This is the third time I’ve read the novel. The way I’ve found most effective for me is to flag possible allusions as I read them and write a quick note. This has helped me methodically comb through the references and make more connections. I’ve used post-its this time because I find that I notice things differently each read and don’t want anything too permanent but I’m kicking myself that I’ve lost some of my previous readings’ notebooks. I’m going at this similar to Jane Flick in her reading guide. Here is my list for GGRW allusions pages 12-17:

 

Ishmael
Is a character in Herman Melville’s Moby Dick. “He is strong friends with the cannibal QUEEQUEG, and when Moby Dick destroys the Pequod, Ishmael survives by staying afloat on Queequeg’s coffin” (Flick 143).

Lone Ranger
The Lone Ranger is a masked white “do-gooder” who with his Indian companion, Tonto, clean up towns. The figure is Lone because it was believed that a single man could be the saviour. The Lone Ranger character was created in the 1940s for a radio program either by George W. Trendle or by the writer Frank Striker. “Striker is most likely though considering that he had written a couple of stories in Buffalo, New York that are very similar to The Lone Ranger” (Comicvine). Interestingly, the Lone Ranger’s ethics code remains the same during his entire storyline:

1. I believe that to have a friend, a man must be one.
2. That all men are created equal and that everyone has within himself the power to make this a better world.
3. That God put the firewood there, but that every man must gather and light it himself.
4. In being prepared physically, mentally, and morally to fight when necessary for that which is right.
5. That a man should make the most of what equipment he has.
6. That “this government, of the people, by the people, and for the people,” shall live always.
7. That men should live by the rule of what is best for the greatest number.
8. That sooner or later…somewhere…somehow…we must settle with the world and make payment for what we have taken.
9. That all things change, but the truth, and the truth alone lives on forever.

I believe in my Creator, my country, my fellow man. (Comicvine)

 

Hawkeye
Hawkeye is an “adopted ‘Indian’ name” (Flick 141-142) and a nickname for Nathaniel Bumppo, a guide and man possessing knowledge of “Indian ways”. He is the hero of a long list of westerns, and his other nicknames include Natty, Nasty, Deerslayer, Leatherstocking, la Longue Carbine, and Pathfinder. His sidekick is Chingachgook. Based on this list of nicknames and leather jerkin uniform, I would say that Hawkeye’s “heroism” represents the ideal frontiersman and consequently encourages many savage stereotypes surrounding Native Americans in pop culture.

Robinson Crusoe
Is a fictional character created by Daniel Defoe in the 18th century. Crusoe is a shipwrecked mariner based upon the real life Alexander Selkirk. He survives by relying upon ingenuity and “saves” and Christianizes a “savage” named Friday. Flick notes that King “mocks Crusoe’s passion for making lists and for weighing the pros and cons of various situations” (142). Flick also mentions the nod to Defoe’s story through the Hawaiian palm tree shirts which reference the desert island upon which Crusoe was stranded. I think it is interesting to connect Crusoe to Ishmael as figures who interact with cannibals. By contrasting these white survival figures against their cannibalistic companions it serves to perpetuate the notion that white “British civility” is the correct way to live and that any other cultural practice is wrong.

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.”
I think it’s rather cheeky of King to add this passage from the Bible into the beginning of the novel for the context surrounding this passage:

“Wait a minute,” said Robinson Crusoe.

“Yes?”

“That’s the wrong story,” said Ishmael. “That story comes later.” (King 14)

If the Biblical story “comes later”, then of course it cannot be THE creation story because there was something created previous to the Biblical creation.

Higayv:ligé:i
The Lone Ranger’s first Cherokee words which are spoken at the ceremonial opening of storytelling in a Cherokee ceremony divining for water and hope for the future (Siemerling 170). The opening lines of the novel are actually “So. In the beginning, there was nothing. Just the water” (King 1), and the Lone Ranger repeats this in Cherokee, maybe to make sure everyone can understand, not just the English speakers. In turn, this experience of English alienation implicates the reader.

Tsane:hlanv:hi
“Provider, you” (Neuhaus 167). Hawkeye’s approval in Cherokee to the Lone Ranger’s Cherokee beginning.

Hade:lohó:sgi
“One who forsees” (Neuhaus 167). Robinson Crusoe’s additional approval to the Lone Ranger’s Cherokee beginning.

Dagvyá:dhv:dv:hní
“I will question you” (Neuhaus 167). Ishmael’s comment (probably to Coyote who often doesn’t pay attention) when the Lone Ranger is about to pick up his story again.

Tsada:hnó:nedí niga:v duyughodv: o:sdv
“It has begun well… State the whole truth well” (Neuhaus 167). The Lone Ranger is continuing the beginning of his story in Cherokee to further alienate the non-Cherokee speakers. Not only will he begin in another language, but he will continue in it.

Joseph Hovaugh and his desk
So we’ve all read Dr Paterson’s blog entry about Joseph Hovaugh (aka Jevohah, aka Northrop Frye). I just wanted to add additional commentary about his desk. I vaguely remember my English 222 class mentioning that the desk is significant though I cannot remember exactly why we thought this. Thinking about it now, I think it’s the description of the “large… rare example of colonial woodcraft… stripped, repaired, stained blond, and moved… [a] massive piece of wood… a tree cut down to the stump” (King 16, emphasis mine) that stands out as a symbol of colonial conquering. This wood, found on North American soil was altered to suit the colonizer’s needs and the language King uses to describe the alterations seem actually quite aggressive now that I think of it. “Stripped, repaired, stained, moved” and “cut down to the stump” and the fact that the tree needed to be altered for a civilized purpose to begin with echo the goals Duncan Campbell Scott sets out in the Indian Act.

Hospital: white stucco, garden behind, Hovaugh looking down from office
If Dr Hovaugh is seen as a God figure overlooking his garden of Eden beneath him (and the “long expanse of white stucco, brilliant and warm… willows were beginning to get their leaves, the cherry trees were heavy with pink and white blossoms, the evergreens stood dark and velvet… [y]ellow daffodils lined the front… and the wisteria and lilacs… were greening up nicely… and the swans on the blue-green pond” (16)) then what does it say about the fact that the four Indians escaped from under his nose without his detection? I think King is presenting his readers with the challenge of confronting an usurped God figure, cheekily pointed out already by the dog/God confusion.

Mary and John
Quite by chance this addition to my list appeared because I struggled to format John in as his own entry. A handy google search of “Mary and John” yields the knowledge that there was apparently a ship called the “Mary and John” that sailed between England and the American colonies in the 1630s carrying emigrants.

If we separate the terms like I initially intended, Mary is most obviously known in Western culture as the mother of Jesus. John is also a Biblical name (John the Baptist) and from the Gospel of John.

Pair of peacocks
I was unsure whether this referred to anything other than the fact that peacocks are considered luxury animals and coveted for their beauty. Is it just another addition to Dr Hovaugh’s garden of Eden or do the peacocks mean something greater? I’d be happy for any addition insight here!

 

References

Flick, Jane. “Reading Guide for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162 (1999): 140-72. Canlit. Canadian Literature, 9 Aug. 2012. Web. 2 Apr. 2014.

“Lone Ranger.” Comicvine. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <http://www.comicvine.com/lone-ranger/4005-9231/>.

Neuhaus, Mareike. “That’s Raven Talk”: Holophrastic Readings of Contemporary Aboriginal Literature. UofRegina Press, 2008. Print.

Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.3.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres. UBC Blogs. Web. 2 Apr. 2014. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470/unit-3/lesson-3-3/>.

Siemerling, Winfried. The New North American Studies: Culture, Writing and the Politics of Re/cognition. London: Routledge, 2005. Print.

 

 

• Allusions
• GGRW
• Northrop Frye
• Thomas King