Connecting the Stories in Green Grass Running Water

PAGES 207-217, 2007 Edition of Green Grass Running Water

This section concentrates on Charlie’s childhood when his father brought him to Hollywood, as well as explores more of his father’s experience of Hollywood. Throughout the second part, the narratives are connected either through the viewing of the same old Western, or in Eli’s case, the reading of a novel that is interchangeable with the Western on the television. The televised Western parallels with the various narratives in this section as it becomes a unifying narrative of the oppression of Indigenous people, their stereotyping reflected in both reality and the fantasy of the film and novel, the re-focalization on the white, European hero, as well as the potential loss of land due to Western expansion. The Western film takes on personal significance to Charlie when it is revealed that the man playing the chief is Charlie’s father.

The Mysterious Warrior

Throughout this section, the film being viewed in unison by the characters of Green Grass Running Water, is the unifying thread that ties them all together. While the Western film works as a unifier in this section, it also draws individual meaning from each of the characters. For instance, Eli is reading a novel that runs parallel with the film in which he sees his possibly doomed romance with Karen. Bill Bursum, who identifies the film as The Mysterious Warrior, sees it as “the best Western of them all” (King 188) and heavily identifies with the invading John Wayne and his decimation of The Indians. Lionel, who also idolizes John Wayne, falls asleep to the Western. The four old Indians intrude the on-screen narrative, but “Lionel saw none of this,” (King 216) which is indicative of his unwillingness to participate in familial and cultural practices. He falls asleep to this Western, passively viewing the film much as he passively deals with his life by avoiding change.

In Jane Flick’s notes for Green Grass Running Water, she notes that The Mysterious Warrior  is “a composite of Western films . . . This title alludes to The Mystic Warrior (1984), a television movie based on Ruth Beebe Hill’s Hanta Yo (1979). This novel ignited a firestorm of protest from Native American groups outraged by misrepresentation of the Lakota Sioux” (Flick 158). Here is a link to The Mystic Warrior, if you are at all interested in that. Flick also notes that John Wayne “did play one or two roles sympathetic to Indians,” (147) but the bulk of his career featured him as a character that indulged the prejudice towards Indigenous people and reinforced negative stereotypes. As Indigenous people were often portrayed as villains, or at least opposing forces in these films, the John Wayne white, European hero expressed hatred and racism towards the Hollywood version of Indians.

As a result of this deep-rooted racism where Indigenous people were never allowed to have the victory that John Wayne did, the characters in Green Grass Running Water are not surprised by the eventual outcome of The Mysterious Warrior.

Alberta hit the Off button. Enough. The last thing in the world she needed to do was to watch some stupid Western. Teaching Western history was trial enough without having to watch what the movie makers had made out of it. (King 214)

Portland Gets a Job at Remmington’s and Four Corners

From page 207-213, Charlie remembers his time in Hollywood following the death of his mother. This is the concluding section of his childhood memories, Portland and Charlie must finally get jobs at Remmington’s, in hopes of getting exposure and, therefore, an acting job. Portland sinks farther from his dream when he gets a job at Four Corners, which signifies the last straw before Charlie decides to return home without his father. Firstly, I will be addressing the allusions in accordance to Jane Flick’s notes and then I would like to discuss further connections outside of the novel, as well as relate it back to the framing of the Western film.

Remmington’s: This is the Western style bar that Portland, and Charlie, begrudgingly goes to work for when he is unable to get acting work on his own. The name is a reference to Frederic Remington, “the most famous artist of the Old West” (Flick 157). According to Flick, while his work glorified the setting and heroes of the Old West, Remington’s “depiction of Indians is essentially hostile” (157). This double standard is reflective of the segregation between Cowboys and Indians as, respectively, waiters and valets. Portland encourages Charlie “to grunt . . . the idiots love it, and you get better tips,” (King 209) which makes him a willing participant in the racial divide. Again, the contrast of Cowboys and Indians refers back to the framing device of the Western film where Cowboys and Indians are further divided into Heroes and Villains.

Four Corners: The Four Corners in the burlesque theatre that Portland eventually goes to work for. At the Four Corners, Portland is employed to do background dancing for an erotic dancer. In this cheap imitation of acting Portland so desperately wants to participate in, King again utilizes the trope of Cowboys vs. Indians. In the Green Grass Running Water notes, Flick says that the club is named for “the Four Corners area of the Southwest is the point at which Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah meet. It is an area of particularly rich cultural associations” (157-158). The name connects both to the motif of direction that is utilized throughout the novel, as well as the cultural appropriation underline in the Pocahontas routine.

Four Corners becomes symbolic of Portland’s ultimate “rock bottom.” This section of the novel concentrates on characters remembering old failures, or the failures of relative. For Alberta, she remembers her alcoholic father. Eli remembers his past lover, Karen, and ponders over his unwillingness to include her in his “Indian” life. Lionel, ever a build-up of his past mistakes and failures, has his final sleep before he attempts to change himself in the next section. Portland is stuck in his old dream of becoming a famous actor, a failure that Charlie refuses to replicate, to the point where he is willing to sexualize himself to achieve his dream.

While this article is not directly related to the novel, and also focuses on the sexualization and violence towards black women, I believe that many of Crenshaw’s observations apply. Crenshaw discusses the sexualization of racialized women as seen in pop culture, from film to video games, through intersectionality. Intersectionality asks us to analyze by considering various forms of criteria, as opposed to a static analysis. In this case, Crenshaw looks at sexualization through the lense of both race and gender, wherein racialized women take on an assumed sexual availability.

[On the portrayal of a Native American woman in General Custer’s Revenge] The Native American woman is a savage. She has no honor and no integrity. She doesn’t fight rape; in fact, being tied up and ravished makes her smile. She enjoys it. (Crenshaw 253)

By allowing himself to be sexualized, Portland conforms to European assumptions and stereotypes of his race. This relates back to the Western, which is re-enforced by racist attitudes and beliefs, wherein actors must conform in order to participate. This pressure to conform is echoed throughout the novel. Though Charlie strives not to conform in the way that his father did in Hollywood, he works at the same law firm that is attempting to remove Eli, who is also being pressured to conform to what the company wants, to utilize the dam.

Works Cited

“The Mystic Warrior: Qarwayaku.” YouTube, uploaded by Craska1, 19 Nov. 2014, youtube.com/watch?v=8TGRxP2alrg.

Crenshaw, Kimberlé Williams. “Beyond Racism and Misogyny: Black Feminism and 2 Live Crew.” Feminist Social Thought, edited by Diana Tietjens Meyer, Routledge, 1997, pp.247-263.

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature, vol. 161-162, 1999, pp. 140-172. Freely Accessible Arts & Humanities Journals, canlit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/canlit161-162-ReadingFlick.pdf.

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Harper Collins, 2007.

6. 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?

The world of Green Grass Running Water is full of allusions and puns. While many would find the massive amount of allusions in this novel daunting, I found myself quite enjoying it. I have always enjoyed literature that forces me to go down the rabbit hole, so to speak, in order to fully explore the narrative. Occasionally, filling your novel with such a large amount of knowledge comes with a certain amount of pretension. No one is ever going to know that much about that particular subject. For instance, if you have ever had to read T.S. Eliot’s The Wasteland, you are probably familiar with that feeling of condescension as you trudge your way through the poem. Comparatively,  I read Mumbo Jumbo for an African American literature class that was filled with just as many allusions, but Mumbo Jumbo pokes fun at this assumption that an absurd amount of allusions = intellectual superiority.

As I read Green Grass Running Water, I feel similarly about King’s use of allusions. It is almost as though King is letting the read know that it is fine if they do not catch every allusion, but the reading will be enriched if they are able to catch and understand the allusions. I believe this novel works to destabilize normalized notions of storytelling and the devices used in storytelling, allusions in particular. I also feel as though King is trying to shake our knowledge base of what we assume to be truth. One of the ways he goes about this is through naming.

Naming in Green Grass Running Water is the most common way King establishes his allusions. Many of the characters are named after historical figures that play a part in the Indigenous history that King plays off of. Some of the names are left as is, while others are puns or a hybrid form of two different characters. A cursory look through Jane Flick’s notes on GGRW show that King was not short on material when he was naming his characters.

Back to the main question, I would like to discuss three names that I found throughout GGRW that required being read out loud to fully understand the allusion. Before I share these names, I would like to discuss why I believe King has used this technique in GGRW, which I believe has to do with his play on language throughout the novel. GGRW destabilizes many norms in literature, such as language and even norms on the reading of a novel. It is assumed that a novel is to be read quietly, in your own thoughts, which clashes with the idea of the oral tradition that we have discussed in several other assignments throughout the term. By creating names that need to be read out loud to properly interpret, King forces the reader to reinterpret his novel through an oral reading, as opposed to a silent one. This also makes me think of Robinson’s oral tradition technique that he used in Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory.

The first name, probably the easiest one to find was Dr. Joe Hovaugh. Read out loud, his name is meant to sound like Jehovah. This becomes relevant due to the fact that Dr. Hovaugh, as a doctor, maintains a sense of authority. With his name alluding to a religion that has been at odds with Indigenous culture and beliefs by attempting to impose their own ideas on Indigenous people. This also puts him in place to be in opposed to Indigenous culture, as Jehovah is “God’s unique name as revealed in the Bible,” (“Who is Jehovah”) which introduces an opposing creation myth in the narrative of GGRW.

The other two names first appear on the same page, not surprising considering the parallels between these two figures. The two characters are Sally Jo Weyha and Polly Hantos, who are Sacajawea and Pocahontas. I find it fitting that these two characters are introduced together as they have both been taken in by popular culture, to the point where often conjoin into a similar character, or are confused for one another. For example, there is the Disney movie about Pocahontas. Of course, the details of their stories have been altered in order to fit a narrative constructed by European cultures. Also, they are known to history in the context of their association with European historical figures. Perhaps this is why King westernizes their names in his allusion to these figures. What I enjoy about these allusions is that, while they must also be read out loud to be fully understood, it is not as straight forward as simply reading their names. Some syllables need to be skipped, or mashed together in a version of language that is unfamiliar to the ear. It is an excellent example of King using naming and allusion to construct his new language and put the reader in a position to read it.

Works Cited

“Pocahontas.” History, history.com/topics/native-american-history/pocahontas. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.

“Pocahontas “Colors of the Wind”.” YouTube, uploaded by Disney Movies Anywhere, 26 June 2012, youtube.com/watch?v=pk33dTVHreQ.

“Sacajewea.” History, history.com/topics/native-american-history/sacagawea. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.

“Who Is Jehovah?” Jehovah’s Witness, jw.org/en/bible-teachings/questions/who-is-jehovah/. Accessed 9 Nov. 2016.

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

Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. April 04/2013.