The Hockey Sweater
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| The Sweater | |
|---|---|
 The cover of The Hockey Sweater |
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| Directed by | Sheldon Cohen |
| Produced by | Marrin Canell Derek Lamb (executive producer) David Verrall |
| Written by | Roch Carrier (story) Sheila Fischman (English text) |
| Starring | Roch Carrier (voice) Jean-Guy Moreau (voice) |
| Music by | Normand Roger |
| Editing by | David Verrall |
| Distributed by | National Film Board |
| Release date(s) | 1980 |
| Running time | 10 mins. 21 secs. |
| Country |  Canada |
| Language | English/French |
"The Hockey Sweater" ("Le chandail de hockey" in the original French; originally published as "Une abominable feuille d'érable sur la glace" ["An abominable maple leaf on the ice"]) is a short story published in 1979 by Quebec author Roch Carrier.
Though a relatively recent story, it has become a very well known work of literature in Canada. It was made into a National Film Board of Canada (NFB) animated short in 1980, known as The Sweater, or Le Chandail. The short is often shown, in both French and English, to elementary school students, making it very well known amongst Canadian youth.
The story is widely considered an allegory for the linguistic and cultural tensions between anglophone and francophone Canadians, and an essential classic of Canadian literature. An excerpt from the story is now featured in both official languages of Canada on the reverse of the Canadian five-dollar bill.
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[edit] Plot
"The Hockey Sweater" is based on a real experience of Carrier growing up in an isolated part of Quebec in the 1940s. He, like many boys his age, was a big fan of the Montreal Canadiens and their star player, Maurice "The Rocket" Richard.
When Carrier's Montreal Canadiens hockey sweater wears out, his mother writes a note and sends money to the Eaton's catalogue service to order a new one. The mother uses a handwritten letter since the company did not print French-language versions of their order forms in those days, and she could not understand English.
Unfortunately, the company sends a Toronto Maple Leafs sweater, the (French-speaking) Canadiens' bitter (English-speaking) rivals. A loyal fan of the Canadiens, Carrier protests having to wear the new sweater. But his mother refuses to let her son wear the old worn-out sweater and, apparently unaware of the business's traditional policy they advertised, "Goods satisfactory, or money refunded", insists that if they were to return the sweater it may offend Mr. Eaton, himself a Leafs fan.
As a result, young Carrier is forced to wear the Leafs sweater to his hockey game, feeling humiliated before the other players on the ice, each proudly wearing a Canadiens sweater. The coach refuses to let Carrier play, and he angrily breaks his hockey stick on the ice before being sent to church, where he prays for God to send moths to eat the Maple Leafs sweater.
[edit] Reviews
When critic Leonard Maltin saw the NFB production of The Sweater, he accredited it with the revelation and explanation of the overwhelming importance of hockey in Canadian culture. It remains one of his favourite animated productions.[citation needed]
[edit] Importance
"The Hockey Sweater" represents the lives of the many Canadians that are raised in rural parts of Quebec and the rest of Canada. It also represents the significance of the overwhelmingly popular Canadian pastime of ice hockey.
Carrier wrote « Nous vivions en trois lieux : l’école, l’église et la patinoire; mais la vraie vie était sur la patinoire. » ("We lived in three places - the school, the church and the skating rink - but our real life was on the skating rink.") This line is on the back of the $5 bill on the 2001 series of Canadian banknotes. Of the line it was said :
In writing one line, one simple quote, Roch Carrier summed up our entire country, our culture, our history, our people. He is Canada. There are some things that are simply Canadian, that belong to us and us alone. That is Roch Carrier."
[edit] References
- Roch Carrier, translated by Sheila Fischman, illustrated by Sheldon Cohen (1984). The Hockey Sweater. Tundra Books. ISBN 0-88776-169-0 (hardcover).
- Roch Carrier, translated by Sheila Fischman, illustrated by Sheldon Cohen (1985). The Hockey Sweater. Tundra Books. ISBN 0-88776-174-7 (paperback).
- Roch Carrier (1987). Le Chandail de hockey. Livres Toundra. ISBN 0-88776-171-2 (hardcover).
