Write a blog that hyper-links your research on the characters in GGRW according to the pages assigned to you. Be sure to make use of Jane Flick’s reference guide on you reading list.

I have chosen to do my research within the pages 33-43, and, with the assistance of Jane Flick’s reference guide, I will attempt to analyze several specific characters mentioned in this section.

John Wayne

“First of many references to actor famous for roles in westerns. Wayne did play one or two roles sympathetic to Indians, such as that in John Ford’s thin version of the Custer myth Fort Apache (1948); but as film historian Newman observes, Wayne came “to epitomise the Injun-hating screen cowboy,” especially after his performance in The Searchers (1956), a captivity narrative ( Wild West Movies 58). Late in his career Native Americans picketed his films. Wayne first made his name in John Ford’s Stagecoach (1939); he made many films with Maureen O’Hara, including Rio Grande (1950). Lionel’s childhood desire to be John Wayne and to have his jacket signals his denial of “Indianness.” King uses Wayne’s movie costume of leather jacket, hat and gloves to parallel George Morningstar’s “Custer” jacket, hat and gloves.” (Flick, 8)

John Wayne’s character was, essentially, used to portray a “white man” stereotype to the “Indians.” King ultimately used his character as a direct contrast to Lionel, by describing the two as polar opposites in their own rights: Where John Wayne was brave, courageous and strong, Lionel was more timid – he feared change, and because of this he struggled to escape the dreary, everyday life that he found himself living. Later on, however, he would find the courage to take action and change his life for the better; he viewed Wayne as his “hero,” and sought to follow in his footsteps. John Wayne is also one of the largest pop-culture references that King included in his story, which was, in the end, extremely effective in building rapport with his readers and allowing them to better understand what he wanted to tell them by relating directly to something that most readers would easily understand.

First Woman

“North American Indian mythology. The story of First Woman falling from the sky with the subsequent creation of Turtle Island is a common one in Seneca and other tales. The Cherokee variation involves Star Woman and is also a variant of the earth diver creation stories. Lots of fooling around with the Genesis creation story here. Note that the Lone Ranger finally gets the story off to a proper start with the mention of First Woman in Cherokee, Higayv.ligéii (15).” (Flick, 8)

First Woman represents Eve, and King chooses to paint her as somewhat of a feminist – presenting her in a more contemporary light. She dresses in clothing fitting for modern society, and eats food that we, as the readers, are all familiar with: fried chicken and apples. She is also described as having made the Garden, which shows that she had the responsibility of completing important tasks that might have been saved for only men to do in the past.

Ahdamn

“Play on Adam and the Garden of Eden story in Genesis. Note that First Woman, not God, makes the garden. See also King’s, “One Good Story, That One” for another narrative about Ahdamn and the Garden of Evening, who is First Woman. There King has the same kind of fun with Adam’s naming of creatures.” (Flick, 8)

Here, King also adds his own contemporary take on the Garden of Eden story. The important thing to note here is that King satirically describes Adamn and First Woman as being the ones to decide to leave the garden themselves, rather than being kicked out by God. By bringing this to light, King has effectively changed arguably the most well known creation story fit his own storyline, allowing readers to make less of a jump from reality to non-reality, and building off a story that readers would likely already be familiar with.

Blossom

“The setting, a town in Alberta. Blossom is also featured in King’s One Good Story, That One; see “How Corporal Colin Sterling Saved Blossom, Alberta, and Most of the Rest of the World.” The name suggests natural beauty and regeneration, as well as the smallness of the town. The name has affinities with W.O. Mitchell’s town, Crocus, Saskatchewan, in Who Has Seen the Wind? (1947). RR observes there may be a simple life-affirming message in the direction, “Blossom! Alberta.” (Flick, 8)

The name “Blossom” in itself immediately brings to mind images of beautiful flowers and nature, and a sense of relaxation and renewal. I believe that, by choosing the setting of the town of Blossom, King was emphasizing the significance of Eli Stands Alone first choosing to leave: despite Blossom being a comfortable place to be in (or perhaps, because it was so comfortable), Eli chose to leave and join the “White Man” society.

Bursum, Buffalo Bill

“King combines the names of two men famous for their hostility to Indians. Holm O. Bursum (1867-1953) was a senator from New Mexico who advocated the exploration and development of New Mexico’s mineral resources. With his eye on the map of New Mexico, he proposed the infamous Bursum Bill of 1921, which aimed to divest Pueblos of a large portion of their lands and to give land title and water rights to non-Indians. See bibliography, Washburn, HNAL The Buffalo Bill part of the name refers to William R Cody (1846-1917), an exploiter of Indians for entertainment in Buffalo Bill Cody’s Wild West Show.” (Flick, 9)

Throughout the novel, King describes Bursum to be someone who disrespected and disregarded the opinions of the First Nations people. This is demonstrated through acts such as Bursum refusing to address Minnie as “Ms. Smith,” and the contempt with which he talked about Native American culture.This way of thinking would later lead to the Bursum Bill being formed – that allowed Spanish and White farmers to exploit the land that first belonged to the First Nations.  

Through all of these names of characters and places, I believe that King has done an exceptional job of relating to his readers in Green Grass, Running Water. He is able to relate to pop culture through his referencing John Wayne, whom readers would be able to identify with quite easily. King also rewrites his own take of the classic creation story of Adam and Eve through First Woman and Ahdamn, by painting both of them in a more contemporary light – much like how the two of them would likely behave if they were in our midst today. In the city of Blossom, I believe that many of us as readers have experienced, or are experiencing, our own version of Blossom. Whether we choose to leave it for something more challenging and uncomfortable, or choose to stay because of the comfort, this is a choice that I, personally, have found myself faced with. Finally, in the character of Bill Bursum, King has found a way to merge the two and portray the acts of disrespect in the past that have happened against the Native people, in this single character. As readers, we are then able to understand more clearly the significance of the Buffalo Bill and this Act as the intent and portrayal of it is personified in Bill himself. Therefore, through writing of these characters above, I believe that King has ultimately succeeded in relating to us as readers through various contemporary mediums in an attempt to help us better understand the significance of the events that have happened in Canadian history.

Works Cited

“BURSUM, Holm Olaf – Biographical Information.” BURSUM, Holm Olaf – Biographical Information. N.p., n.d. Web. 27 Jul. 2016.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.”Canadian Literature 161-62 (1999).

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Harper Perennial. Toronto. 2007. Print

Describe how King uses the cyclical paradigm of the Medicine Wheel (and a little help from Coyote) to teach us to understand, or at least to try to understand the power behind the stories we tell ourselves.

The Medicine Wheel, to many Native American tribes, has been used by generation after generation to reflect and represent not only health and healing, but also the entire cycle of life. The manner in which King wrote his novel, Green Grass, Running Water, is, in itself, written in a cyclical structure: he starts his novel with the phrase “In the beginning, there was nothing. Just water,” and he continues to end the first part of his story with the exact same phrase. In addition to this, the simple start of King’s phrase, “in the beginning,” alludes to the core structure of a traditional creation story. This is significant in that creation stories are, ultimately, symbolizes the roots of a community’s beginnings, culture, and unique traditions. By doing so, King is helping us, as the readers, to get a glimpse on the power that stories can hold in influencing the very ways in which we live our lives. One interesting thing to note, however, is the fact that, along with the nothingness and water, was Coyote – who seems to have existed from the beginning of time, implying that Coyote himself had no creator: he simply existed.

What I noticed regarding the structure of the Medicine Wheel was that each of its four points seem to be of equal importance: if one is taken away, the Wheel would no longer work. Each of the four sections of the wheel represent different things: the four traditional directions (North, South, East, West), each stage of life (birth, youth, elder, death), seasons of the year (spring, summer, autumn, winter), and even the colors of the human race. The entire structure to the wheel is cyclical, from the mythical Women falling from the sky, First Woman/Birth, Changing Woman/Youth, Thought Woman/Parent, and Old Women/Elder, to the representation of the four states of the Earth. Eventually, due to the cyclical nature of the Wheel, we will eventually find ourselves once again at the beginning of each state of being, as the cycle of life continues. As is central to what a First Nations worldview is about, everything that happens on Earth is connected with each other – and changing one thing has the ability to change everything else.

The important thing to note is that the Medicine Wheel ultimately teaches us that all the seasons and lessons that it teaches are what keeps the world in balance: it represents the eternity of the existence of life. Every living being will ultimately experience each part of the circle and will understand the lessons that each stage teaches them.

On the The first color, White, is depicted in the the character of the Ishmael, who represents the white men. It also represents the cardinal direction South, and peace and happiness, which, in essence, implied that “happiness lived in the South.” The next color, Black, is represented by Robinson Crusoe, and symbolizes the end of life’s cycle. Blue, represented by Hawkeye, symbolizes defeat and failure – and King further expresses this by Coyote stealing the blue colored Nissan and ending up stuck in the dam – a dead end. Finally, Red, who is depicted by the Lone Ranger, symbolizes success, and the reawakening of new life. It is also the color of fire, which was an essential life source for many nations since the beginning of time.

By telling the story of Green Grass, Running Water in such a cyclical manner, reflecting the cycle of the Medicine Wheel, King has emphasized and demonstrated the power that stories can have over one’s understanding of them. As I read the story over again a second time, and then a third time, I notice things that I did not first notice – proving that stories have the power to be retold and repeatedly interpreted in many different ways, but that they will also ultimately have an end – similar to the how the cycle of life will one day have an end but will eventually be able to begin anew again.

Works Cited

2. In this lesson I say that it should be clear that the discourse on nationalism is also about ethnicity and ideologies of “race.” If you trace the historical overview of nationalism in Canada in the CanLitguide, you will find many examples of state legislation and policies that excluded and discriminated against certain peoples based on ideas about racial inferiority and capacities to assimilate. – and in turn, state legislation and policies that worked to try to rectify early policies of exclusion and racial discrimination. As the guide points out, the nation is an imagined community, whereas the state is a “governed group of people.” For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

Coleman noted, in his writing in White Civility: The Literary Project of English Canada, that from the very beginning, there has existed a “literary endeavor” to “formulate and elaborate a specific form of whiteness based on the British model of civility.” This notion of thinking, however, was slowly countered upon the introduction of multiple acts that were passed during that period of time promoting immigration, wider cultural acceptance, and multiculturalism. One of these was the Canadian Multiculturalism Act, passed in 1988, recognized multiculturalism under section 27 of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Canada was essentially one of the first countries to adopt such a policy, which not only catapulted Canada into a greater, more accepting culture overall but also allowed significantly more freedom and tolerance especially regarding the Aboriginal people. The policy ensured that Aboriginal rights would be respected, and called for equality to be given to every person who lived in Canada.

One of the most notable things regarding the Canadian Multiculturalism Act was that it allowed citizens to openly practice their religion without the fear of being persecuted. This is now one of the key factors and facets of Canada’s identity toward the rest of the world: the willingness and openness to accept all individuals regardless of their religion or race. As a result of this Act, much of Canadian law today is reflective of this multiculturalism that was first spoken of in 1988. The Act itself includes two fundamental principles:

1. All citizens are equal and have the freedom to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage.
2. Multiculturalism promotes the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins in all aspects of Canadian society.

The Canadian Multiculturalism Act in essence respected that everyone in Canada should be considered as equals regardless of race or the culture that they may have grown up in. This contrasts largely with Coleman’s initial statement of how the fictive white and civil Canadian ethnicity forms the building blocks of Canadian identity is a skewed perception of people occupying the Canadian land. Ultimately, the Canadian Multiculturalism Act is not solely about promoting a culture of white civility. It is trying to emphasize that Canadian culture is not simply about a single color or race, but rather a culture of inclusion and Multiculturalism – something that is unique only to Canada and the various diversities in the people living in the country, even today.

Works Cited

“Language Selection – Justice Laws Website / Sélection De La Langue – Site Web De La Législation (Justice).” Justice Laws Website. N.p., n.d. Web. 9 July 2016.

Parole Board of Canada (November 4, 2008). “The Canadian Multiculturalism Act”. Government of Canada. 9 July 2016.

3] In order to address this question you will need to refer to Sparke’s article, “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” You can easily find this article online. Read the section titled: “Contrapuntal Cartographies” (468 – 470). Write a blog that explains Sparke’s analysis of what Judge McEachern might have meant by this statement: “We’ll call this the map that roared.”

In his article section regarding Contrapuntal Cartographies, Sparke addresses the tense differences and disagreement in court between federal and BC government, and the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people. In the debate, the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people “attempted to outline their sovereignty in a way that the Canadian court might understand.” (Sparke 468). This is significant in that it leveled the playing field, in a way, between the two sides: the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people were viewed as less literate, and less knowledgeable – and everyone in the courts, including Chief Justice Allan McEachern himself, knew this. By providing a map that served to outline in detail the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people’s “roaring refusal of the orientation systems, the trap lines, the property lines, the electricity lines, the pipelines, the logging roads, the clear-cuts, and all other accouterments of Canadian colonialism on native land” (Sparke 468).

McEachern’s referring to the map as a “map that roared” was something that illustrated his own perception of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people changing in light of this genre of cartography in which he, himself, was illiterate. Because of this, Judge McEachern, perhaps feeling slightly threatened, would eventually rule against the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people in the court. In Sparke’s analysis of what McEachern alluded to, he drew a connection to a satirical movie about the Cold War era, called “The Mouse that Roared.” This reference drawn toward a “Map that Roared” essentially outlined an unexpectedly loud, defiant voice that came from an unexpected source: the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people. McEachern ultimately acknowledged the map’s power and the people taking action to stand up for their land by calling it as such.

Although Judge McEachern ended up ruling in favor of the defense, against the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people, the Supreme Court would eventually overturn his decision and call for a new trial. This was especially significant in that this served as a turning point, of sorts, for First Nations in Canada fighting for – and winning – some of their rights back. What was most impressive was the fact that map that was presented was the product of the oral stories of the Wet’suwet’en and Gitxsan people, passed down from countless generations. The significance in this cannot be overlooked: contrary to popular belief, oral histories and stories do, indeed, hold a significant weight in influencing the decisions made in the courts of law.

Works Cited

“Office of the Wet’suwet’en.” Office of the Wet’suwet’en. N.p., n.d. Web. 29 June 2016.

“Our History.” Recent History. Gitxsan Development Corp, n.d. Web. 29 June 2016.

Sparke, Mathew. “A Map that Roared and an Original Atlas: Canada, Cartography, and the Narration of Nation.” Annals of the Association of American Geographers 88.3 (1998): 468-470. Web. 29 June 2016.

“If Europeans were not from the land of the dead, or the sky, alternative explanations which were consistent with indigenous cosmologies quickly developed” (“First Contact”43). Robinson gives us one of those alternative explanations in his stories about how Coyote’s twin brother stole the “written document” and when he denied stealing the paper, he was “banished to a distant land across a large body of water” (9). We are going to return to this story, but for now – what is your first response to this story? In context with our course theme of investigating intersections where story and literature meet, what do you make of this stolen piece of paper? This is an open-ended question and you should feel free to explore your first thoughts.

In reading the story about how Coyote’s twin brother was banished from the land he called home because of his wrongdoing, my first reaction was that that the punishment seemed too extreme for for a crime as small as stealing. It also struck me that the two forefathers, one of the Indians and one of the Europeans, started out in the same place, as brothers. Then, because of a poor choice, the “white twin,” who was the forefather of the Europeans, was banished – while the “black twin”, forefather of the Indians, would stay to take care of and cultivate the land.

I found this particularly interesting, as this paints a picture of unity in the beginning between the two brothers. I find the fact that they were twins particularly meaningful, as it showed me how closely the two were related – and thus it had a more significant impact when Coyote’s brother was banished from the land because he first sinned.

It seemed to me like the only person in the wrong in the beginning was Coyote’s brother, which suggests to me that the story is partially biased toward Coyote. Then, when Coyote’s brother, the forefather of the Europeans, was to come back to “reveal the contents of the written document,” it suggested to me that he was now forgiven, and was able to return to his original home with his newfound knowledge and all of his European descendents. Meanwhile, Coyote would have cultivated the land they both called home, and he and his descendents, the Indians, would understandably lay claim to the land.

Regarding the stolen piece of paper specifically, it suggests to me that the Europeans first took something that did not belong to them, left with it to a ‘distant land,’ and then, using the information within the paper, took it and built upon it newfound knowledge that they would acquire in the new lands. A question also came to mind upon reading this story: why would Coyote’s brother return home? Once banished, he would be able to start a new life and experience new things – and yet, he chose to return. Regarding this, I believe it emphasizes the basic human desire to maintain bonds to things that we find familiar: we are essentially curious about the unknown, but regardless of what we look like or where we are from, all humans seek to return to a place to call their home.

I remember the first time I learnt what the word “home” meant, and how that differed from the word “house.” When I was in the fifth grade, I was quizzed on the difference and at that time, I was unable to answer the question. Looking back, however, this should have been my answer:

A “house” is something concrete – something that may be built from bricks and cement, and something whose value can be measured quantitatively in terms of square footage and the location in which it was built. A “home,” however, is something quite different. It has less to do with quantitative value, but rather, the feelings that are associated with it. After reading the blogs of Lorraine, John and Sandra, I noticed that they, too, associated the word “home” with feelings and emotions of rest and comfort, along with family ties.

The first common theme that I noticed was the theme of family. As Lorraine put it simply, “home is where my family is.” Sandra continues on to mention that home, to her, was where she could be with her mother, sitting together with her at a dining table eating dinner. John, too, speaks of his stories that he associates his home with: from his dog, whom he watched grow from a little puppy to an old dog, to his dad teaching him how to drive a car.

The second common theme was the feeling of rest and comfort. All three students associated home as not only being with family, but alongside them experiencing a sense of belonging and comfort that cannot be found anywhere else. Sandra wrote about moving away from her home in Vancouver for four months in the summer, and of how she missed her home and the feeling of security that she had when within the familiar walls of the home that she grew up in, at ease in the company of her mother.

Finally, it would be impossible to miss the largest theme of all: to Lorraine, John and Sandra, “home” is an emotion, not an inanimate object. In each of their posts describing what home meant to them, there was an unmistakeable emphasis on the way that they felt. Any references to specific physical features of a house were neglected, for the meaning of “home” to all three of them is entirely based on their own emotions, feelings and things that they experienced growing up, rather than on a specific location or description of a place that could be measured subjectively and quantitatively by any stranger.

I was 10 years old when I flew over in a plane with my family from Singapore to Canada. The initial plan was for us to stay in Vancouver for a maximum of 3 years as my father studied for his Master’s degree, before returning to Singapore – the place where my family called home, at that time.

Time flew quickly, and before we knew it, it had been 3 years. During the course of those 3 years, I had made several friends in the elementary school I’d attended, and had graduated from elementary school. I was prepared – well, as prepared as a 7th grader can possibly be – to begin the scary world of high school alongside the close friends I’d made. Because of this, I was reluctant to move back to Singapore, where I had lost touch with many of my friends there, as well as the extremely different culture. I had become so used to the Canadian culture, especially in school, where teachers took very different approaches to teaching me material, encouraging me to “have fun” and have a more balanced lifestyle, instead of studying all the time. This was quite different to the culture in Singapore, where good grades and studying are valued so highly that it would not be surprising to find students as young as I was, studying for hours after school ended, in addition to attending tuition classes on Saturdays.

I say all this not to raise one culture’s teaching techniques over the other, but rather to highlight the massive differences between the two cultures and how it would have been extremely hard for me to integrate back into Singapore after having gotten used to the culture here. In addition to these, leaving my friends that I’d made here was something I was quite opposed to, as I wanted very much to experience high school with them.

Eventually, after many days of contemplation, arguments and discussion between myself, my siblings, and my parents, we made the ultimate decision to stay in Canada and let me and my siblings finish our education here. My siblings and I were overjoyed!

Throughout the next 5 years, I grew and matured a lot, made new friends, lost touch with some old friends. However, through all these, one things remained constant: at the end of each day, I would return home to share about my day with my family. It felt nice; it felt comfortable. Some things, I must admit, I did take for granted – such as the fact that my mom would cook me dinner every night.

This would soon change when I started university. I moved out of my house for the first time and moved into first year residence at Totem Park in UBC. Admittedly, at least for the first month of living there, I was excited and barely missed home. I started feeling more comfortable living away from home and slowly got to know my roommate and others living in my house. At a certain point, I realised that I now, in fact, had two places that I called home: the house where my parents and siblings lived, and the new first year residences that I was now living in.

After the first month, I started missing several aspects of home – such as having homecooked meals, and the comfort that only living with one’s parents can bring. I started visiting home at least once every month, which was a refreshing and welcome change from living on campus.

All of these experiences have taught me the very valuable lesson that my idea of home is not necessarily based on location – but rather, the people that I am around. Should my family move out of our house and return to Singapore, I would not find our house as welcoming anymore. I would probably even be unable to call it a “home.” After moving out of Totem Park in first year, it no longer felt like home to me – despite me having spent a whole 8 months there. This, I realised, was because the friends that I’d made in my first year had also moved out. To me, home is somewhere that I can return to where the people that I love are. It is somewhere that I can feel like I belong, where I can be around the people that I’m closest to, where we can share our lives with; where I can return to and share about how my day was – and, in turn, listen to how their day went as well.

I feel blessed to have lived in places that I can call home. Despite having moved around so much, and having to get used to a completely new culture, I am convinced that the difference between a “house” and a “home” is that a house is simply a place to live in, while a home is not about a specific physical location, but rather, the people that I surround myself with.

Works Cited

Brent Larkin, Northeast Ohio Media Group. “Education Dominates Singapore’s ‘different’ Culture: Brent Larkin.” Cleveland.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2016.

“Singapore – Lonely Planet.” Lonely Planet. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 June 2016.

A very long time ago, there lived a small family of three – the father, Bill, and his children, Mary and Mark – in a lone house on a beautiful remote island. Life was peaceful, and exquisite beauty could be found everywhere – views of the sea and the horizon were untainted by the rough silhouettes of ships. The forest surrounding the house was magnificent, home to an impressive variety of animals who thrived in the company of each other, and the family living among them.

Mary and Mark lived quite happily in their house with their father, who allowed them as much freedom as children could wish for to run around and explore the island. He did, however, have one exception: there was an attic in their home where Bill forbid the children to ever enter, under any circumstance. This room, he told them, was forbidden to anyone but Bill – and he kept the key under his pillow every night as he slept. For several years, Mary and Mark were content with everything they had: a loving father, a lovely house to live in, and a beautiful island to call home. They accepted their father’s one condition without questioning him, and were content with the abundant amount of things that they were allowed to do.

However, a time came, as it always does, when the children grew older and their sense of curiosity stronger than ever before. One day, when Bill was out for a swim in the lake like he loved to do at least once a week, Mary had a small idea, a little thought of curiosity that nagged her in the back of her mind.

“Mark!” She called to her brother. “What do you say, we take a look in our attic today, just a quick peek?”

Mark glanced back at her, doubt filling his face. “But Father forbid us to go in there, remember?”

“Father will never find out! He’s out swimming right now – we’ll be in and out of there in no time…either ways, I’m going to take a look. Come if you want.” Mary shrugged, slightly annoyed at her brother for always being the voice of reason, as she turned and started up the stairs towards the forbidden room.

Mark looked up in despair as he watched his sister walk away. He was torn between wanting to discover what was in the mysterious room with his sister, and obeying his father. After several seconds of indecision, he called out after Mary, “Wait up! I’m coming!”

The two stood outside the large wooden door, Mary with the key in her hand that she had taken from her father’s room, and Mark with a look of apprehension. In a few swift seconds, the door was unlocked and the door swung open with a loud creak.

“Hello there,” a raspy voice called to them from the back of the dark room. “Mary and Mark – I’ve been waiting for you.”

“How did you know our names?” Mark demanded, slightly frightened.

“That is unimportant,” the voice shrugged. “What is important is that you two finally came.

No matter how hard the two of them squinted in the darkness, they could not make out the source of the voice.

“Come on in,” the voice said. “Would you like to hear a story that you’ve never heard before?”

The two of them stood apprehensively, wanting to leave this strange, unknown room but a part of them feeling extremely curious as to what kind of story this mysterious voice had to tell.

“S-sure,” Mary stuttered. “But we don’t have a lot of time, so please do make it quick.”

Without further ado, the voice jumped straight into the narrative of the story. It was a story filled with darkness darker than the room they were in, full of chaos and destruction – concepts that were, until then, strange and unknown to Mary and Mark. The story was one of betrayal, of sin, and of disasters, one after another. It wasn’t a long story – rather, it was quite short. However, once it was over, Mary and Mark were trembling on the spot, regretting ever having opened the door to this attic, to having ever agreed to hear this terrible story. They felt something that they’d never felt before, and it took them a while to find the right words to describe it.

“….Mark? I’m scared.” Mary whispered, tears pouring down her cheeks.

Mark, too, felt extremely scared, frightened at this strange new emotion. He, however, refused to show it, and instead yelled at the voice, “take it back! I don’t want to know your awful story anymore. I hope you stay in this room forever!”

And with that, he took Mary’s hand and the two of them ran from the attic as fast as they could.

“Let’s just try to forget that ever happened,” Mark whispered to Mary once they were out. But it was too late. Everything looked different to them. As the two of them looked out their window, the island that they once found so beautiful was changing before their eyes. Torrential rain poured from the skies and trees were struck by lightning left and right, losing all their leaves and several of their branches.

Suddenly, the door of the house burst open, and Bill stood there soaking wet, a devastated expression on his face. As his eyes landed on his children, a single tear rolled down his cheek.

“Why didn’t you obey me?” He questioned his beloved children. “I tried to give you everything you ever wanted, that you could ever desire. Why did you have to do the one thing I forbade you to?”

“We’re sorry, Father!” Mary and Mark wept, running to him. “Please, we will never do that again. Tell the voice to take its awful story back – we just want things back to normal, like they used to be again.”

But it was too late. The damage had been done, and the innocent beauty of the island and of the children had been destroyed by the story they’d just heard.

For once a story is told, it cannot be called back. Once told, it is loose in the world.

Commentary

Writing this story was an extremely fun experience, as it made me think creatively and of how to add my own twist to a creation story about how evil entered the world. Through this story, I wanted to highlight how evil in the world has tainted the innocent happiness and contentment of the people in the world, and of how, sometimes, bad news can change a person’s extremely happy day into one of sadness and frustration in a very short amount of time (much like how the length of the story above was short, and yet had a huge impact on Mary and Mark).

I think that the amazing thing about short stories is how they have the power to tell a story that can be interpreted in many different ways, by many different people, from the author to every reader who reads the story. I believe that one idea – the idea of how evil entered the world – can easily mean many different things to different individuals – and that is the beauty of storytelling in itself.

Works Cited

King, Thomas. The Truth About Stories: A Native Narrative. Toronto: House of Anansi Press, 2003. Print.

“National Storytelling Network.” National Storytelling Network. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2016.

“The Five Important Elements of a Short Story.” The Five Important Elements of a Short Story. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 May 2016.

Today, in the age of social media and the world wide web, publishing content for the world to see is extremely simple to do. With the click of a single button, a person can share their thoughts, criticisms and ideas extremely easily. Social media, especially, serves as a uniquely effective tool with which users can send articles or recommend books that they particularly enjoyed with their friends, who will then share with their friends. This will eventually cause these forms of literature to become widely distributed across various networks.

One of the most inarguably popular social media platforms today is Facebook. Through the use of Facebook, users are able to share digital literature, stories and articles sometimes faster than they are able to read them. Facebook specifically allows users to select from various options as to who they would like to share with, from solely the user (“Only Me”), to the user’s friends (“Just friends”), the user’s “Friends of friends,” and lastly, “Public” – which ultimately allows the post to be seen by virtually anyone with access to Internet. Because of this, news is able to spread extremely quickly. An example of such a case is a fairly recent one, when Paris was attacked by suicide bombers on a fateful Friday last year in November. Almost immediately, articles were posted on Facebook, not only by news outlets but also people who were personally affected by the tragedy – whether by having experienced it in person or being related to somebody who was personally affected. Sympathies and condolences were, in return, shared in waves, as those who read the news and articles were compelled to react.

The key point to note here is that despite being thousands of miles away from the place where all this took place, I learnt of the situation in Paris within minutes of it happening. Sitting in my room that night, looking out, there was no possibility of me experiencing what those in Paris were experiencing – and yet I was able to learn of the news by typing a few words on my laptop and scrolling on my mouse.

Another popular social media platform is Twitter, which allows users to share their thoughts with millions of followers within a 140 word limit. This forces users to be creative in what they choose to share with their audiences. However, many times, users may find themselves with much more to share than can be contained in 140 words. In those cases, many of them resort to the use of hypertext: proving their audience with a brief summary and then linking them to another site that hosts a much longer, more detailed article, story, or literary text.

In the age of today’s rapidly changing technology, the world of literature and how stories are spread is also changing. It is now possible for the sole distributors of articles and literature to be the authors themselves and other users on social media, which, ten years ago, would be something that was unheard of. All of these appear to be changes for the best – beneficial to users as information becomes more readily accessible to a growing audience. However, with all the changes happening, the role of literature and the distribution of literature in the modern world is also shifting. People are constantly bombarded with multiple distractions, thus making the task of aiming to keep readers engaged something that authors must take into consideration when writing. Apart from vying for the time and attention of millions of social media users, authors will have to consider their target audiences and be wary of how to engage their audiences, in order to compel them to spend their time reading their work instead of on the multiple outlets of entertainment readily available on the Internet.

Hello! Welcome to my blog dedicated to English 470a.

My name is Amelia and I am currently a fourth year student studying Computer Science at UBC. In taking this course I am admittedly delving into unfamiliar territory: not only has it been a while since I’ve taken a literature course, I also have a lot to learn about Canada’s history and colonization. However, I hope to challenge myself and further improve my knowledge on these topics as I am keen to learn more about the country that I have spent most of my life in, through the voices of talented authors.

Despite being Canadian, I have oftentimes found myself slightly confused as to what being Canadian truly means. One of the things that I have long associated Canadians with is the vibrant multiculturalism and welcoming culture reflected in movies and the general worldwide reputation for Canadians being “nice.” Although I strongly believe that the two points listed above are not devoid of truth, I am sure that Canada has much more to offer than that.

As Professor Paterson briefly stated about Engl 470a, this course aims to provide us with a scholarly study of Canadian literature and history, with a focus on the intersections and departures between European and Indigenous traditions of literature and orator. In short, through this course, I will have the opportunity to examine what being in Canada and being Canadian means to many different people, and thus through this I hope to finally determine exactly what it truly means to me.

Works Cited:

“First Major Poll of 2016 Puts Canada As #2 Country in the World to Live.”Notableca. N.p., 20 Jan. 2016. Web. 13 May 2016.

“Canadian Multiculturalism: An Inclusive Citizenship.” Government of Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Communications Branch. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.

“What Canada Means to Me.” Government of Canada, Citizenship and Immigration Canada, Communications Branch. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 May 2016.