Julie of the Wolves

by

Jean Craighead George

The Pink Room Symbol Analysis

The Pink Room  Symbol Icon

The pink room symbolizes Miyax’s idealized perception of non-indigenous American culture. After Miyax (who is Inuit) moves to Mekoryuk to attend school, she starts to exchange letters with Amy Pollack, a 12-year-old girl who lives in San Francisco. In her letters, Amy enchants Miyax with vivid descriptions of city life in San Francisco. At the end of each letter, Amy begs Miyax to come stay with her, promising that Miyax will have a pink room all to herself when she arrives. Miyax imagines running away to San Francisco and staying in the pink room in Amy’s house to escape her own life, which becomes even more unbearable after she relocates to Barrow to marry an abusive boy named Daniel. Although Miyax once rejected assimilating into non-indigenous society, she now sees the promised pink room as a symbol of the better life she could have in the more modernized continental U.S. 

After Daniel assaults her, Miyax flees Barrow. She plans to board a ship at Point Hope that will take her to San Francisco, but the plan falls apart when she gets lost on the way there. At first, Miyax fantasizes about San Francisco and the pink room to remain hopeful as she struggles to survive the Arctic tundra’s harsh conditions. But her attitude changes after she witnesses two gussak (white) hunters shoot and murder her wolf friend, Amaroq, from an airplane. Miyax associates Amaroq’s cruel and senseless murder with gussak people’s immoral greed. After Amaroq’s death, Miyax can only envision the pink room in Amy’s house as “red with [Amaroq’s] blood.” Miyax’s altered vision of the pink room symbolizes her disillusionment with non-indigenous culture. Amaroq’s death makes her realize that she cannot remain loyal to her Inuit culture if she embraces fantasies of assimilating into mainstream American society. The pink room thus transforms from a symbol of possibility and hope to a reminder of how non-indigenous people have killed and degraded the people, values, and customs she holds dear.

The Pink Room Quotes in Julie of the Wolves

The Julie of the Wolves quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Pink Room . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
).
Part 2: Miyax, the girl Quotes

As the months passed, the letters from Amy became the most important thing in Julie’s life and the house in San Francisco grew more real than the house in Barrow. She knew each flower on the hill where Amy’s house stood, each brick in the wall around the garden, and each tall blowing tree. She also knew the curls in the wrought-iron gate, and how many steps led up to the big front door; she could almost see the black-and-white tile on the floor of the foyer. If she closed her eyes she could imagine the arched doorway, the Persian rug on the living-room floor, the yellow chairs and the huge window that looked over the bay. Radios, lamps, coffee tables—all these she could see. And if she shut her eyes tight, she could feel Amy’s hand in her hand and hear Amy’s big feet tap the sidewalk. The second floor was always fun to dream about. At the top of the winding stairs four doors opened upon rooms lit with sunshine. And one was the pink room, the one that would be hers when she got to San Francisco.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amy Pollock, Daniel
Related Symbols: The Pink Room
Page Number: 97-98
Explanation and Analysis:
Part 3: Kapugen, the Hunter Quotes

To amuse herself she thought of the hill where the white house stood in San Francisco. When it seemed almost real enough to touch, and very beautiful, it vanished abruptly; for the tundra was even more beautiful—a glistening gold, and its shadows were purple and blue. Lemon-yellow clouds sailed a green sky and every wind-tossed sedge was a silver thread.

Related Characters: Miyax Kapugen/Julie Edwards , Amy Pollock
Related Symbols: The Pink Room
Page Number: 122-123
Explanation and Analysis:
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The Pink Room Symbol Timeline in Julie of the Wolves

The timeline below shows where the symbol The Pink Room appears in Julie of the Wolves. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Part 2: Miyax, the girl
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
Memory and Disillusionment  Theme Icon
Community and Survival  Theme Icon
Tradition vs. Assimilation  Theme Icon
...becomes real for Julie, and she often daydreams about the beautiful house, and the beautiful pink room Amy has promised her she can have when she visits. (full context)
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
Community and Survival  Theme Icon
Tradition vs. Assimilation  Theme Icon
...including Russell and his father, overcome their addictions. “Mr. Pollock,” Julie guesses correctly. Suddenly, her pink room in San Francisco “ha[s] a new dimension.”  (full context)
Part 3: Kapugen, the Hunter
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
Tradition vs. Assimilation  Theme Icon
...snow red. As the plane flies directly overhead, Miyax sees cities, bridges, TVs, and the pink room . The plane’s sooty exhaust fills the air. The plane flies forward but circles back.... (full context)
Humans vs. Nature  Theme Icon
Community and Survival  Theme Icon
Tradition vs. Assimilation  Theme Icon
...the lead. She takes out Amaroq’s totem and meditates on him, thinking to herself “the pink room is red with your blood […] and I cannot go there.” She realizes she no... (full context)