Month: November 2016

3.7 GGRW Character Analysis: Female Power and Immaculate Conception

Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW according to the pages assigned to you. Be sure to make use of Jane Flick’s reference guide on you reading list.

The overall plot of Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King focuses on the trend of female power and the sexes ability to create life. Hyperlinking characters on pages 38-42 & 85-91

Coyote

In Flick’s reference guide, “Before humans existed. They had tremendous powers; they created the world as we know it; they instituted human life and culture—but they were also capable of being brave or cowardly, conservative or innovative, wise or stupid” (Bright xi)” (143). The Coyote is the original god of creation in King’s story as he created dog/GOD in a dream it had before the universe began. It would make sense to argue that Coyote is female because its lore aligns with the Christian concept of immaculate conception of another divine being. Further references to book of Genesis coincide with the characters of Virgin Mary (Coyote) and Jesus (dog/God). It’s astonishing to observe the parallels between these Native American myths with Christianity lore. Despite the fact that Coyotes are mostly seen as masculine or representative of masculine energy.

Dog/GOD

Jane Flick contends in her reference guide that “A dog (Canis familiaris) is, of course, a “lesser” form of coyote (Canis latranis)—and a god is a backward kind of dog” (143). dog/God begins as a dream that Coyote had before the birth of the world. The dog/GOD analogy can be alluded to human thinking and Genesis in the Christian Bible. dog/God can be alluded to human thinking because humans tend to worship their analytical ability and intelligence, while often forgetting that nature/life continues without this ability. King might be interpreting the fact that humans are arrogant just like dog/God, but he refuses to realize that nature and life continues without his existence just like human beings.

Furthermore, it would be interesting to think of Coyote as a female because then the origin story would closely mirror that of the Christian narrative of Jesus’ immaculate conception from Virgin Mary. dog/God thinks that it’s extremely intelligent, while the narrator and Coyote think it’s thinking is absurd and backwards. In GGRW, dog/GOD tries to interrupt the First Woman while she tells the story of her version of Genesis on pages 38-41.

Coyote agrees that her dream (Dog) is smart, however Coyote knows that dog is only a carbon copy of herself. Furthermore, Coyote’s dream has everything backwards, which warrants his name as “Dog” and not “God”.

The First Woman

In her reference guide, Jane Flick states that, “The story of First Woman falling from the sky with the subsequent creation of Turtle Island is a common one in Seneca and other tales” (147). Again, The First Woman alludes to Genesis and the Garden of Eden, however we have another female creator (other than Coyote). She is also known as the hero in Western media.

In Killing the Indian Maiden: Images of Native American Women in Film, M. Elise Marubbio states,

“The book reveals a cultural iconography embedded in the American psyche. As such, the Native American woman is a radicalized and sexualized other. A conquerable body, she represents both the seductions and the dangers of the American frontier and the Manifest Destiny of the American nation to master it.”(link)

As Marubbio pointed out, the Native American woman can be shaped into any character and The First Woman embodies these Western characteristics of the Lone Ranger or the Texas Ranger Myth.

In GGRW, The First Woman is alluded to the character of The Lone Ranger (or typical Western hero) and in Flick’s explanation, she addresses the Ranger as a “do-gooder” (141). The myth of the ranger emphasizes the story that the ranger is always sent to the town to clean up the town and rid it of it’s “sin”.

Works Cited

Flick, Jane “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water“. Toronto, Harper Collins, 1994. Web. July 31 2016.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto, Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

Santini, Derrick. God Dog. Digital image. Derrick Santini. N.p., 2013. Web. 17 Nov. 2016.

3.5 Green Grass Running Water and How Origins Shape Us

In order to tell us the story of a stereo salesman, Lionel Red Deer (whose past mistakes continue to live on in his present), a high school teacher, Alberta Frank (who wants to have a child free of the hassle of wedlock—or even, apparently, the hassle of heterosex!), and a retired professor, Eli Stands Alone (who wants to stop a dam from flooding his homeland), King must go back to the beginning of creation. Why do you think this is so?

The story of Green Grass Running Water starts with a story of origin and creation. Thomas King’s story states, “…in the beginning, there was nothing. Just the water. Coyote was there, but Coyote was asleep” (1).

The U.S. National Library of Medicine describes the Medicine Wheel as:

The Medicine Wheel, sometimes known as the Sacred Hoop, has been used by generations of various Native American tribes for health and healing. It embodies the Four Directions, as well as Father Sky, Mother Earth, and Spirit Tree—all of which symbolize dimensions of health and the cycles of life. (The U.S. National Library of Medicine Website)

King’s emphasis on the idea of creation relates closely to the symbol of the medicine wheel and to the cyclical nature of life.

Alberta Frank is my favorite character of the three mentioned in the question because she is an example of how the past affects the present.

In “The Earth Diver” creation story, the woman is autonomous and seeks help only from her friends. The relationship between male/female or patriarchal-centered relationships are of no significance in this story of creation and very human experience. Although “The Earth Diver” is built on cooperation, it does not specify how the family or household is created.

The characterization of Alberta is also impacted by her being the opposite of the ultimate western, biblical origin story “Genesis”. In Genesis, the male and female relationship is epitomized. The female in “Genesis” (Eve) is ostracized as the cause for the downfall of humankind by introducing sin into the world.

According to the Vatican website, in the Book of Genesis it states:

[3:16] To the woman [God] said, “I will greatly increase your pangs in childbearing; in pain you shall bring forth children, yet your desire shall be for your husband, and he shall rule over you.” (Vatican)

Not only is Eve ostracized for the downfall of man, ridiculed, and punished for her “sin”, but also god said,”men rule over her”. Her relations to men definitely have a large impact on this origin story. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Alberta does not even want heterosex, but desires children. Alberta wants “at least one, perhaps two” children, but struggles with how she will get there (65). This idea is closely related to the story of Virgin Mary and the miraculous birth of Jesus. Mary experiences miraculous conception without the heterosexual role of a man and that is what Alberta desires.

Lionel Red Deer lives in his past. Deer continuously tried to “move on” in order to go back to school, but he is held in place by his past. King is suggesting that the struggles and pressure from Deer’s past weighs him down and bars him from starting a new chapter in his life. Academia is related to this topic because it is something Deer is trying hard but failing to achieve. His aunty Norma tells him that he is trying to be a “white man” and his parents dislike his profession as a stereo salesman. The past creates this character’s stagnation. He had “made only three mistakes in his entire life,” he explains, “and he could name each one” (30). Deer reasons with himself about his past mistakes and I think this is a way of showing how his past is connected to his actions in present time.

Eli believes that the floodlights will be taken down when the dam is completed. However, “for reasons known only to corporate vice presidents and lawyers, it remained in place” (260). This reminds of me the symbol of the medicine wheel. The stories that were written by King are connected to the way we see the world and how these stories connect to the importance of the creation narrative. Origins matter in the present.

Works Cited:

By the Sweat of Your Face You Shall Eat Bread until You Return to the Ground, for out of It You Were Taken; You Are Dust, and to Dust You Shall Return. “The Book of Genesis.” The Book of Genesis. N.p., n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

“The Medicine Wheel and the Four Directions – Medicine Ways: Traditional Healers and Healing – Healing Ways – Exhibition – Native Voices.” U.S National Library of Medicine. U.S. National Library of Medicine, n.d. Web. 04 Nov. 2016.

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