Narratives assume, in Blanca Chester’s words, “a common matrix of cultural knowledge.” The Four Old Indians are perhaps the best examples of characters that belong to a matrix of cultural knowledge, which excludes many non-First Nations. What were your first questions about and impressions of these characters? How have you come to understand their place in the novel?
As I began to read Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water” the Four Old Indians were characters that were both simple but confusing. Simple in the sense that King does not provide many characteristics or background knowledge concerning these four old Indians. The reader only learns that they have escaped from a hospital and these four men are named: Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe and Hawkeye. This is where the confusion sets in. Before reading the book, I assumed that the story was to follow a set of First Nation characters; their lives, their values, and their culture intimately; and if there was to be mention of White characters they would be secondary characters or antagonists to the story. However King has used four well-known White male characters to orally pass on to Coyote the answer to where all the water came from. By using White male individuals to discuss subjects such as where the water came from, (as we see in four different sections) and the values of the First Nation’s people left me questioning what was the reasoning behind King’s choice?. Why were these four characters picked in particular?
As I went online to discover more about who these four characters were Robinson Crusoe stood out to me the most. Robinson Crusoe is a young, middle-class, white man searching for a career under the eye of his father. This journey for a career is overpowered by his yearning for life at sea which his father is not pleased with. I looked at this character and connected it to Lionel. Lionel in this story works towards finding himself and figuring out what he wants in life whilst constantly being told time and time again by his aunt Norma that he should return to the reserve. I cannot say it is a coincidence that King would choose a character such as Robinson Crusoe who yearns for a life on the sea when the theme of this book revolves around the aspect of water.
The Four Old Indians are crucial within this story as they work to bring humour to the taboo subjects that are discussed. Lone Ranger, Robinson Crusoe, Ishmael and Hawkeye bring a light laughter to the way in which the Eurocentric values and views overpower the First Nation’s. In other words, King’s humour follows traditional native storytelling whilst disarming oppressing forces in an unequal power relationship. To have four White characters tell the stories, especially the creation stories of the First Nations people’s belief is ironic in itself. The humour is portrayed through satire, which is powerful in demonstrating the ridiculousness of the oppression the First Nations receive. I want to point out a certain satirical moment in the story on page 196:
“This is crazy, says Changing Woman. Why are you killing all these whales?
Oil. Perfume, too. There’s a big market in dog food, says Ahab. This is a Christian world, you know. We only kill things that are useful or things we don’t like.”
This scene is part of the creation story that Ishmael tells and it criticizes the ways of the White people. In this case they are criticizing how the White culture is known for killing anything, any one or any belief that does not fit under their own views and beliefs. King addresses this problem by using humour to lighten the mood that concerns such a depressing and horrible subject. Ahab’s reasons as to why they are killing the whales seems plausible to him and the others, but the oil, perfume, and dog food are absurd uses of such an innocent thing to the Changing Woman and the readers.
It is obvious that the Four Old Indians bring a great humour to the story but they also bring feminism with it. Each Old Indian’s creation story revolves around a different woman (First Woman\Changing Woman\Thought Woman\Old Woman), being the center of said creation. By using a woman as the creator or founder of the water, and a First Nations one too, it places such a powerful position upon these woman who are marginalized greatly in this society. With men as the center of knowledge and center of the universe as created through the biblical stories we are taught (which are also intertwined with these creations stories in this novel), and through the enlightenment era with God as the center and the answer to everything, King’s use of a female to take on this role creates a major progressive movement towards equality, and thus feminism.
Overall the Four Old Indians bring humour, through satire, and also just fun and jokes with each other, to the table in order to discuss sensitive taboo subjects that appear between First Nations values and Eurocentric values. King also provides a look at these subjects through the perspective of feminism which together with the humour constructs a new open minded way of viewing the world and moving forward.
King is not the only author to use humour to display certain views on such delicate subjects. Carrying on “Irregardless” is an illustrated book that I recommend you have a look at if possible. The book includes art works from amazing First Nations artists, and within the book, the authors explain how they have used humour within their art as a “survival kit” and “political weapon” to display how they feel. ( I am based out of UBC Okanagan campus, and have been able to find this book in the library to read, so here is where anyone from UBC Okanagan or UBC Vancouver can obtain it)
Works Cited
“Carrying on ‘Irregardless’ Humour in Contemporary Northwest Coast Art.” Books of the Pacific Northwest, Harbour Publishing, 10 Oct. 2016, www.harbourpublishing.com/title/carryingonirregardless#.
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water, Harper Perennial, Toronto, Ont, 2007.
“Marginalization of Aboriginal Women.” Indigenous Foundations, indigenousfoundations.arts.ubc.ca/home/community-politics/marginalization-of-aboriginal-women.html.
Hey Bryony-Rose!
I also responded to this question, but didn’t think to connect the Four Old Indians to the water theme. The connection you made between the two with Robinson Crusoe made me think about the other three. I’m not very familiar with Hawkeye, but I know that Ishmael’s story takes place aboard a ship whose crazy captain refuses to give up the search. I couldn’t think of a connection with the Lone Ranger, but I thought Ishmael and Robinson Crusoe’s connections were interesting. Something else that came to mind while reading your post was the fluidity of gender for the Four Old Indians. The origin stories they tell appear to be about their own origins, perhaps even moreso than the origin of the water or the world. Therefore, they are each one of the women who come to Fort Marion. But when they are in Blossom, they are described as men. Babo also is the only one who seems to see them as women. Is it possible that this mixing of genders is another way to destabilize any binaries that reader may have preconceived notions of? A way to shake up their way of reading, which is more than likely influenced (or entirely constructed) by western culture? I look forward to your thoughts on this!
Hi Madelaine,
Thanks for your comment!
I too did think about the Four Old Indians and their gender. I like your idea of it being a way to destabilize any binaries the reader may have preconceived. If we are to look with a westernized lens, I think the Four Indians are represented as both men and women to show the two dynamics that are usually stereotyped with the two genders. This may be far off but I wonder if the Four Indians are said to be women by Babo because of the connection to the fact that they are from a mental hospital. Women are usually stereotyped to be emotional, weak, inferior, sensitive etc. Does the mental hospital represent the unstable theme that the previous descriptors together create for the female gender and so thus one reason as to why there is confusion, because a male unlike a woman is not unstable, emotionally or mentally? Like I said this could be completely left field, but as I am currently in a sociology of gender class, these topics are always on my mind.