The Snow Goose

It is now some fifty years or so since I read The Snow Goose, by Paul Gallico, and to this day I remain deeply affected by this beautiful tear-jerker novella of all time.

It is a simple story of a friendship that develops against a backdrop of the horror-stricken evacuation of Dunkirk during the Second World War (1939-1945).

The friendship is between Philip Rhayada, a disabled amateur artist and recluse living in an abandoned lighthouse on the Essex Marshes, and Fritha, a young local girl who finds a gunshot-wounded Snow Goose in the marshes.

After she finds the snow goose, Fritha takes it to Rhayada, hoping he can do something to help the injured bird. Together Rhayada and Fritha care for the goose and nurse it back to health. In time both the snow goose and the girl leave, going their separate ways.

Rhayada returns to his solitary lifestyle, cut off from civilization, not only due to his occupation and disability but also because he feels shunned by society due to his sinister hump and crooked hand.

Having recovered and taken flight, for several years the snow goose returns to visit Rhayada at his lighthouse in its annual migration.

As WWII begins to affect France and England, Rhayada decides to do help with the evacuation of Dunkirk by sailing across the English Channel in his small sailboat to participate in the rescue of troops trying to escape the German military onslaught on the beaches.

At one point, Rhayada finds himself in his little boat in the midst of a barrage of bombs and bullets. In the sky above, Rhayada can see the snow goose flying in circles above him, like a guardian angel.

As Fritha grows up, one day she discovers the snow goose has returned to the marshes and is alone. She takes this to signify that Rhayada, in the form of the snow goose, has been lost at sea and has made one final return to his home to say goodbye to Fritha. At this point, Fritha realizes she has come to love Rhayada.

At the very poignant end, Rhayada's lighthouse home, along with almost all of its contents, is destroyed by a German bomber. All that remains is one single portrait, painted by Rhyada, of Fritha as a young girl, holding the injured snow goose in her protective arms.

***

At this point let me point out that the main reason this story immediately resonated with me was because, like Rhayada, I too was a very reclusive person. As a young child, I felt that due to my physical appearance, poor, skinny, and knobbly kneed, I was deemed unacceptable to those I lived among. I was the poster boy for sad and lonely little 'Billy No-Mates.'

At various points in the story, I found myself so affected that I was reduced to tears with such an overwhelming feeling of loss and sadness, a feeling I thought I personally knew only too well.

Another thing that left an impression on me was how, despite being shunned by society, Rhayada was prepared to risk his own life to save the dozens of lives of the very people whom he had been shunned by. What this taught me is that sometimes we have to learn to love our enemies. In short, this is a tale of the regenerative power of love.

And yet another aspect that impressed me was how, despite Rhayada's physical appearance, Fritha had come to love him. This served as an invaluable lesson to a young me that attractiveness and love are about deeply felt emotional feelings, over and above physical appearance.

Taking a literary perspective, The Snow Goose taught me how even in a relatively short book of just sixty-four pages, a writer can cram in an amazing amount of positive energy in the telling of a very powerful story.

The final comment I would like to make is about how the author, Paul Gallico, explained that the story came about as a response to his deep desire to make a meaningful contribution toward marking the heroism of those caught up in the war.

Gallico was of course talking about the military personnel, like those on the beaches of Northern France. However, he was also referring to all of those English civilians who like Rhyada, put aside personal feelings to risk their lives in a flotilla of small sailboats to save their fellow countrymen and allies.

In short, The Snow Goose is a book from which we can all learn some very valuable life lessons.