English 470A: Canadian Literary Genres

In order to tell us the story of a stereo salesman, Lionel Red Deer (whose past mistakes continue to live on in his present), a high school teacher, Alberta Frank (who wants to have a child free of the hassle of wedlock—or even, apparently, the hassle of heterosex!), and a retired professor, Eli Stands Alone (who wants to stop a dam from flooding his homeland), King must go back to the beginning of creation.
Why do you think this is so?

In answering this question, it is useful to recall how, in response to his impatience at the circular progress of the narrative, coyote’s unnamed companion states simply, “it’s all the same story” (147).
In saying this, coyote’s companion is underlining the way in which all the stories told in King’s Green Grass, Running Water are fundamentally connected. Indeed, there is an echoing implication in this statement that ALL stories are in fact related; are variations upon a shared, universal narrative. I think this cyclic interconnectivity shared by all stories is a central theme in Green Grass, Running Water and, in seeking to develop this theme, King opts to tell the stories of Lionel, Alberta, Eli, and all the other endearing characters in his novel, with continual reference to the creation story about Woman, water, and the beginning of the world.
Cycles represent an important leitmotif in King’s novel. The story of the character known alternately as First Woman, Thought Woman, Old Woman, Falling Woman, and so forth, is a story about cycles, told in cycles. Woman’s story is delivered numerous times, retold again and again by various different characters – this represents a cycle. Within the story itself there are narrative patterns, such as the presence of water, or the problematic confrontation between Woman and Christianity, which resurface with every retelling – this represents another cycle.  Though the story about Woman is told by different people in different ways, it remains, fundamentally, the same story and it cannot be separated, either in its content or its formal characteristics, from the concept of cyclicism. By returning to and retelling this creation tale, King ensures that it’s central themes saturate the fabric of the novel as a whole, and colour the smaller constituent narratives. Thus, the creation story informs our understanding of Lionel, Eli, and Alberta’s own stories, by reminding insisting that we recognize an underlying structure of circularity, shared themes, and connection with the past. It is the prefiguration and recurrence of these themes in the creation tale which underscores their importance elsewhere in the novel.

Works Cited:

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.