Canadian Literature Blog

I have been reading the book through the Amazon Kindle Reader, and unfortunately it does not provide me with specific page numbers. With this being said, one grouping of individuals that I wanted to further analyze and research were Henry Dawes, John Collier, and Hannah Duston. After spending some time doing a deep-dive on these characters, my research proved to be extremely interesting. 

As we have concluded from previous assignments, Thomas Kings Green Grass Running Water is a book chalk full of allusions and references to people, places, and things, all throughout history. As many people have mentioned in previous blog postings, some of the more apparent references are Dr. Joseph Hovaugh and his representation of Jehovah in the Christian Bible, and Ahdamn alluding to the Garden of Eden.

First and foremost, Henry Dawes. An attorney, politician, Republican United States Senator and United States Representative from Massachusetts. The most famous of his political enforcements, was that of the Dawes Act in 1887. As a result of the Dawes Act, Native American tribes were stripped of over 90 million acres of treaty land throughout the Act being employed by the government, 90’000 Natives were made “landless,”  and as Flick puts it, “much theft and trickery and deeding away of lands followed this enactment” (Flick, 144.)

The next character in question is Hannah Duston. In 1697 Hannah Duston and her daughter we’re captured by a band of Abenaki Warriors. In this raid, 27 people were killed, including her 3 year old daughter. After 6 weeks of being held captive, while the Abenaki were sleeping, Hannah and two of her fellow captives killed 12 Abenaki, and escaped with the scalps of their captures in hand. Although gruesome, scalping became of increasingly popular practise after colonial contact. Among Native Americans, scalping was at times “a symbol of warrior status,” while at others it was “offered as a ritual sacrifice” (Abbott, 2019.) In the case of Hannah Duston, the scalps were used to show proof of their escape. 

A third character in this grouping in GGRW, is John Collier. Mr. Collier was a man of many titles, including sociologist, writer, American social reformer, and “Native American Advocate.” He spent two years living with the Pueblo Tribe in Taos, New Mexico, and was appointed to “Commissioner of Indian Affairs” under president Roosevelt in 1933. Something he is accredited for, is the “Indian Reogranization Act of 1934.” He played an instrumental role in “ending the loss of reservation lands held by Indians, and in enabling many tribal nations to re-instute self-government and preserve their traditional culture,” and “he reversed the assimilationist policies of Dawes” (Flick, 144.)

Not having previous knowledge on these individuals, it proved to be very interesting to unpack their history, and digest how King integrated them into the story of Green Grass Running Water. King wisely depicts each character in a way that represents their respective relationship with and the part they played in the history of colonialism. King writes in a way that makes the story interactive almost. There are so many hidden allusions and references that extend beyond the surface of the page.

Works Cited

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature, vol. 161/162, 1999, https://canlit.ca/article/reading-notes-for-thomas-kings-green-grass-running-water/. Accessed March 26, 2021.

Abbott, Geoffrey. “Scalping”. Encyclopedia Britannica, 19 Jun. 2019, https://www.britannica.com/topic/scalping. Accessed 28 March 2021.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto, Harper Collins, 1993. Kindle Cloud Reader.

Weiser-Alexander, K. (2019, December). Legends of america. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.legendsofamerica.com/hannah-dustins-revenge/

John Collier (SOCIOLOGIST). (2021, February 01). Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Collier_(sociologist)

Davis, L. (2009, November 22). John Collier (1884-1968) – find a Grave Memorial. Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/44674484/john-collier

Henry L. DAWES. (2020, November 27). Retrieved March 28, 2021, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_L._Dawes

In her article, “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel,” Blanca Chester observes that “the conversation that King sets up between oral creation story, biblical story, literary story, and historical story resembles the dialogues that Robinson sets up in his storytelling performances (47). She writes:

Robinson’s literary influence on King was, as King himself says, “inspirational.” When one reads King’s earlier novel, Medicine River, and compares it with Green Grass, Running Water, Robinson’s impact is obvious. Changes in the style of the dialogue, including the way King’s narrator seems to address readers and characters directly (using the first person), in the way traditional characters and stories from Native cultures (particularly Coyote) are adapted, and especially in the way that each of the distinct narrative strands in the novel contains and interconnects with every other, reflect Robinson’s storied impact. (46)

For this blog assignment I would like you to make some comparisons between Harry Robson’s writing style in “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England” and King’s style in Green Grass, Running Water. What similarities can you find between the two story-telling voices? Coyote and God are present in both texts, how do they compare in character and voice across the stories?

Edward Norton in Fight Club. A film with a very interesting take on the role of the narrator.

As the question suggests, there are clear similarities to be made between the two authors and their respective writing styles. Although having characters shared between the two readings, Chester recognizes that the impression that Robinson has on Thomas King is illuminated via the relationship between the different stories that are placed in the book. On top of this, the two authors employ different roles for the narrators in their stories, providing very interesting yet divergent qualities of two stories sharing a couple of the same characters. 

A main difference in “Coyote Makes a Deal With the King of England” by Robinson and the story by King, is the role in which both the narrator, and Coyote embody. For example, in the story by King, Coyote, although a critical member of cast, has a seemingly transparent element to him, residing in the background at points. Whereas in Robinson’s writing, Coyote is a very notable character, where the communication between the King and himself occupies a large part of the story. Now, when it comes to the narrators, there is a fundamental difference between the two. King provides the reader with a narrator, a hand-hold throughout the telling of the story. Robinson takes the adverse approach, his story lacks a narrator. He places us in the position of being our own narrator, a distinctive quality to favour in being a story made for oral story telling. The style of the stories share many similarities, but differ in what they ask of us in their reading. One employing us to take on the role of the narrator, and the other providing us with one. 

This got me thinking about the different types of narrator that can be present in stories. There isn’t a simple binary around the presence of a narrator versus a lack of a narrator; there can be a couple different kinds. Something that I hadn’t thought about is the notion of the “unreliable” narrator. Someone that isn’t “credible, or even intentionally deceptive” (Miller-Wilson.) Some argue, “choosing how you tell a story is almost as important as the story itself” (Kittelstad.)  In conclusion, the two stories exhibit a certain harmony in regards to both Coyote and God, but when it comes to the story-telling voices utilized there were some fundamental singularities. 

Works Cited

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

Chester, Blanca. “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999).Web. April 04/2013.

Robinson, Harry. Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. Print.

Miller-Wilson, K. (n.d.). 12 classic unreliable Narrator Examples. Retrieved from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/12-classic-unreliable-narrator-examples.html

Kittelstad, K. (n.d.). Examples of NARRATION: 3 main types in literature. Retrieved from https://examples.yourdictionary.com/examples-of-narration.html

It is now time for midterm evaluation. I have attached my personal three favourite blogs I have written thus far. I hope you enjoyed reading them. Although finding some of the blogs challenging, they all provide an opportunity to reflect on things and get some ideas out. Thank you!

Assignment 2:2 – There’s No Place Like Home

Assignment 2:3

Assignment 1:5 – Once you have told a story, you can never take it back.

Image of Susanna Moodie

Read Susanna Moodie’s introduction to the third edition of Roughing it in the Bush, 1854. I use the Project Gutenburg website which has a ‘command F’ function that allows you to search the entire document by words or phrases. Moodie’s introduction is often read as a warning to would be emigrants as well as an explanation of why her family emigrated from Britain. See if you can find echoes of the stories discussed above: a gift from god, a second Garden of Eden, an empty/wasted land, the noble but vanishing Indian, and the magical map. By echoes I mean reading between the lines or explicitly within Moodie’s introduction. Discussing what you discover, use your examples as evidence to write a blog that explores what you think might have been Moodie’s level of awareness of the stories she carried with her. And accordingly, the stories that she “resurrects’ by her appearance in the Dead Dog CafŽ in Green Grass Running Water.

Moodie begins with sharing a perspective on the push factor(s) of emigration. According to her, there is a principle rationale for this movement. The majority of cases is due to a “matter of necessity.” This of course being paired with a  “hope of bettering his condition, and of escaping from the vulgar sarcasms too often hurled at the less-wealthy by the purse-proud…” (“Introduction” Paragraph 1.) There are a couple references to the aforementioned “echoes” in her Introduction to Roughing it in the Bush. The most glaring to me being “an empty, wasted land” and “a second garden of eden” (Paterson, 2021.) These two characterizations of Canada prove to be quite interesting as they are clearly in literal juxtaposition of each other.

The Garden of Eden being of course an originally biblical, and probably now the most popular reference to the notion of “paradise.” This is how Canada was advertised to the masses, and was as Moodie puts it: “kept alive by pamphlets published by interested parties” all the while “they carefully concealed the toil and hardship to be endured to secure these hardships.” As a result of this, Moodie explains that “Canada became the great land-mark for the rich in hope and the poor in purse.” This description of the fertile ground on which the country was situated on, and its invigorating climate was a very romanticized narration. 

It is to my understanding that this passage is a first-hand account of the hardships endured by those chasing that Utupia-esque facade of what Canada was like. As mentioned in the question at hand, it served as a warning to would be emigrants, but also enables the reader to have the slightest view into the craziness of this time. This was quite a loaded introductory paragraph, but proved to be insightful and gave the reader a glimpse through a very interesting perspective. With this being said, there isn’t much room left for the Indigenous population. Moodie’s lack of recognition of these “other people” is a direct reference to another “echo,” this time of “the noble but vanishing Indian.” This passage serves as a interesting view into what it may have been like from the perspective of the immigrant population, but does not take into account the effect these emmigrations had on the people who inhabited this land from the beginning. 

Works Cited

Moodie, Susanna. Roughing it in the Bush.. Project Gutenburg, 18 January 2004. Web. 9 Apr 2013.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 2:3”. Canadian Literature, University of BritishColumbia. 26 February 2021. Lecture notes.