{"id":30,"date":"2014-03-22T16:06:40","date_gmt":"2014-03-22T23:06:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/?p=30"},"modified":"2014-03-22T16:06:40","modified_gmt":"2014-03-22T23:06:40","slug":"lesson-3-2-green-grass-running-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/2014\/03\/22\/lesson-3-2-green-grass-running-water\/","title":{"rendered":"Lesson 3.2, Green Grass Running Water."},"content":{"rendered":"

The Role of the Coyote.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cGreen Grass Running Water\u201d by Thomas King attempts to create a balance between depicting the real struggles of Aboriginals today and their cultural heritage and storytelling<\/a>. Similar to a Sundance ceremony where various speakers and voices tell and pass along their stories, \u201cGreen Grass Running Water\u201d uses many supporting characters that each have their own story and struggle as Blackfoot\u2019s in Canada. An outside narrative manages all the different perspectives and stories, and brings them together in the end just like the main announcer in a traditional Sundance ceremony. \u00a0The theme of interconnectedness becomes more prominent throughout the book, as the stories of each of the individuals become more intertwined. In this way, I had the chance to understand each character and their issues separately before realizing they are all part of the bigger picture \u2013 a community and as a society.<\/p>\n

In King\u2019s story, the presence of the Coyote is quite prominent and important. The Coyote\u2019s identity influences the narrative in a significant way. We are reminded that the Coyote in \u201cGreen Grass Running Water\u201d is a trickster with a dual function:\u00a0 as a healer, but also as a hero that resists colonial representations<\/a>. In fact, the Coyote helps to bridge King\u2019s story between two worlds, the mythological world and the reality world. King stresses the fact that if humans and different cultures continue to separate themselves based on beliefs and ethnic characteristics, then there will always be outside sources who will try to re-unite them, just like the Coyote does. The Coyote, who tries to \u2018fix\u2019 the gap, is seen misunderstanding many of the customs of the different cultures. In this way, the character of the Coyote is seen as a trickster because he challenges the view of western myths. By retelling the myths and making silly jokes around them, the myths are seen in a different point of view. By keeping this in mind, I\u2019ve come to the realization that challenging the myths and making jokes around them is a way that the Coyote attempts to fix the world. For instance, when Bill Bursum was trying to play a movie in his TV shop, it didn\u2019t work. Rather, a different version started to play. In this version, the Aboriginals are the winners. This new depiction changes the entire story, and represents how myths can in fact change. By changing the myth, we have a chance to fix the derogatory and destructive stereotypes that are affecting everyday society with racism, sexism, and violence towards each other.<\/p>\n

References:<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Context of Oral Tradition and Contemporary Native Storytelling\u201d Powershow.<\/i>\u00a0 http:\/\/www.powershow.com\/view1\/2440b2-ZDc1Z\/The_Context_Oral_Tradition_and_Contemporary_Native_powerpoint_ppt_presentation2014. Web. 20. Mar. 2014.<\/p>\n

“Colonial Representation of Native Americans, Savages” Gutenberg.<\/em> http:\/\/www.gutenberg.org\/files\/42410\/42410-h\/images\/illus-115.jpg. Web 20 March 2014.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Role of the Coyote. \u201cGreen Grass Running Water\u201d by Thomas King attempts to create a balance between depicting the real struggles of Aboriginals today and their cultural heritage and storytelling. Similar to a Sundance ceremony where various speakers and voices tell and pass along their stories, \u201cGreen Grass Running Water\u201d uses many supporting characters … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3921,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3921"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30\/revisions\/31"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/annatalk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}