Pages 1 – 16 2007 Edition
The section I have chosen to examine and hyperlink in the novel Green Grass, Running Water (GGRW) by Thomas King are the very first pages. Within the first few pages, or even the very first page, the running theme of the conflict between First Nations and White cultural narratives is very present. Though I recognized many allusions throughout this novel, as there are countless connections to be made, the first few pages are where I most easily related my own knowledge and understanding to the cultural and pop culture reference present within this novel. Through the reading notes by Jane Flick and my own understanding and research in the following post I will seek to hyperlink the characters present in these first 16 pages to their outside connections as well as their connections to one another.
King’s novel opens with one of the most famous First Nations characters, who we have seen a few times throughout this course, Coyote. Opening this narrative with the reoccurring First Nations trickster immediately sets the tone for the interconnected web of a story that follows. Coyote characteristically is a shapeshifter in every story he is present in, he adapts to what is needed and is portrayed in many different ways. Green Grass, Running Water is a novel that is constantly adapting and shifting to different storylines to create and establish the themes of lost narratives and forgotten characters in First Nations literature. Coyote is a key figure in this novel because, as described by Jane Flick, he is “an especially important personage in the mythology of traditional oral literature of Native North America,” (143), therefore making his addition to this story on the lost and forgotten narratives of indigenous literature almost critical.
The second character that is presented in this novel, or rather grouping of characters, is the Dream trio. I did not immediately catch onto the illusion of Dream, Dream Eyes and Coyote Dream, but did find it an oddity that such things were personified on the very first page with lines such as “Coyote Dream makes many sad noises, and those noises are loud and those noises wake up Coyote.”(1). Dreams are not typically something that wake you up, but rather something that occurs when deep in sleep, so I turned to the GGRW reading notes to see what was being alluded to, to help me connect the personification and elaboration of the Dreams. Through reading I learned that dreams are “powerfully significant in First Nations Culture.”(143) This led me to think more deeply about what I knew, and I thought about the Native American culture of the Dreamcatcher and its purpose to catch bad dreams in the night and they would disappear in “the light of day.” Dreams and interpreting dreams are a very spiritual practice that is not often associated with colonialism, however, is a huge part of First Nations peoples decisions and the way in which they act. Their dreams become a part of their narrative in a way that most North American’s do not experience, which furthers the divide that King strives to show between First Nations culture and colonial stories.
Before I had read the assignment for this week, 3.3, and before I had really realized that this was a book full of allusions, on page 9 was when I first realized that Green Grass, Running Water was a plethora of outside references. The Long Ranger is a story that I am very familiar with, as I was quite a Johnny Depp fan when I was younger and enjoyed him as Tonto in the 2012 movie of “The Lone Ranger”. My grandfather also told me a joke growing up that involved Tonto and The Lone Ranger as the two main characters. At the time I did not elaborate or even consider the way in which the “Indian friend” was portrayed. However, upon reflection, the portrayal of Tonto in the storyline of “The Lone Ranger”, is as the other. He is portrayed with shortened, ‘dumbed down’ speech that not only portrays First Nations characters as less intelligent than white ‘heroes’, but also always cast their narrative as second place, the sidekick. The Lone Ranger is a typical western hero, who wears a mask and he saves towns set in the old west. He possesses the ideal of typical western hero, bravery, courage, and mystery. The Lone Ranger is an iconic figure of American culture and by including him as a reoccurring character throughout GGRW, as well as being one of the most identifiable allusions it strengthens the message around First Nations stories being a secondary narrative to the established western colonial stories.
King carries on with his addition of white American heroes who have faithful “Indian” sidekicks, with Hawkeye. I am familiar with the American hero, Hawkeye, from his more recent adaptations in the popular Avengers series. In these films he does not have a stereotypical First Nations sidekick, so after reading Jane Flick’s notes, I was interested to research his similarities with his “Indian friend”, Chingachgook, to The Lone Ranger and Tonto. Hawkeye is also a typically First Nations style of naming, which even further sets back First Nations narratives by portraying this white American hero with not only a Indigenous name but also claiming that he is a “guide with knowledge of “Indian Ways,” (Flick, 142). These characteristics of Hawkeye speak to cultural stripping that has played a huge part in western culture of tradition First Nation’s ideas and tropes and applying them to the white hero.
Another predominantly featured character, who aligns with Hawkeye and The Lone Ranger is Ishmael. I recognized the name immediately in the text as biblical, which I found odd as I was just starting the book, I thought was First Nations based piece of literature. However, as the story went on, I realized that it was not purely referring to Ishmael from Moby Dick by Herman Melville, the only survivor, the captain and protagonist. Ishmael too is a white, biblical styled figure, who at the end of the story relies on his version of the “Indian friend,” Queequeg’s coffin, to save him. In the novel Moby Dick, Ishmael is the narrator and documents the story of them being on the boat, and on page 15 of GGRW this characteristic becomes immediately important as Ishmael is the one to warn the other characters that though mistakes happen, it is “best not to make them with stories.” This is an integral part of the overall theme of King’s book. The mistakes have already been made in the narratives of First Nations peoples within colonial telling’s, and even though there have been some reconciliation attempts, the stories are already established and known, the mistakes are unable to be fully corrected because the stories have already been told.
The final character featured in the first sixteen pages is Robinson Crusoe. He is one of the first deserted island characters to ever be written about and thus is another very well-known figure in western culture. He, like the past three characters, is another white hero featured with a First Nations character as a secondary stereotyped character. Robinson Crusoe along with The Lone Ranger, Hawkeye and Ishmael are the epitome of the skewed vision of colonial stories and the misconception of what an American hero looks like. These are the very mistakes in the narratives that King seeks to disband and rectify in his convoluted mismatch of allusions and storylines. From the very beginning pages of this novel, we as readers are asked to take the knowledge and stories that we already know so well and examine our own interpretations to begin the change that is needed in these colonial stories. King’s novel demands that First Nations literature and characters stop being plagued as secondary, or sidekicks, and start being the heroes of their own stories.
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Bibliography:
“Chingachgook”. Cliffsnotes.Com, https://www.cliffsnotes.com/literature/d/the-deerslayer/character-analysis/chingachgook.
“Hawkeye”. Marvel Cinematic Universe Wiki, https://marvelcinematicuniverse.fandom.com/wiki/Hawkeye.
Hendricks, Beth. “Ishmael In Moby-Dick: Character Analysis & Symbolism”. Study.Com, https://study.com/academy/lesson/ishmael-in-moby-dick-character-analysis-symbolism.html.
“MÉTIS CULTURE – The Dreamcatcher | Kikino Métis Children + Family Services Society”. Kikino.Org, https://www.kikino.org/metis-culture/the-dreamcatcher.php.
“Native American Indian Coyote Legends, Meaning And Symbolism From The Myths Of Many Tribes”. Native-Languages.Org, 2015, http://www.native-languages.org/legends-coyote.htm.
“Robinson Crusoe| Summary & Analysis”. Youtube, 2017, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6smaVgHrA8s. Accessed 31 Mar 2020.
“The Lone Ranger Official Trailer #2”. Youtube, 2012, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JjFsNSoDZK8. Accessed 31 Mar 2020.
Wente, Jesse. “The Problem With The Lone Ranger’s Tonto | CBC News”. CBC, 2013, https://www.cbc.ca/news/entertainment/the-problem-with-the-lone-ranger-s-tonto-1.1390402.
