Q.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.
As mentioned in this lesson, the term ‘Medicine Wheel’ is not a native term, but it is an essential aspect of a First Nations worldview. The picture seen here gives a visual representation for the four quadrants of the Medicine Wheel. The model of the Medicine Wheel is particularly unique in that (contrary to what many non-First Nations would assume, given the name ‘Medicine Wheel’) it is able to provide an explanation for nearly anything. Regardless of what is being examined or contemplated, the Medicine Wheel model allows a person to do so from four different perspectives. In so doing, a better and more holistic understanding of the world is available. The following passage from Lesson 3.2 particularly resonated with me in my learning:
As the Wheel turns, it is also returning, and in this way all of these elements are continually connecting and reconnecting; the past meets the present and things begin again. Life is cyclical and ALL things are inter-connected — that is the lesson of the Medicine Wheel, which is central to a First Nations worldview and an ethos that seeks balance and harmony (Paterson).
In Green Grass Running Water (GGRW), Thomas King employs the Medicine Wheel paradigm in a plethora of ways. First, and possibly one of the more obvious associations, is the division of the novel into four sections. The number four is not random, but is meant to resemble the four quadrants of the Wheel and thus, the four elements, seasons, stages of life, and states of being. Then, the four main plot lines from the elders of the novel include the narration of “regular”/ “ordinary”/ “everyday” life, four different creation stories, varying encounters with Christian figureheads, and encounters with North American literary figures. The structure of the novel’s storytelling thus creates an interconnectedness through the entanglement of each of these plot lines and encounters. This reflects upon the way the Medicine Wheel presents a cyclical perspective of the world that ultimately creates harmony. One of the other ways King uses the Medicine Wheel structure in GGRW is in the two stories at the beginning and the end of the novel. Prior to the first ‘quadrant,’ readers are given a creation story about Coyote, the Dream (AKA ‘Dog,’ AKA ‘G O D’), and the omniscient narrator. The question presented in this creation story is, “where did all that water come from?” (King 3). By the end of the novel, the reader has come “full circle” as we meet Coyote, the Dream, and the omniscient narrator once more. This time, it is Coyote asking where all the water came from. “I” responds to Coyotes observation of there being water everywhere by saying, “That’s true…And here’s how it happened” (King 469). By beginning and ending GGRW in a similar form, King has created the motion of the Wheel that turns and returns. In so doing, King teaches his readers that stories are always being told, always changing, and are always connected. In a matter of speaking then, stories hold some of the greatest power in the world.
Work Cited
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Bantam, 1994.