3.3: GG+RW [82-93]
Buffalo Bill Bursum
The first connection I made with Buffalo Bill was the infamous antagonist of the same name from the cult-classic book and film, Silence of the Lambs. In a famous scene from the 1991 movie adaptation, Buffalo Bill does a strange dance to the song Goodbye Horses – the song itself contains many metaphors as well, though the general theme is that there are not any actual horses, but instead, it is the singer saying good bye to their sanity. While the correlation is light, it did give me a sense of unease about the character, which I’m sure King was aware of while finishing his novel just two years after the release of the film.
However, the stronger reference would the linking of two historic peoples with ties to the “Indians” of America to the narrative of the novel. The name is a combination of William R Cody, AKA Buffalo Bill, and New Mexico Senator Holm O. Bursum. William Cody was best known for his show “Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West” from 1872 in which he exploits the ignorance around Indigenous culture for profit and fame. Senator Bursum, in similar vein, was responsible for the Bursum Bill of 1921 which took a large portion of land away from the Pueblos. (Flick, 148). In combination, our Buffalo Bill embodies the theme of a person who is profiting from the exploits of other’s resources, which is suiting given his business of selling and of re-selling old electronics.
John Wayne
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While Flick (1998) does a much better job at summarizing the link between King’s John Wayne to the famous Western actor of the 1950s, the first connection I made prior to reading Flick was to the movie The Searchers where John Wayne plays a Civil War veteran who searches for his niece who has decided to leave her home and live with an Indian tribe. John Wayne, while having portrayed in several roles that were sympathetic to Indians, was largely known for being type casted as the gun-toting Indian-hating cowboy (Flick, 147) and Lionel’s childhood desire to be just like the actor symbolizes his “denial of “Indianness””.
Peach and Sexuality
“…the idea of a soft, fuzzy peach, full of juice and sparkling flesh all aglow in flames, was intellectually erotic.” (King, 86)
While describing Alberta’s initial passion for Bob when they first fell in love, King uses the imagery of the peach to help the reader visualize the relationship. The peach has historically been used to symbolize female sexuality and imagery of the fruit in a slow burning flame may also symbolize the budding youth of Alberta at the time and the heat of reaching sexual maturity.
Long Drive
“Alberta liked to drive. She liked to drive her own car, and she liked to drive alone…a feeling calm always came over her, and the world outside the car disappeared.” (King, 85)
This starting paragraph of the chapter immediately reminded me of the ending scene from the first Terminator film, released in 1986 . Here is a clip of it:
While the clip may lean more towards the “A Storm is coming” trope in popular culture – the ominous foreshadowing presented by the unstoppable and inevitable storm, I really felt a connection between Sarah Connor’s character in that scene with the state of mind in which Alberta was presented at that point of the novel. Both female protagonists are portrayed as strong independent women that, while bareing this hardened exterior, has a tragic back story that only enforces the image within the reader’s mind and rationalizes how this character came to be like this.
Focusing on Alberta, her past negative experiences with important men in her life may also be an allusion towards the colonization of Indigenous peoples by the governments of the past. Like the government, Bob and Amos were supposed to be the strong and safe role models of Alberta’s life, but failed in that regard. Bob tried to impose his own values on her – “Bob wanted a wife; he did not want a woman” (King, 87), a classic approach of assimilationist policy. Amos, after his drunken episode, swiftly left and never returned to his family, leaving only an old rusting truck in a lake of water to decay over time, displaying the abandonment and lack of support from institutions. Embodying Indigenous struggles, Alberta has had to be strongly independent since there is no one she can truly rely on.
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Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature. 161/162 (Summer/Autumn 1999): 140-172. Web. 19 Mar. 2014.
“Goodbye Horses – Q Lazzarus”, Youtube, March 2014 <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_DVS_303kQ>
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Internet Move Database, “The Searchers”, Web, March 2014, <http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049730/>
“Terminator (1984) – There is a Storm Coming in”, Terminator, Youtube, March 2014, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C6GZQ7UNaU>
Tv Tropes.org, “A Storm is Coming”, Web, March 2014, <http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AStormIsComing>
Hey Edward,
I was drawn to your post because we had a number of the same characters in our assigned sections. Like you, I associated Buffalo Bill Bursum with the character from Silence of the Lambs (we have good taste in film). I think even if that wasn’t King’s primary referential focus it certainly leads the reader to question BBB and suggests that he is a dubious character.
I too wrote about John Wayne. I am fairly ignorant of his film work, unfortunately. Reading your analysis of his role/significance in Green Grass Running Water made me think about role models. It’s interesting what role models children grow up with and which ones capture imaginations and impact lives. I wanted to be Julie Andrews, Audrey Hepburn, Kelly Kopowski from Saved by the Bell . There were the Disney Princesses too. Belle was my favourite because of her independence and because, like her, I loved to read. I wonder how much those heroines have informed my life. In Lionel’s case, it seems as though his choice of role model is a kind of rebellion. Or maybe rebellion isn’t the right word. Maybe his choice of John Wayne as a hero/role model to emulate and incorporate into his life wherever possible is a way of breaking out of the past. When the wandering (lost, escaped) Indians change the ending in the western that plays in Buffalo Bill Bursum’s shop, is it in parallel to what Lionel has been trying to do? Has he been trying to subvert a classic character and make it his own? It’s interesting to think about.
The road tripping theme in Green Grass Running Water appeals to me in an On the Road kind of way. I think there’s something so classic, romantic, and “American Dream”-like about road trips. A sense of freedom that everything can be driven away from and fled.
I love your film-centered approach to the book. I really enjoyed your observations. Thanks so much.