In my ongoing quest to understand Canadian culture, I’ve decided to turn my attention towards Roch Carrier’s famous short story The Hockey Sweater.
My main motivation is that this story does not seem to be part of the “canon” of 20th century Quebec literature. It wasn’t ever part of assigned readings when I was in school, and in fact as of today I’ve never read it. I do know the gist of what happens in it by cultural osmosis. However, it’s clearly very famous: it was adapted into an animated short film produced by the National Film Board of Canada, and even made its way to the Canadian five-dollar bill from 2001 to 2009, which is definitely not something that happens to every piece of literature. It seems to be more popular in English-speaking Canada, which we can guess by comparing the length of its English and French Wikipedia articles. Carrier’s (English) Wikipedia article contains the sentence “He is among the best known Quebec writers in English Canada.” And I did meet Canadians abroad who mentioned this story to me when they learned I was from Quebec; it seemed to leave a mark upon them.
So, for those of you who are Canadian, I have a few questions. First, have you read this story? (I guess we can also extend this to having watched the NFB short film.) And if so:
[ul]
[li]Was it assigned reading in school?[/li][li]Did you read it in English or in French?[/li][li]Did you enjoy it, from a literary standpoint? (In other words, do you think it’s well-written?)[/li][li]Do you think you learned things about Canada from this story? If so, what are they?[/li][li]Especially if you read it in school, in which province were you living at the time?[/li][/ul]
If you’re not Canadian, I guess you can answer as well, but I’d wager it’s unlikely you’ve read or even heard about this story. Still, I might be surprised.
I’m an American and while I have not read the story, I have seenthe short it was based on several times. Nickelodeon used to show it regularly during the 80s and it’s now on YouTube. At the time, I saw it in terms of the intense rivalry between fans of the Montreal Canadiens and the Toronto Maple Leafs with the situation faced by the narrator analogous to a kid who was a Brooklyn Dodger or Boston Red Sox fan getting New York Yankee gear from a well-meaning but sports-ignorant relative during the 1940s. However, I now know there were considerably more linguistic and cultural issues involved than the Dodger-Yankee or any other sports rivalry that existed south of the border.
I remember it very clearly both as book and the NFB version. I would have been 10 in Toronto when tha short came out, so exactly the target market. I believe I read the book in both English and French.
I knew all about the Leafs/Habs rivalry, so didn’t really learn anything new about that.
I’m from Ontario. The story was read to us (in English) by the school librarian when we were about ten or so. This was in the '80s when the Leafs were awful and no kid wanted to take the teasing of being a Leafs fan (I myself had an Oilers shirt when I was a kid), so the whole class was laughing when the kid got the Leafs sweater. I already knew what hockey and Eaton’s were, it was probably the first time I’d ever heard of Richard so I guess that counts as learning something about Canada.
We had just begun to be taught how to write our own fictional stories, with “rules” like how a story has to have a problem and it has to have an ending. So when the story was over and we were asked what we thought, I raised my hand and said that the story didn’t have an ending - I got some “yeahs” of agreement, the librarian just said something like “oh” and nodded and then asked for more opinions. This part is probably why I remember this as well as I do, I felt smart.
Then years later in high school English class we watched a collection of NFB shorts, and yep, The Sweater was among them. I think we had to pick one film and write a short essay about it, but I picked a different one to write about.
Started elementary school in BC in 1962, was never a hockey fan, and never heard of it or the short until about 1995 when my partner became a children’s librarian. Nieces and nephews now in their early 20s read or watched it in elementary school, and my first year university students knew it when I show the film in 1999 or so. In BC, Quebec is a million miles away from the consciousness of a lot of people.
I grew up in Saskatchewan and I have never read the story. I’ve seen the cartoon short several times, though; I think it’s pretty funny (especially the caricature of M. Eaton and the prayer for 100,000,000 moths at the end).
The only famous piece of Quebecois literature I can remember reading in class (1st yr university) was an excerpt from Nègres blancs d’Amérique.
I wasn’t familiar with the story until I saw the NFB short. I guess I first saw it on First Choice or Superchannel or whatever movie channels I subscribed to, back in the 1990s. It was a filler, much like other NFB shorts (“The Cat Came Back” and “The Log Driver’s Waltz” are others I remember as filler.) I subsequently read the story, in English.
It’s a great story, and illustrates that what you grow up with, stays with you forever. If you grew up with the Toronto Maple Leafs, as I did growing up in Toronto, it bothers you. If you grew up with the Montreal Canadiens, it emboldens you. Note that the Leafs and the Canadiens are traditional rivals, which makes it even better. Regardless, it is a charming story, and one that any Canadian who likes hockey, can feel a kinship with.
The only problem I have, is with the old $5 bill. It’s all about kids wearing Maurice Richard’s number 9 for the Canadiens sweater. No Maple Leaf sweaters in sight. To stay true to the Roch Carrier story, there should have been at least one kid pictured on the bill, who is wearing a Maple Leafs sweater.
Regardless, it’s a great story, and I would urge our international friends to at least watch the NFB short, to understand why Canadians are obsessed with hockey.
I grew up in Ottawa and went to school in french immersion. I was about 10 when it was published so I was also at the perfect age. I believe a teacher read it to us in its original french because I always remember it as “Le chandail de hockey”
My dad’s family is from Montreal and grew up as a francophone.He and his brothers grew up worshipping Rocket Richard. It’s not an exaggeration that everyone idolized him. My mom’s family is from Toronto and die hard Leaf fans. I saw the tension between the teams, cultures, languages, etc… every day… especially being in Ottawa which is where the two clash the most.
I enjoyed the story and still do. I think it's a beautifully crafted story with several layers woven into it depending on the age and background of the reader.
I’d agree that english Canada does not interpret it the same as in Quebec. The “us against the world” sentiment in Quebec, lead by their cultural icon of Rocket Richard was something distinct. The interaction with the Eaton company accents the relationship francophones had with anglophone corporations.
I grew up in Ottawa and went to school in french immersion. I was about 10 when it was published so I was also at the perfect age. I believe a teacher read it to us in its original french because I always remember it as “Le chandail de hockey”
My dad’s family is from Montreal and grew up as a francophone.He and his brothers grew up worshipping Rocket Richard. It’s not an exaggeration that everyone idolized him. My mom’s family is from Toronto and die hard Leaf fans. I saw the tension between the teams, cultures, languages, etc… every day… especially being in Ottawa which is where the two clash the most.
I enjoyed the story and still do. I think it's a beautifully crafted story with several layers woven into it depending on the age and background of the reader.
I’d agree that english Canada does not interpret it the same as in Quebec. The “us against the world” sentiment in Quebec, lead by their cultural icon of Rocket Richard was something distinct. The interaction with the Eaton company accents the relationship francophones had with anglophone corporations.
In fairness, there isn’t a Canadiens sweater visible either, technically. There is one kid (a girl!, even) wearing a number 9 sweater, but her team logo and colors aren’t visible, and all the kids are wearing modern plastic helmets, so it’s not an attempt to replicate the 1946 setting of the short story, just its broad theme of “kids like hockey”.