Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW.
I was assigned pages 217-229.
This is an image of Buffalo Bill (middle-left) posing with the crew for the Wild West Show
Westerns
Westerns are a common theme within this section of the book. Either one of the characters is reading a Western (such as Eli) or watching a Western on TV (Charlie, Babo, Bursum, and Dr. Hovaugh). On page 217, King writes, “Charlie lifted the remote control and turned the sound on. The Indians were running their horses back and forth along the riverbank. On the other side, John Wayne and Richard Widmark waited behind a makeshift barricade of logs and saddles” (King 217). John Wayne, as many people might know, is one of the most famous Hollywood Western actors, usually cast as the protagonist who fights against the antagonists, the Native Americans. I had never heard of Richard Widmark, however, and decided to do some research about what film King might be referring to. Interestingly, once I did my research, I found out that the only movie that John Wayne and Richard Widmark starred in together was called, The Alamo, that was based on the Texas Revolution and the Battle of The Alamo (The Alamo n.p.). Even more interestingly, the battle was fought between the Texans and the Mexicans – in no article that I read was there mention of any Native Americans.
It is really interesting that King includes these two actors as being in the same Western movie together, fighting against the Native Americans, especially since the only movie that Widmark and Wayne did together was a movie about fighting Mexicans. After reading the section I was assigned over again, I noticed that on page 222, Dr. Hovaugh is also watching the same movie. He thinks to himself, “the horse must be an Arabian… and the chief must be an Indian” (King 222). King goes on to write that Dr. Hovaugh, “knew that Hollywood used Italians and Mexicans to play Indian roles” (King 222). King is pointing to the fact that Hollywood would often hire non-Indigenous peoples to play Indigenous roles within Westerns. Is it possible that he is also alluding to the possibility that Native Americans were hired in Hollywood films to play Mexicans?
With Eli, since he is staying at his mother’s house in a remote area, he does not have access to electricity. He passes time reading books that Clifford Sifton gave to him. On page 218, “Chapter twenty-six. Iron Eyes attacked the soldiers. The cavalry came riding over the hill” (King 218). Not coincidently, the name of main character in the book Eli is reading is the same name that Charlie’s father changed his name to, except that the long version of his name was Iron Eyes Screeching Eagle (Flick 153). Also, I believe that King is also referring to Iron Eyes Cody, a very popular Native American within mainstream media and advertising. Flick notes, that this reference is “one of many jokes about the image of the Indian in popular culture” (153). King subtly makes the assertion that – especially in pop culture – that Native Americans are all portrayed the same, hence why he gives both the character in the book and Charlie’s father the same name as the very popular Native American, Iron Eyes Cody. Eli, after reading this passage (noted above), skips over a bunch of pages and then “tosse[s] the book on the table, roll[s] … on his side against the cushions, and [goes] to sleep” (King 218). King is suggesting that it is this stereotype of Indigenous peoples – continuously used in popular culture – that is boring and predictable.
Bursum also watches the Western on The Map. He cheers for John Wayne when he exclaims “Hooray! We got ’em now, boys!” (King 219). Flick notes that Bursum’s character is based off of William F. Cody (stage name – Buffalo Bill), who was an “exploiter of Indians for entertainment in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show” (148). This could be a commentary on Bursum’s exploitative nature and also the exploitation of Native Americans in Hollywood film in general.
Overall, I am surprised in how many connections I could find in that little section and how deep the meanings of those connections could get. I really enjoyed the novel, as stated in another blog post, I have read it before but every time I read it I learn something new or noticed something I didn’t before.
Works Cited
“Buffalo Bill’s Wild West, 1890.” Vuillemenot. Montabone. Photograph. Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill#/media/File:Buffalo_Bills_Wild_West_Show,_1890.jpg
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.
“The Alamo.” Remember The Alamo. Retrieved 16 March 2015: http://thealamo.org/history/the-1836-battle/index.html
Hi Laura,
I really enjoyed reading your blog post, I also found that in my section of text there were many references to westerns. It seems as though King plays with the concept of cowboys and indians throughout the entire novel, however he has managed to change the expectations behind the typical hollywood stereotype. The fact that Eli loves reading western and that typically they revolve around native brutality is quite interesting to me. The fact that King has based many of the characters on hollywood actors also plays into the idea that these are all allusions of people and that we don’t really know the person behind the character. This ties into your comment that many actors are hired to play roles of “the indian” even though they are non-indigenous, or vice versa. King does a very good job at playing with our expectations of a character and creating an unexpected twist within who they are as a person. Do you feel that having unexpected characteristics makes a character more or less believable?
– Jennifer H
Hi Jennifer,
Thanks for your comment and question. I guess I am a little confused about your question, do you mean that the characters in the book (Eli, Alberta, Lionel etc.) have unexpected characteristics? I don’t believe that they do have unexpected characteristics and this is the point that King is trying to make. That they are people, with jobs, problems, families (with different family dynamics) – that they don’t fit a “western” genre stereotype – they are just regular people. And for readers who are not Indigenous, perhaps they had expectations that the characters would follow the stereotypical First Nations person, either being a “drunk” or a “warrior” or a “savage” – King is showing those readers that those are what the stereotypes are and how they not an accurate portrayal of Indigenous people at all. Moreover, I think that’s why he brings in the concept of Western Hollywood films and books – to refute this concept by showing readers what an accurate depiction of First Nations people is.
I hope I answered your question.
Laura
Hey Laura,
Love the thoughts! Something else really interesting about the Western films is that there is a whole subgenre called “Spaghetti Westerns” where two different Western cultures are coming together (Italian and American) to create a film in the Western genre. These are an interesting subgenre as we normally see a Western as the “White Man” fighting against the “Native Man” or the “Mexican Man”. Some Spaghetti Westerns have the White Man vs another White Man, but both of the White men have darker skin (i.e.: Django has two “White men”, but they are played by a darker-skinned Italian and Spaniard). Kind of interesting to think about 🙂
Best,
Caitlin
Hey Caitlin!
Thanks for that. I had no idea about the Spaghetti Westerns! I’ll have to check them out.
Laura
Hi Laura!
You have some really interesting insights here. I wasn’t familiar with the name Richard Widmark either, but your research definitely helped to clarify- thanks for that!
I’m wondering if you have any thoughts about the individual scene described in this section by King? Wayne and Widmark are on one side, and the Indians are on the other; water is what separates them. The theme of water as the “dividing marker” is recurring within the book (Eli vs Clifford Sifton and the dam; the creation stories etc.) If we take this in a literal context, we might think of the Atlantic ocean, separating the “New World” from Europe, but I think there’s definitely something “deeper” here. Forgive me for the pun!
One of the lines that stood out to me in this scene was when the Chief says “Today is a good day to die” (217). This, according to Flick, is a famous line from the Battle of the Little Bighorn, spoken by Crazy Horse as he took on Custer. I think what King might be getting at here is how the “official” historical narrative is like a Western movie, in that it reproduces a one dimensional (biased) COLONIAL narrative. What do you think?
Thanks again, Laura
-Ali
Hey Ali!
That’s a great interpretation and reading in that section. I definitely think King is referring to historical narratives being a colonial narrative – it’s usually the “winner” who tells the story, right? Also, something to think about – history: (his) story – it’s usually the males that tell the historical narrative, right? Women are definitely marginalized in a historical narrative.
Also, about what you were saying in regards to the water separating. Isn’t that also a biblical reference too? I think it’s definitely a religious reference (Moses parts the Red Sea to get across). I think King uses religion in general as a marker to challenge with his own cultural beliefs.
Thanks for your thoughts!
Laura