The Custom of the Country: Colonialism and Naming in GGRW
by admin
For this assignment I have chosen to focus specifically on one recurrent feature of King’s Green Grass, Running Water, which I, while reading the novel, believed to be symbolic but for which no apparent explanation was provided in Jane Flick’s “Reading Notes for Green Grass, Running Water“.
There are numerous central characters in King’s novel, one of whom is Lionel Red Dog. Early in the narrative readers are introduced to Lionel’s sister, Latisha. Though slightly peripheral to the story, by comparison, Latisha is continually held up to Lionel as the accomplished foil to his own life’s failures. Indeed, as the proprietor of the famed Dead Dog Cafe (featured elsewhere in King’s works and on CBC Radio), Latisha certainly represents success- in all but one respect, that is. The reader learns that as s younger woman Latisha was married to a white American man named George Morningstar who, as Jane Flick notes, is meant to allude symbolically to General Custer (146). George continually refers to Latisha as “Country”, a strange nickname for which no explanation is ever given in the book.
The strangeness of this pet-name struck me immediately, especially in view of the fact that, as Flick’s “Reading Notes” demonstrates, King rarely passes up an opportunity to embed meaning and symbolism in the naming of his characters in GGRW.
Though George first refers to Latisha as “Country” on page 133, I have chosen to focus on pages 371-381. At this point in the narrative, Latisha has arrived at the annual Sun Dance, where she is confronted unexpectedly by her ex husband. Latisha, standing with her back to George, is aware of his presence before she actually sees him, because he addresses her, once more, as “Country”.
“‘Hello, Country.’ Even before she turned, Latisha’s arms instinctively came up and she stepped back, setting a distance between herself and the man behind her. ‘Hello, George,’ she said” (King, 371-372).
Over the course of the following ten pages, George attempts to take advantage of Latisha and her community for his own private purposes and thus the significance of George’s nickname for Latisha takes on clarity in view of their exploitative relationship. As Gillian Roberts states in Parallel Encounters: Culture at the Canada-US Boarder, “[George]… seems to think that he owns [Latisha] and it is now his responsibility to ‘cultivate’ her. George wants to colonize her,” and, in this respect, George “surely seems like an explorer and conquerer” (115).
The colonial subtext to Latisha’s nickname is expanded upon by Andrews, Davidson, and Walton in Boarder Crossings: Thomas King’s Cultural Inversions. Here, reference is made to Britain’s long standing political fear of American colonial influence over Canada, and the conclusion asserted by these authors is that King’s novel “ironically suggests that the same kind of aggressive colonization that nineteenth-century Canadians feared from Americans was, in fact, being perpetrated by Canadian settlers treatment of Natives” (164).
Thus, my research illustrates that George’s odd habit of referring to Latisha as “Country” becomes intelligible in view of a post-colonial analysis. Seemingly a term of endearment, Goerge uses this name to affect emotional and physically exploitation of Latisha. This tactic is particularly evidenced over the course of pages 371-381 depicting the climactic confrontation between George and Latisha at the Sun Dance; at this point in the narrative it becomes most evident that George’s naming and treatment of Latisha functions as both the literal correlative and symbolic evocation of white settler’s territorial colonization of lands belonging to Aboriginal peoples.
Works Cited
Davidson, Arnold E., et al. Border Crossings: Thomas King’s Cultural Inversions. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. Web.
Flick Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161/162 (1999). Web. March 18h 2016. Web.
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Roberts, Gillian. “Strategic Parallels: Invoking the Boarder in Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water and Drew Hayden Taylor’s In a World Created by a Drunken God.” Parallel Encounters: Culture at the Canada-US Border. Ed. Gillian Roberts and David Stirrup. Waterloo: Wilfred Laurier University Press, 2013. Web.
Hi Anne,
I’m glad that I was able to read your blog post, as I was wondering about Latisha’s significance in GGRW, so thank you for considering references outside of Flick’s reading notes! I find her dynamics with George and how their marriage developed fairly interesting, especially as George becomes unsatisfied with what Latisha has to offer and more of what he thinks is best, even though she may be compared as more successful than Lionel? George’s attitude towards his fringed leather jacket and the dialogue the two have also adds on to this white supremacy that cannot be challenged (King, 192). Your analysis on the pet name of “Country” reminds me of how colonization/courting metaphors were a symbol of romance in certain times (more specifically, the new found land / female discovery and thus colonization). Furthermore, George Morningstar’s lack of judgment on taking pictures of the Sun Dance and his overall supremacist attitude is what led George Custer, his character reference, to his death in the Battle of Bighorn (by refusing to acknowledge scouts’ claims on the massive opposing forces, and by not waiting for reinforcements, etc).
Hi Jenny,
Yes, you’re absolutely right about the connection between the colonizer/colonized relationship and male/female, assertive/passive, romantic connotation. This is something that was referenced in my research. In a historical context, Canada was often viewed as Britain’s young female “ward” at risk in proximity to the wild, rebellious, masculine US. I think Ling is almost certainly referencing this historical attitude by depicting the male, George, as an American, while the female object of his desire is Canadian. Of course, in this context it’s of particular importance to his critique of colonialism that the Canadian female, Latisha, is also indigenous.
Thanks for the great post Anne. I found it to be so interesting, and was definitely something that I missed in my reading of GGRW.
Something I have found really awesome about this assignment is getting read other peoples interpretations and see what others picked up from the book.
King just incorporates so much allusion and reference into the text, I feel like I would have to read it 10 times over to really pick up on everything.
I am curious to hear a bit more about your post-colonial analysis of the novel, and what other references you may have discovered. What are your thoughts on King’s commentary on colonization?
Hi Hannah,
In terms of a post-colonial analysis, I can certainly point to a few examples, similar to the one I blogged about, where King depicts a colonial attitude and critiques it. One example noted by Flick is the buckskin jacket, worn by numerous characters during the narrative but belonging to George Morningstar. I think the depiction of this jacket employs strong imagery to render the garment a symbol of criticism. It is rather silly looking and also shabby, dirty even, and at times it starts to suffocate Lionel as he wears it- a very powerfully symbolic suggestion of how the bogus, ill-fitting cliches of the colonial Wild West restrict indigenous peoples, inhibit freedom, comfort, basic needs.