Meneseteung

Meneseteung Summary | Section 1 Summary

Meneseteung is a short story about a frontierswoman who lived in the province of Ontario, Canada in the late 1800's and whose independent spirit carves out the life of an artist in favor of the typical roles assigned to women of the time period. Each of the six sections of the short story begins with a few lines written by Almeda Joynt Roth, the protagonist of the story, which is told from the perspective of a narrator. The poems are from a book entitled Offerings written in 1865 at a period in time when a woman's lot is assumed to be wife and mother not an unmarried poet. The narrator comments on the photo of Almeda inside the book and describes the woman as rather plain with gray hair although she is only twenty-five at the time.

Almeda is the last surviving member of her family including a younger brother and sister who succumbed at early ages to a fever and their mother who died a year later from grief. Almeda became housekeeper and companion to her father who died a few years later leaving the family home and estate from his harness business to Almeda.

Almeda has no inclinations for domestic arts preferring instead to read, study, and write poetry about her family and her experiences living in the wilderness of Canada. One of Almeda's poems is entitled, "Champlain at the Mouth of the Meneseteung" about the false belief that Champlain sailed down the eastern shore of Lake Huron and landed at the mouth of the river. Almeda loves nature and much of her work is devoted to the forests and gardens of her native Canada.