I’ve been given the task of analyzing, finding connections, and weeding out the interesting links in pages 189-200 in Green Grass Running Water. To start I want to point out that before taking this course, I didn’t even know what a hyperlink was, nor how to even create one. After researching on Google and playing with the blog a little, I slowly but surely figured it out. However, now that we have to do an entire hypertexting blog I feel a little overwhelmed and I’m connecting with that feeling I had at the beginning of this course. So hopefully this goes smoother than I am anticipating. I am going to try and write this as if a reader could understand what was going on in these 11 pages if they were just opening up the book at the point and starting to read. Here I go with all the allusions King sets out for us.
First my pages open with Latisha’s family, which include, Christian, Benjamin and Elizabeth. Latisha is home late from work and Christian makes dinner for their family, however the mean isn’t gourmet by any means. It is important for readers to note that Latisha owns the “Dead Dog Café” and lives in a Blackfoot Native American community in Alberta. This is just a general back-story to know why Latisha get’s home late, working as a single mom. The conversation starts to gear into Latisha’s past with her ex-husband George. Latisha opens up about George, her former abusive ex-husband and goes into an example of him showing up at the café in a John Wayne leather jacket with a fringe. Latisha’s response wasn’t to George’s liking and when she got home from work, George gave her a beating, while he repeated, “don’t you ever do that again”(King 192).

 

After Latisha’s memory is over, Christian, her son asks her about a Western they are watching: “How come the Indians always get killed?”(193). Latisha’s response is quite eye opening, she says: “If the Indians won, it probably wouldn’t be a Western”(193).

 

The next story within my assigned texts begins with Coyote and an unknown narrative, which leads you to believe the narrator, is King. They tell part of a story, which has been told throughout the book, about Ahab, the Changing Woman, and a man named Ishmael. This is brief I know, but I have to get into my analysis.

 

The third story, with less emphasis in my assigned reading tells a tale about Eli and Karen, a young couple with issues about meeting Eli’s parents.
I’ve chosen to focus mainly on Latisha and Ishmael because I found the most connections with other references. King uses a ton of humor within his writing and to be honest, I found the connections extremely overwhelming because there is so much to cover.

 

However, for the purpose of this assignment I am going to narrow it down.

 

Significance of Names

 

Ishmael has got to be one of the most famous characters in writing from in presence in Moby Dick. His opening line in Moby Dick is “Call me Ishmael”, which King uses on page 197. King’s references to water, re-birth characters throughout the novel and in particular this scene is something to look at. His connection with Moby-Dick is not simply because the four Native men are trying to capture whales, but because King plays a certain kind of spin on the White Man’s ideas of wealth. In particular, he says, “ This is a Christian world, you know. We only kill things that are useful or things we don’t like”(196).
King bashes Christianity in a way that most readers would not consider offensive because at the time a lot of people would’ve found this statement to be true. Although a rude comment, his human prevails and takes this comment from a negative and offensive, to hilarious, true, and really opens our eyes.

 

Changing Woman is significant because the Changing Woman turns in Ishmael. She was a significant timeless woman that turned into one of the four Indian men in the story. I believe this is interesting to note because of the evolution of the story. These two turn into one another and I think this is a strong tie to Native stories within King’s writing, without explicitly saying that they are linked.

 

Ahab is the leader of the whale hunt and has his eye out for the White Whale. Some could call it an obsession. He has a very emotional tie with his White Whale obsession. When Ahab chants out “whalesbians”, what is he trying to get at? Is this somehow pointing fun at Western identities? Or maybe Ahab is confused and this is a way of expressing his confusion? I can’t help but think that King is somehow point at something within Western culture. Ahab is so attracted to this “big White Whale”, yet he is chanting about lesbian whales.

 

John Wayne: I included John Wayne because his name was closely tied to the jacket in which George wore before he beat Latisha. He was the classic American film Westerner, maybe like the Bradley Cooper of the Hangover today? That may be a far stretch. Anyways he was known as “The Cowboy” that versed “The Indians”. All of American knows who he is; he is referenced in numerous movies, television shows, and a lot of music.

 

Latisha: Latisha is a unique name, not as common, not as “white” as the common names. In my opinion from the reading, I see Latisha as a female that represents the majority of Native women within their households. Latisha is hard working, passionate, and vulnerable. I could be completely off base here but it was an important part of my analysis.

 

Moby-Jane: A female whale, in comparison to Moby Dick. This whale signifies the female presence in the world and demonstrates her ability to take charge. Changing Woman was immediately drawn to her and didn’t see her as evil, yet she saw her as comforting.

Coyote:  Of course Coyote needs to be mentioned. Coyote’s presence occurs throughout the entire text because he is a First Nations presence. He has the ability to cross cultural boundaries and enhance readers opinions, give them more answers, and be the common light in all of our readings. I really liked how Coyote could transport back and forth and totally fit into any story. He has the ability to connect with every story and he always had something to say. I found him to be a First Nations presence, written in a Western-like way.  I say that because I felt like he took on the role of both sides within the text and never really chose a “side”.

The most significant term I found within my reading was:

One

I was immediately drawn in to Latisha’s description of George’s reasoning that he had so many jobs. He was always looking for “the one”(190). The emphasis on the right one seems to involve something being perfect for any occasion, perfect for the person, and completely right for the circumstance. I am emphasizing on the term “one” here because I think King used in strategically to point out the lack of unity within the Western world. Green Grass Running Water is all about mixing Native content with the Western world. It points out Western flaw, takes a Judeo-Christian approach, and always tries to intermingle both lifestyles. I am sure we are all aware of the saying “How The West Was One”. I think this was a big ideal that King wanted to prove false and he demonstrated it perfectly with the text. The term “one” means unity, identity, and togetherness. However, it can also mean an individual, a single person, and an idea, just a single idea. I think that was the “one” he was getting at within the text. Not so much unity with the Western World and the Native world, but the Westerner’s way of making the world all about them, as if the Native’s were guests in their own homes.

There is so much I can say about these 11 pages and I found this extremely difficult to write. I had a lot of thoughts that I just couldn’t get down on paper because this is assignment really made my mind wonder, which I hope was the purpose. Please feel free to agree or disagree. I am sure there are many perspectives on these stories, such as our own creations stories.

Happy Reading!

Jessica R

Works Cited

Andrews, Jennifer. “Border Trickery and Dog Bones: A Conversation with Thomas King”. SCL Interview. 1999. Web. 13 Mar 2015.

Cox, James H. “All This Water Imagery Must Mean Something”: Thomas King’s Revisions of Narratives of Domination and Conquest in “Green Grass, Running Water”. American Indian Quarterly. 200. Web. 12 Mar 15.

“Green Grass Running Water”. Perennial Canada Reading Group Guide”. Harper Collins Publishers. Web. 12 Mar 2015.

“Ishmael.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc, n.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

“John Wayne.” Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. Web. 12 Mar. 2015.

King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1993. Print.

Lutz, John. “First Contact as a Spiritual Performance: Aboriginal — Non-Aboriginal Encounters on the North American West Coast.” Myth and Memory: Rethinking Stories of Indigenous-European Contact. Ed. Lutz. Vancouver: U of British Columbia P, 2007. 30-45. Print

“One”. The Oxford English Dictionary. University Press. Web. 12 Mar 2015.

Smith, Carlton. “Coyote, Contingency, and Community: Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water” and Postmordern Trickster”. American Indian Quartlerly. 1997. Web. 12 Mar 2015.

Walker, Peter, A. “How the West was one: American environmentalists, farmers and ranchers learn to say ‘Howdy, Partner”. Outlook on Agriculture. Web. 12 Mar 2015.

 

What are the major differences or similarities between the ethos of the creation story you are familiar with and the story King tells in The Truth About Stories?

 

First off I chose this question because I was so intrigued by it’s hidden complexity. I actually had to look up and research the definition of ethos because I was a little confused of the context it’s used in here. However, after researching I was enlightened by the question even more. When I looked up the definition of ethos in The Oxford English Dictionary, I found the first two definitions to be the most useful for this assignment. The first defines ethos as a “character or characterization as revealed in action or its representation; the quality of the permanent, as opposed to the transient or emotional”(OED). The second, defines ethos as “the characteristic spirit of a people, community, culture, or era as manifested in its attitudes and aspirations; the prevailing character of an institution or system”(OED). I also found this article a very interesting read because it focused on the patterns of ethos and its comparisons to personality traits. My understanding of ethos is to enhance a reader’s knowledge of a particular story and to give it a credible history. Ethos should help a reader understand the story and persuade them into believe that a story is real or true based on the way it’s told and the characterization within the story. I think this is important to remember when comparing and contrasting the story of creation that I was told as a child and the story that King told us in The Truth About Stories.

While comparing the creation story I was told and King’s version, I found the ethos to be very different. I found my creation story to be straight to the facts, with little to no room for readers to express emotion or general feelings towards a particular character in the story. However, with King’s story I found the ethos within the story to really engage with me as a reader. I found my emotions and feelings towards the story more engaging than I did when I was told the creation story I grew up with strictly based on the content of the story. King tells his story, as he mentions, in a Native story-telling way, which provokes emotions, plays with human interaction, and gets a reader’s mind thinking. King tells the story with overwhelming emotion, you almost feel like he is reading the story aloud to you, even though you are reading the story from the text. The way in which he tells the story makes it come alive.

In comparison to the creation story I was told, the Adam and Eve bible version, ethos did not play a large part in the actual story itself. This story was driven from facts from the Bible and was told in a manor that reiterated what the Bible had said. However, when I was younger my parent’s put a lot of effort into story telling and I feel that they almost told the story to me in a way comparable to King, even though the context differed, the way in which it was told was similar. My parent’s made a habit of exaggerating everything, from us finishing the food on our plates at dinner; to the stories they told us before bed. The Adam and Eve creation story was no differ and I believe I was lucky to have been exposed to this type of story telling. The ethos in my parent’s version and King’s version were definitely more similar than they were different.
Of course, the content of each story differs and it will differ to each and every individual. Even though some of us may have grown up with the same creations stories, most likely the way in which they were told differ in some type of way. I believe that we are all lucky to have had our different exposures because we are now able to create our own versions of stories, which may mimic or be polar-opposite to the ones we were once told.

Here was a neat little cartoon that displayed the same amount of confusion I had for ethos when I first looked it up!
Works Cited

“Ethos, Logos, Pathos”. Youtube. 2001. Web. 8 Mar 2015.
McCrae, Robert R. Personality Profiles of Cultures: Patterns of Ethos. Laboratory of Personality and Cognition, National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health and Human Services. 2009. 8 Mar 2015.

The Oxford English Dictionary Online. The Oxford University Press. 2015. 8 Mar 2015.