Assignment 3:5 – Learning Through Story

Learning Through Story 

7. Describe how King uses the cyclical paradigm of the Medicine Wheel (and a little help from Coyote) to teach us to understand, or at least to try to understand the power behind the stories we tell ourselves.

The Medicine Wheel, a term first used by Americans of European descent for the Bighorn Medicine Wheel in Wyoming, is of great importance to Indigenous culture and spirituality. The Medicine Wheel can be understood as “a physical manifestation of our Spiritual energy.” (Laframboise and Sherbina). The Medicine Wheel teachings are based on a circular pattern and the number four: four Seasons, four Directions, four stages of Life, and the four spiritual aspects of a person (Laframboise and Sherbina). “Medicine Wheel teachings are vast and limitless and form the basis of most First Nations beliefs – The great circle of Life.” (Laframboise and Sherbina). 

Dancing to Eagle Spirit Society. This is an excellent example of a particular nation’s, and individuals, representation of the Medicine Wheel. 

In the novel, Green Grass Running Water, King uses the symbolic number four to teach the reader. A reader who is familiar with the importance of the Medicine Wheel and its 4 elements will grasp the four old Indians as teachers, the four sections of the novel as providing structure and the four stories of the mythical women (who are each at one of the four stages of life) who fall from the sky as being of significance (O’Brien 35).

Moreover, King uses the cyclical structure of the Medicine Wheel to shape the interconnectedness of his storylines: the creation stories, the old Indians, the search for the Indians, and the stories from the reserve. The importance of the circular Medicine Wheel is again used in how King begins the novel by Coyote noticing that there is water everywhere and “I” saying: “That’s true.[] And here’s how it happened.” (King 3) and Coyote again asking about the water at the end of the novel, and “I” responding: “Here’s how it happened.” (King 431), showing that stories do not have defined beginnings and endings but are continuous. Additionally, at the end of the novel, Latisha begins to re-build the cabin which Eli, and Eli and Latisha’s mother had lived in – re-creating something that has existed in each generation of the family. On page 415, King writes “Below, in the valley, the water rolled on as it had for eternity.” again emphasizing that life, and stories, are continuous. 

All of these uses of fours enhance how King uses the Medicine Wheel, always a teaching tool in Indigenous culture, to teach the reader to understand the power of stories (O’Brien 35). O’Brien, in her thesis essay, explains that King uses the four old Indians to represent the standard of ‘good’ storytelling in the novel. The story the Indians each tell is the same story, but because each storyteller is different, the story is slightly different. The story has to be told four times to ensure Coyote has learned the story (and, in turn, that the reader has learned the story), King uses storytelling, and its changing nature, to contrast with the European “conventional paradigms” of a dominant narrative that must be accepted by all. The oral telling of the stories further enhances their ability to remain flexible and fluid. 

From my perspective, King presents us, the reader with four interconnected and changing stories to show us that stories change and evolve depending on who is telling the story, and who they are telling the story to (in the case of the novel, to Coyote). By allowing us to read the story four times, we start to understand the story better from our own perspective and can interpret the stories in different ways. I believe King helps us understand the power of stories as teaching tools: sometimes, stories change depending on the lesson that is being conveyed and depending on who and why the story is being told. I think King is teaching us that storytelling is a powerful way to learn, and consequently, that we must be good listeners to the stories we hear and those we tell ourselves, and if we are, we will always learn from them. 

The Medicine Wheel influences almost all parts of Green Grass Running Water and serves as a teaching tool for the reader. Similarly, through the use of the four stories, four Indians, and four plotlines, King helps the reader learn the power of stories as a teaching tool, just like the Medicine Wheel. This excerpt from page 14 really illustrates, to me, how King wants us to understand the power and importance of stories and storytelling:

“That’s the wrong story,” said Ishmael. “That story comes later.”
“But it’s my turn,” said the Lone Ranger.
“But you have to get it right,” said Hawkeye.
“And,” said Robison Crusoe, “you can’t tell it all by yourself.”
“Yes,” said Ishmael. “Remember what happened last time?”
“Everybody makes mistakes.” said the Lone Ranger.
“Best not to make them with stories.” 

King 14

Works Cited

CanLit Guides Editorial Team. “Key Themes.” Canadian Literature. November 2013. Web. 6 Mar. 2020. https://canlitguides.ca/canlit-guides-editorial-team/green-grass-running-water-by-thomas-king/key-themes/

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: HaperCollins Publishers, 1993. Print. 

Laframboise, Sandra and Karen Sherbina. “The Medicine Wheel.” Dancing to Eagle Spirit Society. 2008. Web. 6 Mar. 2020. http://www.dancingtoeaglespiritsociety.org/medwheel.php

O’Brien, Doris Mary. Reading tricksters or Tricksters reading?. MA Thesis. Lakehead University, 1999. Web. 6 Mar. 2020. www.collectionscanada.gc.ca › obj › dsk1 › tape9 › PQDD_0022