Who is Coyote?

Coyote Pedagogy is a term sometimes used to describe King’s writing strategies (Margery Fee and Jane Flick). Discuss your understanding of the role of Coyote in the novel. (Dr. Erika Paterson)

Coyote is definitely one of my favourite characters in this novel. He’s playful, he’s fresh, and he seems pretty much in charge of everything…or at least very influential in how the world works. By dancing and singing, he is able to incite much trouble, such as this foreshadowing to the novel finale’s earthquake:

“You haven’t been dancing again, Coyote?” said Ishmael.

“Just a little,” says Coyote.

“You haven’t been singing again, Coyote?” said Robinson Crusoe.

“Just a little,” says Coyote.

“Oh, boy,” said Hawkeye. “Here we go again.”

(King 409)

The biggest thing that strikes me about Coyote is his childlike personality. Coyote is always the listener to the narrator’s creation stories, and he always tries to playfully guess what happens next (King 269). Coyote is never serious. His behaviour is on par with the antics of a very outgoing, playful, and imaginative child.

But I wouldn’t call Coyote naive. In fact, he proclaims that he is “very smart” (King 2). He seems to know the power of his singing and dancing, he just does it anyway. “‘But I was helpful, too,’ says Coyote. ‘That woman who wanted a baby. Now, that was helpful'” (King 416). In addition to Coyote’s obvious transformative roles in the story, I personally think Coyote also represents the ideal reader, listener, or consumer of stories. He is an active and enthusiastic participant in the narrator’s storytelling; sometimes, he even questions the events of the stories.

“Nope,” I tell Coyote. “She lands on a canoe.”

“A canoe!” Says Coyote. “Where did a canoe come from?”

“Use your imagination,” I says.

“Was it a green Royalite Old Town single,” says Coyote, with oak gunnels and woven cane seats?”

“No,” I says, “it wasn’t one of those.”

“Was it a red wood-and-canvas Beaver touring canoe with cedar ribs and built-in portage racks?”

“Not one of those either,” I says. “This canoe was big canoe. And it was white. And it was full of animals.”

“Wow!” says Coyote.

(King 105)

Coyote reminds me of the different people questioning the Native creation story Thomas King retells in every chapter of his Massey Lecture.

Another interesting thing about Coyote that challenges Western worldviews is the concept of his being. What is he? Is he a deity? A spirit? A god? A recurring fictional character? Just a regular talking coyote that happens to be invisible? I find it interesting that, despite all his power to change the world, Coyote does not embody the typical traits of a Western-type “god.” Coyote is good-natured, childlike and, despite his power, doesn’t lord it over people. He follows the Old Indians around rather than leading them. He is the listener of the story rather than the teller, who is the mysterious “I” narrator that entertains him throughout the book—”‘And here’s how it happened'” (King 3). And, Coyote would rather be a coyote than a dog/god (King 2).

Coyote as a spirit/god/dog/what-have-you works to challenge the belief that supernatural things are “martial and hierarchical . . . that encourage egotism and self-interest” (The Truth 26), which is a Western belief. Coyote’s childlike personality and the cyclical and repetitive nature of his storytelling/listening arc (the ending of the novel is the same as the beginning) also challenges the idea that a god must be omnipotent, omnipresent, all-powerful, and all-knowing. Coyotes (the animal) are also unique in that they are an adaptive wild species—unlike cougars, bears, and wolves, who move away from human settlement, coyotes have found a way to co-exist with human inhabitants. This helps visualize Coyote as a fluid character and a fluid concept. Moreover, after a little research in coyote lore, I found that in Blackfoot culture he is closely associated with Old Man and Old Woman, “Adam-and-Eve”-type characters who have a large role in creating the world (rather than their creator). Coyote suggests that transformation and creation is collective, made by normal people (like the old Indians) and the other characters of the novel.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Perennial, 2007. Print.

—The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Peterbough:Anansi Press. 2003. Print.

“Urban Wildlife: Coyotes.” BC SPCA: Speaking for Animals. The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, n.d. Web. 02 July 2015.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3:2.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres May 2015. University of British Columbia Department of English, n.d. Web. 29 June 2015.

Redish, Laura, and Orrin Lewis. “Legendary Native American Figures: Napi (Old-Man).” Native Languages of the Americas. Native Languages of the Americas, n.d. Web. 02 July 2015.

Standard

4 thoughts on “Who is Coyote?

  1. TimothyChoi says:

    Hi Charmaine,

    Thank you for your insight about the role of Coyote in this story. I was confused about the personality of Old Coyote and Coyote while reading novel, and perhaps you might know the answer? Old Coyote seems to have always been there in the beginning and therefore seems to exist outside of time. His sleeping and idle state also suggests immutability and disengagement with the affairs of the world. However, the Coyote who asks the questions is active, and because he doesn’t know everything about the story or is constantly modifying it, it seems as though he exists within time, and by actively correcting the events of a story he represents transience. How do we reconcile these opposite depictions? Are these characters the same figure with different disguises, or are the actually separate personalities?

    • Charmaine says:

      Hi Timothy, those are incredible insights! In fact, I might even quote you on my term paper 🙂 I like your observations about Old Coyote, and yeah, I was a little confused about his role in particular.

      Old Coyote and Coyote kind of remind me of Norma and Lionel, two people of the same family with very different worldviews. While Norma is a traditionalist, Lionel wants to break out in the world beyond the reserve.

      • Mattias Martens says:

        Hi Charmaine,
        Good treatment of the topic as always 🙂 I find this discussion interesting as Old Coyote is a mysterious figure to me.
        If I might make an imaginative leap in addressing Timothy’s question, I could imagine the Young and Old Coyotes being part of a dual nature through the concept of cycles. Young Coyote represents transformation, which happens constantly in cycles, while Old Coyote represents the changelessness beneath it – that the events of the story cannot escape the cycle, they have happened before and will happen again.
        It’s the same as the contrast between youth and age: the very young are seen as constantly fascinated, while the very old are seen as peaceful and impossible to surprise. Of course in life, the one cannot exist without the other.
        If this was what King was going for, I’d be only guessing to say whether it was his own innovation or a tribute to Old Coyote’s place in the mythos, or some combination of the two.

        • Charmaine says:

          Thanks for reading, Mattias! I think another thing we should remember is the relative absence of Old Coyote but also the atmosphere of importance that’s attached to him…it’s a little strange that he doesn’t really do anything. Kind of like the Deist definition of a non-intervening God. Yet, his name “Old Coyote” connotes something that is revered, important, eternal, and primeval in a spiritual way…

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *