Action Packed Narrative Decolonization

What is an act of narrative decolonization?

“The lives of King’s characters are entangled in and informed by both the colonial legacy in the Americas and the narratives that enact and enable colonial domination. King begins to extricate his characters’ lives from the domination of the invader’s discourses by weaving their stories into both Native American oral traditions and into revisions of some of the most damaging narratives of domination and conquest: European American origin stories and national myths, canonical literary texts, and popular culture texts such as John Wayne films. These revisions are acts of narrative decolonization.”(Cox 161-162)

In my humble opinion, there are two Juicy “acts of narrative decolonization” in Thomas Kings Green Grass Running Water . The story of Eve in the Garden of Eden and the revamped ending to the John Wayne film at the end of the novel, are two great examples of acts if narrative decolonization. Let us begin at the beginning, so to speak, with Eve. Eve from biblical Genesis is a first woman made by God from the rib of Adam. Eve ruins everything in the Garden of Eden when she listens to the devil/serpent and decides to eat the apple from the tree of forbidden fruit. Now, not only does Eve eat the apple herself, but she convinces Adam to eat it too and they are made conscious of sin and cast out of the garden to suffer. Oops.

In King’s Green Grass Running Water First Woman lands in the water world, from the sky world as told by Lone Ranger, she encounters animals who put her on the back of grandmother Turtle. First Woman then goes on to make land from mud and as it grows Coyote decides drop in the idea of making a garden. “That backwards God”( King 39), as He is named appears and likes Coyote’s idea as it is part of His narrative, the Christian narrative.  From this point on the story of Adam and Eve in the garden unfolds with plot twists and turns, fry bread and pizza and complete the disregard for the Christian God. Lone Ranger in the telling of First Woman’s story does not have an Eve at all. What we see is not Adam and Eve, but is really Ahdam and First Woman. By the end of the First Woman’s story told by Lone Ranger, her and Ahdam leave the garden on their own accord and head west, because that God is both stingy and grouchy ( King 69). What ensues is an encounter with racist rangers who mistake First Woman for Lone Ranger when she puts his mask on. They spare her life.

The Christian story of Adam and Eve is erased by Lone Ranger’s telling and replaced with a melange of First Nation creationism and  historical points of reference far beyond anything biblical. Real experience and real prejudice and real escape is brought to the table. This is an act of narrative decolonization. The story of Genesis is the 15th chapter after all. It comes later.

If we Jump from Genesis or chapter 15 of the story to the time of  the Westerns, we get a very satisfying end to a very offensive Western starring John Wayne. This too is an act of narrative decolonization. “Here we go” Bursum excitedly calls, as the scene where all the Indians are killed by John Wayne and the all the whites come up oh his map.  Bursum enthusiastically explains that the  particular scene used “over six hundred extras, Indians and whites. And five cameras. The director spent almost a month on this one scene before he felt it was right.” (King 317). Lone Ranger then pipes in with,  “He didn’t get it right the first time … [b]ut we fixed it for him.” (King 317). As the Four Indians, Coyote, Lionel, Eli and Bursum watch Lionel’s father, Portland race his horse up and down the river taunting John Wayne, we expect the scene to end with the demise of Portland. What happens next though, when Lone Ranger begins sing “soft and rhythmic, running below the blaring of the bugle and the thundering of the horses’ hooves”, is he and the three Indians fix the film. What we see are the “blue-eyed  and rosy-cheeked” soldiers “c[o]me over the last rise … [a]nd disappear[ed]” (King 321). Portland and the rest of soldiers fight back against John Wayne and his men shooting him and killing him. The end.

How many films have been made  that demoralize the “other” and lifting up the colonizer. How satisfying it is for Lionel to see his father as a hero in the movie, when in life it is another story, the story of a man dealing with the effects of colonization on his self. I figure that a re-telling a story until one gets it right involves taking back the narrative and getting closer to something authentic.

Till next time,

Sarah Afful

 

Works Cited

Flick Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161/162 (1999). Web. 4 April 2013.

James Cox. “All This Water Imagery Must Mean Something.” Canadian Literature 161-162 (1999). Web. 4 April 2013.

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

Miller, Stuart. “The American epic: Hollywood’s enduring love for the western”. The Guardian. 21 October 2016. www.theguardian.com/film/2016/oct/21/western-films-hollywood-enduring-genre. Accessed 9 March 2020.

Reebus28. “John Wayne Pixel Character”.Teepublic.  2012-2020. www.teepublic.com/sticker/1916976-john-wayne-pixel-character. Image. Accessed 9 March 2020.