Question 2: 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. Throughout Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, Coyote appears alongside the narrator, who tells and retells the story of where all the water at the beginning of the story came from. The presence of Coyote, a trickster in Indigenous fiction, “helps to communicate a particular lesson about life to listeners” (Coyote Facts). Despite his antics and seemingly clueless nature, his line of questioning not only provides comic relief, but his interjections also illuminate various issues otherwise hidden within the narrative:
“Wait, wait,” says Coyote. “When’s my turn?” “Coyotes don’t get a turn,” says Coyote. “Nonsense,” I says. “In a democracy, only people who can afford it get a turn.” “How about half a turn?” says Coyote. “Sit down,” I says. “We got to tell this story again.” “How about a quarter turn?” says Coyote. (327)
In this particular example, the narrator’s remark regarding democracy is an unfortunate aspect of our system – those who make the decisions at the top of our democratic hierarchy are often the wealthy elite who can afford the expensive campaigns often needed to win elections. To further this point, in 2008 “successfully-elected candidates in the Vancouver municipal election spent on average $36,246. In Vancouver, the average spending of elector organizations supporting candidates that were elected was $1,100,233, and the average spending of campaign organizers was $47,826” (Campaign Financing, 4). As such, though Coyote’s ignored appeals for his turn to speak feels lighthearted in this context, it highlights the important issues of silenced voices that those who are powerless or part of the minority face in our society. Apart from expanding our awareness, Coyote also serves to embody the oral culture of the Indigenous people. I found that as I was reading the novel, I had to read certain parts aloud (particularly some of the names on page 182 – well played, King). Most notably, the parts with Coyote speaking seemed to work better when I read them out loud, which was rather reminiscent of Harry Robinson’s short story, “Coyote Makes a Deal with King of England”. Having experienced Robinson’s story, feeling compelled to read aloud wasn’t what stood out for me; rather, it was the smooth blending of both this vocal and silent story-telling that really made the whole experience unique. This blend is not only a combination of the Western literary style with Indigenous oral story-telling, but it is also the amalgamation of Christianity and Coyote. On page 146 of the novel, when Noah states that bestiality is “against the rules,” Coyote responds with “but he doesn’t mean Coyotes.” Here, Margery Fee and Jane Flick comment on King’s blending of two cultures in one narrative:
Rules are made for coyotes to break! Apart from ignoring borders between animal and human (or divine and human, if you prefer), this subversive move makes the central story of the Christian religion into a Coyote story, and repeats the novel’s overall strategy which subsumes European culture and history into an Aboriginal framework, and counters a patriarchal religion with a matriarchal one. (136)
At the beginning of the novel, it took me a while to grasp what was happening – the significance of each character and their connections with one another were revealed bit by bit; the whole process felt like putting together a puzzle, really. Even then, the narrative would slip away from me sometimes, and I found myself flipping back a few pages to check if what I inferred was correct or to reorient myself within the context again. It may just be me, but this novel seem to have the characteristics of Coyote: tricky at times, and despite the humour, there are important lessons to be learned. Sidenote: As I was reading up on the character of Coyote, I stumbled across this term that I thought would be interesting for people to know: Heyoka, which means “trickster spirit”. There is also a discussion forum with helpful postings about what this term encapsulates.
Source: http://www.indiancanyonlife.org/ksr/
Works Cited
“Coyote Facts.” Coyote facts and their role in Native American culture. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 July 2014. <http://www.tribaldirectory.net/articles/coyote-facts.html>. Fee, Margery, and Jane Flick. “Coyote Pedagogy Knowing Where the Borders Are in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 162 (1999): n. pag. http://faculty.arts.ubc.ca/mfee/wp-content/uploads/2009/07/coyote-pedagogy1.pdf. Web. 11 July 2014. King, Thomas. Green grass, running water. HarperPerennial ed. Toronto: HarperPerennial Canada, 1999. Print. “Campaign Financing in B.C. Local Elections.” Local Government Elections Task Force. N.p., 1 Jan. 2010. Web. 11 July 2014. <http://www.localelectionstaskforce.gov.bc.ca/library/Campaign_Finance_Overview.pdf>.
Hi Bonny,
Thanks for the reply to my comment on your earlier blog-I found your answers to my questions quite helpful. I really enjoyed your above post, especially its focus on the different aspects of Coyote. When you say Coyote “serves to embody the oral culture of the Indigenous people”, would you agree that Coyote does this in the story mainly through serving as a voice for Indigenous issues and elements of oral culture, or is it something innate about Coyote himself that conveys the message? Put another way, is Coyote being used as a vehicle for the issues and aspects of oral culture and its marginalization, or is there a metaphorical level to Coyote which can’t be understood without background knowledge?
Regardless of his “true” purpose(s), I found Coyote both the most compelling and the most confusing character in the novel during my readings of it-this post helped me understand him a little better(still totally confused though : ) so thanks!
Hi Breanna,
Those are excellent questions (to be perfectly honest, you caught my intentionally vague statement, haha). Like you, I also find Coyote a confusing character, but perhaps this is one of the side-effects of reading about this character, that we can never really completely understand him. If we did, would he still be a “Trickster”? That being said, I think Coyote represents both of the aspects you have brought up in your comment: in this novel, his presence represents Indigenous story-telling culture and his dialogue points to important Indigenous issues such as marginalization. As for your astute question about whether or not there is “a metaphorical level to Coyote which can’t be understood without background knowledge,” I think so, but I don’t think I have the background knowledge to confidently state what that is. I do believe that the confusion we’ve felt is not purposeless. Perhaps Coyote’s role is to force us outside of our individual boundaries of comprehension, to compel us to create a dialogue to sift through this confusion he’s caused and hopefully make some semblance of sense out of the whole thing, to create a space for possibilities. Then again, I wonder if anyone could really understand a Trickster’s motives.
Thanks for another insightful comment!
Hi Bonny-Thanks for the reply, I also think that the confusion Coyote creates serves a particular purpose in the story, perhaps that of illuminating the lack of knowledge we have about Indigenous mythic and religious figures, and their cultural importance. Coyote is an unknown element for most of us. My question would be-does this confusion make him more powerful, or more easily discounted?
Hmmm, that’s an interesting question. My brain-hamster is sprinting on its tiny little wheel so this is a bit of a brain dump:
I think Coyote becomes more easily discounted to those who are oblivious to the purpose his shenanigans serve, but he is more powerful to those who realize that he is, after all, the Trickster. In challenging our notion of order and boundaries, Coyote not only forces us to acknowledge that those concepts exist, but also that the human idea of order should not discount the disorder of the natural world (I’m thinking of the moment on page 145 when Changing Woman talks to Coyote and Noah tells her not to do that because “it’s against the rules”). Coyote, to me, embodies the balance between order and disorder: the confusion and unpredictability of his actions compels us to reconsider the perspectives that create the foundations for our rules and think of the possibilities outside of our boundaries. Bára’s comment regarding “the focus on correctness and accuracy in Western literature” that most of us are so accustomed to may be why Coyote confounds us, but this confusion refreshingly pushes us toward constant self-reflection about our beliefs and our way of life.
Hopefully some of that made sense!
I found your hyperlink about Heyoka very interesting! I thought you did a good job at looking at Coyote. How do you think old coyote is or represents in comparison to this younger one? Do they share the same elements? You talked about how coyote represents “the oral culture of the Indigenous people,” do you think the ‘old’ and ‘younger’ coyotes represent different aspects of this aforementioned oral culture?
Your blog was very thought provoking, thank you!
Hi Preet,
I won’t be replying your comment right away! Your question reminded me of something that I wanted to double-check. I will get back to you in a bit!
Aaaand I’m back! Sorry again for the late response. When I wrote this post, I pictured both Coyotes as almost the same characters, but that one was our narrator’s counterpart, and the other was an “older” Coyote taking part in the story’s happenings. I may have to look again, but did you find a particular moment when the text actually refers to the narrator-Coyote as “younger”? I completely assumed that “older” was referring to age in this story, but upon further reflection, do you think it could be referring to a moment in time? Allow me to clarify: I’m thinking of the cyclical nature of Indigenous fiction and this story (beginning and ending with “And here’s how it happened”). Could the beginning of this story actually be a re-telling? In other words, this Coyote that comes with us along this journey is actually the same Coyote who is looking at his past self in the previous telling? I know this might not explain some of his clueless line of questioning about the story’s course of events (eg. pages 40 or 105), but perhaps that is a nod to the feature of retelling a story; as the story-teller, the narrator can adjust the story however they want and that is what makes story-telling unique to each person. The thing is, if this conjecture is true, it makes me wonder what the previous story before this one may have been like (if one existed). Following this line of thinking (and to answer your question), Coyote represents not only the Indigenous figure of Coyote, but he also represents the cyclical structure of the novel with the Coyote-with-the-narrator re-visiting the Coyote-of-the-story.
Hello!
Thank you also for the link! I looked around that website a little more and found this quote:
“Everything I write here is sometimes right.
Everything I write here is sometimes wrong”
I think this statement expresses a very large difference between western and First Nations literature. It seems to me that, especially with the Trickster, the focus on correctness and accuracy as in Western literature is not so central in First Nations literature. The purpose of the story, rather, seems more about the lessons and learning that come from the story. This reminds me of learning in public elementary and secondary school, where history was taught in chronological dates, making it incredibly boring, instead of telling the story of what happened, its significance, and what we can learn from that instance.
Hi Bára,
I’m glad you found the link interesting! That’s a really interesting observation that you make (Western literature focusing on “correctness and accuracy” moreso than Indigenous stories), and I’d like to add to that by saying while Western literature seems to focus on the division between good and evil, Indigenous literature strives to find balance in the world. On the subject of chronological dates, I admire King’s skillful ability to take the linear story of the Bible and fuse it with the cyclical style of Indigenous story-telling.
I wonder how much our understanding of things would change if Coyote had a hand in our learning process (it certainly beats regurgitating a timeline). 🙂
Thanks for reading and commenting!
Hey Bonny,
What a great discussion in connecting King’s Coyote in GGRW, with the literary archetype of the trickster.
Responding to your last point, the book itself definitely feels like the trickster character itself to me at times. Why do the cars disappear in the puddles? Why are they repeating the storytelling? How was Alberta impregnated? How do these narrative threads diverges and merges? Are they traveling in parallel universes or are they spirits? So long story short, I can definitely resonate with your idea that the novel feels like Coyote, the trickster sometimes.
That’s acute observation that you have noticed Coyote to be the embodiment of marginalized voices in several parts of the novels. What I found most peculiar about the character is the narrative thread between Coyote and “I says” and how this is the storyline that often breaks “forth wall” frequently. During these times, Coyote is often asking many questions about the stories being told in the other narrative threads in GGRW– if the story ends here, or if it’s time to apologize, or asking who a new character is. This of course reflects his cluelessness which you have mentioned above as one of his characteristics.
I also find it particularly interesting that Babo Jones is often the one who makes this statement when she’s with Dr. Joe Hovaugh: “Isn’t that just the trick”. She says that multiple times, including the times when Dr. Hovaugh realizes that his car is missing, and when he sees his car again. I haven’t been able to figured this out (along with a million other things that take place in the novel), but what do you think she is implying here? Do you think this is in anyway related to the idea of Coyote as the trickster?
Thanks again for sharing a great write-up on the topic.
-Kayi