Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW (Pages 162-177). Be sure to make use of Jane Flick’s reference guide on your reading list.
——————————————————————————————
When I read read my section I was shocked to note how many allusions and historical references were included in just a few short pages. The more research I do, it seems the more references I find, it seems impossible to discover all of King’s hidden allusions but I’ll do my best.
I’d like to first discuss the story of Eli and Karen, Eli seems to be a character based on Elijah Harper, Harper is best known for voting against the Meech Lake Accord, Harper prevented the accord from being passed based on the grounds that there had been no consultation with First Nations groups and that their rights were not being recognized. Harper was voted Newsmaker of the year in 1990 because of his part in preventing the Meech Lake Accord. Considering the strength behind Eli”s character I feel that the story of him and Karen does not portray him as being particularly strong willed or determined.
The story begins with how they met and discusses the relationship that develops through a sharing of novels. Karen generally passes on books based on the lives of Indians although Eli prefers westerns. A part of this particular story revolves around a novel that Eli is reading in which a stagecoach is attacked by a notorious Indian named Iron Eyes who takes pity on a beautiful young woman and spares her life to show her the ways of his people. The Indian in the novel is based on Iron Eyes Cody who was a well known actor who appeared in over 200 flims, he acted predominantly in westerns beginning in the silent film era. Although he worked in Hollywood he retained his pride for his Native roots and he was a great supporter of many Indian affairs. This connection between Eli and Iron Eyes Cody is very interesting because in the story, Eli moves in with Karen who’s family is wealthy and the way in which Eli describes the home they share gives the impression that he does not really belong. This is similar to the connection of Iron Eyes Cody who although he embraced his Indian heritage, lived outside of it. Although this only touches on this particular story I feel that these are the most interesting connections and if I wasn’t going to cut some details this post would be incredibly long.
The second story includes the Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Hawkeye. These characters pop up regularly throughout the novel and according to Flick, “King purposefully plays with expectations about naming and gender.” (Flick 1) All of these names are very clearly referring to white characters, either from old television series or the bible. By creating Indian characters with names that are clearly based on white characters it accentuates the importance of overlap between Native traditional stories and real life events. Not only are the stories involving the old indians representative of traditional stories, by giving them white names it allows the reader to better understand the challenge of maintaining these traditional stories in a world where First Nations must constantly fight for their rights.
The third story that I would like to discuss in my section is that of Lionel and Alberta. These characters seem to constantly be on different pages throughout the novel. Lionel seems to have had some bad luck throughout his life and although he generally means well he just cant seem to make anything of himself. In this section of the novel Lionel seems to have made the decision that Alberta is the woman for him and his actions are those of a man who seems to know what he wants but just simply cant make it happen. This is probably partly to do with the fact that although Lionel has decided that Alberta is the one, Alberta is still dating both him and Charlie but in her heart she knows that neither one of them is marriage material. Flick states that Alberta Frank is herself, frank. (Flick 5) I would disagree. Although Alberta is frank with herself, she cant seem to simply be honest and tell both Lionel and Charlie that she is uninterested in marriage to either of them. The result of this is situations such as this scene where she has been invited to dinner at Lionel’s parents’ house. Lionel had prepared a romantic weekend and in the end because she had simply not been frank about the situation, rather than discussing is she made the excuse that she had forgotten about a meeting and had to return home.
Overall I found the connections related to Eli the most interesting. The links between his roots and his reality corresponded so well to the stories of Iron Eyes Cody. Had I not done my research I would have likely missed this connection and it is truly amazing how many connections there are throughout this novel.
Works Cited:
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature, 1999. 140-172. http://canlit.ca/pdfs/articles/canlit161-162-Reading(Flick).pdf
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.
Hi Jennifer!
I agree with you in that Eli does not seem to be as assertive as the allusion would imply. Your discussion on Alberta not being frank helped me see that maybe King is touching upon the tensions of identity. For Eli, he does not seem to have much leadership of his own in his relationship with Karen. Karen is the one who is always telling him what to read and asks Eli to take her back to the Sun Dance. Eli just doesn’t really seem to care. However, after his mother’s death, Eli does become more headstrong especially in his interactions with Sifton.
Alberta, on the other hand, does seem quite determined, but she is not really able to get what she wants and finds it difficult to explain what she wants. I think that part of this may be due to the impact Western ideas of relationships, marriage, pregnancy, etc. have on her. Alberta is clearly independent but the Western culture she finds herself in tries to prevent her from living the independent life she desires. I wish that King had told us about what happens to Alberta. We know what happened to Eli so I wonder why King left out an “ending” for Alberta. I’d be interested to see what your thoughts are on this! Thanks!
Jasmine