Linda Hogan’s Solar Storms: The Journey for the Search of Identity and the Natural Environment

Abstract

Solar Storms is a persuasive work that conveys Linda Hogan’s philosophy on the relationship between man and nature. Hogan believes that man and nature are interdependent as well as interconnected. The western Christian belief which separates heaven and earth leads whites to neglect the natural environment. In the novel, Angela is the victim of the dominant white culture and their history. Her return to the tribal community and the subsequent journey to meet her mother vitalizes her Native American identity and historical consciousness. The hazardous journey with three old women and the effects of their storytelling offers Angela an opportunity to open her eyes to the significance of both social and environmental justice. Angela’s experience of the tribal tradition of mother-daughter relationships and her reconciliation with her mother awakens her identity through a new perspective of history in which she actively participates in the protest against the building of the dams and river diversions in order to save the lives of indigenous people as well as the natural environment.