A Whale of the Wild

Capella enters the novel as a symbol of hope, which makes her death and subsequent transformation into a motif of Human Influence on Natural Habitats all the more impactful. At the beginning of the story, Vega eagerly awaits the arrival of her sister, whom she views as a source of purpose and companionship: “A sister, a sister of my own! Someone to love and look after. Someone to swim at my side and share the work of a wayfinder” (10). Capella represents hope to the entire kinship because factors like food scarcity cause the whales’ population to fall: “There has not been a mother all round-bellied like her in many seasons. It is great luck for the whole kinship when a baby is born. And Mother’s is going to be a girl. Even more luck!” (39).

Because orca are matrilineal, Capella’s relatives wish for her to become a leader and to bring future generations of their family into the world, adding to her significance as a symbol of hope.

Capella’s death transforms her older sister, alters the trajectory of the plot, and drives home the theme of human influence on natural habitats. By laying her sister’s body to rest among “the bones of the heroes” who gave their lives fighting to prevent the capture of the pod’s younglings (64), Vega symbolically lays the blame for Capella’s death on the same species that perpetrated the slaughter at Blood Cove—humans. The main character’s impulsive decision to take her sister’s body and leave the pod marks a turning point in the narrative that ultimately leads her to remain separated from the majority of her family for the rest of the novel. Vega’s separation from Mother and Greatmother forces her to quickly mature into a capable leader, and the death of the sister she hoped would be her “forever companion” causes Deneb to become closer and more supportive to Vega over the course of the novel (52). Just as the sea shake reshapes the landscape, loss alters the protagonist’s inner world. Vega’s grief fills her with sorrow and “blind rage” (54), and it makes her “hungry for revenge” against humans (61). Parry makes it clear that Capella’s death is far from an isolated incident but rather part of a devastating pattern that threatens the orca’s survival: Greatmother tells Mother that Capella perished because man-made “poisons flow into the water” (53), and the educational resources the author provides after the story explain that these toxins are among the reasons why “many orca calves are stillborn or die in the first few months of life” (210). Capella’s tragic death catalyzes Vega’s growth and helps the reader understand the severity of humans’ destructive influence on marine habitats.

The song “Side by Side and Fin by Fluke” serves as a motif of The Importance of Familial Bonds. Mothers sing the song to their younglings to “encourage [them] to stay close” (15), making it one of the first lessons orca learn about family. For the whales, maintaining proximity to one another is both a practical matter of survival and a source of great emotional benefits. The motif reaffirms the relatives’ close ties during moments of difficulty, such as when Aquila offers her cousin reconciliation after Vega leaves the pod because she thinks she’s failed her family: “‘Our family needs you.’ […] I slide into Aquila’s swim shadow and we head for the Gathering Place together, side by side and fin by fluke” (29). Over the course of the novel, Vega internalizes the motif’s message and grasps that togetherness and offering a caring presence to her loved ones during challenging times is more important than having all of the right answers. She still doesn’t know where the rest of the kinship is at the end of the novel, but she’s certain that her little pod will find them because they’ll search “side by side and fin by fluke” (175). The motif illustrates the strength of family, portrays the characters’ resilience, and gives the novel a hopeful resolution.