Find three examples of names that need to be spoken aloud in order to catch the allusion. Discuss the examples as well as the reading technique that requires you to read aloud in order to make connections. Why does King want us to read aloud?
I wish I read the questions in this lesson before I started reading through the required readings. I usually try not to read the blog questions until I have gone through all the reading materials, so I won’t base my readings on the questions. However, in this case I wish I did because I would have loved to read the whole Green Grass Running Water aloud. After reading the questions, I was inclined to answer question 6 because I wanted to experience reading aloud, so I went back to parts of the book where I thought there were meaning to the names. When I read the book intentionally aloud, I found deeper layers of meaning in the words because when I hear the words, it is like they take on a life of their own. When emphasise on the orality of the stories, you realise that King has chosen the names to have deeper meaning and it is one of his techniques to establish his allusion. A lot of the characters in the book are historical figures and he did some wordplay. I have picked three names that need to be read aloud to understand the allusion.
The most obvious one is Dr. Joe Hovaugh which sounds like Jehovah. Okay, I shouldn’t say most obvious because it was not obvious to me at first. I knew Dr. Joe Hovaugh one of the names King wanted to allude with so when I did my reading aloud, I tried to make connection to Jehovah. Why is this significant? According to Webster’s Bible Translation, Jehovah has a biblical significance it is the name of the God of Israel in the Hebrew bible. I think Dr. Hovaugh holds to the authority he holds as a doctor. On the other hand, this comparison is odd because Jesus is perceived as a mighty being in the Euro-centric Christianity believe. Dr. Hovaugh, a doctor who runs the mental hospital from which the Indian elders escape, on the contrary attempts to explain a pattern between the Indians disappearing and disasters, though he ends up looking like someone losing his mind (King, 47). I think what King was getting at with this was the notion is do Aboriginals even need God (in the Euro-centric Christianity God).
Another biblical reference is in the fourth plot line involves characters from Aboriginal and Christian creation myths and historical figures is Ahdamn, First Woman, First Woman in a garden. It refers to biblical Adam, who lives in the Garden with Eve during the Genesis story. King also plays with words in this name – “ah” and “damn” in the word can me read as “ah damn”. This is alluding the biblical story of Adam and Eve eating the forbidden fruit and getting kicked out of the garden. Again, Kind portrayed Ahdamn to be not bright, which contradicts the Adam from the bible, who is supposedly the most powerful creator. I think depicting the biblical characters flawed is King’s way of telling us how the Christianity wasn’t what the Aboriginals needed.
Another reference I found from a third reference by Jane Flick is the character Louis, Ray and Al from Manitoba. According to Flick Louis, Ray and Al is a pun on Louis Riel (Flick, 161). This explains why King wants us to read aloud because the names are play on word. Reading aloud is also an opportunity to experience oral literature, which is a big part of the First Nations storytelling.
Citation
King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. HarperCollins e-Books, 2016.
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water” Canadian Literature, 1999.
Webster’s Bible Translation, March 3rd, http://www.markfoster.net/rn/webster_bible.pdf