and carelessly murdered Amaroq.

Ellen’s comment about learning English shows Miyax that life in Kangik won’t be much different than life in Mekoryuk. Here, too, she’ll have to conform to non-indigenous cultural norms and abandon her traditional values. When Miyax tells Kapugen she’s leaving for San Francisco, it’s because she’d rather expel Kapugen from her life than come to terms with this new version of him. Kapugen’s American-made field jacket is further proof that he has traded his Inuit culture for the conveniences of modern living. 

Miyax’s realization that “Kapugen, after all, was dead to her” expresses how betrayed she feels by his assimilation. Miyax had long believed that Kapugen was dead. Even though this turned out not to be true, he remains dead to Miyax because this new Kapugen has nothing in common with the Kapugen she remembered, or the Kapugen she hoped he’d be.

Kapugen’s betrayal is another case of humans inflicting more pain onto Miyax than nature ever could. When Miyax leaves Kangik, she not only turning her back on Kapugen but on society as a whole: she decides to return to nature because she’s tired of the people in her life hurting and disappointing her. When Miyax hears Kapugen’s voice interspersed with Amy’s, the implication is that Miyax believes that Amy is just as capable of disappointing her as Kapugen. As she travels back to her icehouse, she consciously leaves behind the lights of Kangik and the metaphorical lights of San Francisco.

Tornait’s death prompts Miyax to undergo a final change of heart. Miyax views the deaths of Tornait and Amaroq as part of the broader cultural death the Inuit have endured through their forced assimilation into non-indigenous society. She realizes, too, how powerless she is to stop this cultural erasure singlehandedly. When she “point[s] her boots toward Kapugen,” she acknowledges this powerlessness and gives in to assimilation. It’s important to note that the book refers to Miyax as “Julie” once she decides to return to town. This implies that there is no middle ground for Miyax to take: she realizes that returning to town means she will have to give up her Inuit culture and alter her identity entirely to adhere to the non-indigenous values that the village of Kangik has embraced. Miyax’s change of heart doesn’t exactly stem from a desire to forgive Kapugen and repair their relationship, though the book does leave Miyax’s willingness to forgive Kapugen up for debate; rather, she turns back because she’s run out of options. She realizes that living alone in the wilderness and refusing to conform to modern society won’t preserve her Inuit culture in the long term, and it’s likely that she’ll continue to suffer setbacks like Amaroq’s and Tornait’s deaths as long as gussak culture continues to spread across her people’s ancestral lands. Julie “point[s] her boots toward Kapugen,” but it’s in a gesture of tired defeat, not expectant homecoming.