Saul’s life starts out in the northern wilderness of Ontario with his Ojibway life, where he is born into cultural filled life. The wilderness was his home and peace of mind. He learned how to be one within himself and to respect all living things and to only take what he needs in life, no more, greed was never acceptable. He had a great connection with his ancestors here and he could be himself without the fear of judgement taking place. He had a purpose here. He felt welcomed and embraced by the land and the sky, by the bodies of water and the sun beaming down upon his skin. He was alive in the wilderness.
"Saint Jerome's was hell on earth," (Wagamese pg 78) where silent screams for help bounced off the walls. The voices of these haunted the kids that attended the school. "Inside, the smell of bleach and disinfectant, so strong it seemed to peel the skin off the inside of my nose." (Wagamese pg 44) It was like the nuns and priests were scared they would get diseases from the children, that because they had a different skin colour they would infect them and perhaps make them "Indian" also.The greed that was present from the nuns and priests was immense and impossible to fulfil. Soulless bodies filed down the halls with empty eyes. All were lost and none were allowed to be found. Forced to change their appearance as much as they could, they still weren't classified to be good enough to receive human rights. There was no love in the building, no communication or way to express your emotions, either you got out alive but dead inside, or you died trying to get through to a stable mind. It was a prison, the children were held captive against their own free will. All there was, was darkness, "the world [Saul] had known was replaced by an ominous black cloud." (Wagamese pg 46) Only hockey saved Saul from this nightmare, it was his way out of the hell house residential school was.
The ice rink for Saul was a distraction from loss and abandonment. Playing hockey was the closest thing to freedom and his loved Ojibway life that he could find in his grasp. Hockey was Saul's escape, it allowed him to get all of his emotions out through his swift feet making clean strides across the glassy white ice. The adrenaline that he received from the intensity of the play would exhilarate him and make even the worse burning legs worth it. He was a warrior, he pushed through the pain and broke through the wall all in reward for the great feeling inside that he received from playing the game; even though the ice was filled with hate, cleaned and polished to be perfectly white. White was all that the ice excepted, “white ice, white players,”(Wagamese pg 149) Since Saul was not white he was not accepted very easily regardless of his talent and skills, as First nations player they were overlooked. This closed many opportunities and chances in his life and the hate actually destroyed the game for Saul. Hockey was not longer an outlet but now a great source for racism and hate to put laid upon him.