Muskox

Sole member of the genus Ovibos of the Bovidae family, this long-haired, horned mammal is native to the Arctic regions of Canada and Greenland. Faulkner uses the imagery produced by this term to give definition to the physical and behavioral nature of the Hines couple. Similar to the muskox, which might be considered a rather unattractive large animal, Mr. and Mrs. Hines are repeatedly described as unsightly and dirty. Mr. Hines is characterized as “a dirty little old man” (LIA 342), and Mrs. Hines is characterized as “a dumpy, fat little woman with a round face like dirty and unovened dough, and a tight screw of scant hair” (LIA 346). Also, as might be the case with creatures living far outside of their habitat, Mr. and Mrs. Hines are not integrated members of their community. They lead rather isolated and partially obscure lives. The old man’s history is so unclear that when one of the townsmen learns that Hines' first name is Eupheus, he remarks that he had been wondering about Hines’ name for fifteen years (LIA 347). Mrs. Hines is such an obscurity that there are people who have lived in the town for thirty years without ever having seen her (LIA 351).

//Anyway the town did not look, and for twentyfive years now the couple had lived in the slack backwater of their lonely isolation, like they might have been two muskoxen strayed from the north pole, or two homeless and belated beasts from beyond the glacial period// (LIA 342).