137-139
Sergeant Cereno (137)
The character Sergeant Cereno refers to the story of a captain for a Spanish slave ship named Captain Don Benito Cereno. He is playing a lead role in a story about the slave ship becoming overrun by the slaves on-board in which they take control of Cereno and his crew. Both of them are characterized because they have leadership titles as Cereno in Green Grass, Running Water is a Sergeant in the Police. At the same time, Don Benito Cereno is a naval Captain.
Wounded knee (137)
Wounded Knee was a massacre that took place in 1890 between the United States Army and the Lakota Sioux peoples. The battle took place on what is now known as the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota and would take 300 casualties, including over half of them being women and children. The slaughter mainly happened due to the rising tensions between the Lakota Sioux community and the Federal government from the Sioux people practicing the Ghost Dance, which was viewed as a sign of protesting from the U.S. governments’ perspective. However, although it was a dance of resistance, they did it peacefully, and they believed the dance would cause all non-believers to disappear from their land.
Ahdamn and First Woman (139)
Ahdamn and First Woman are biblical references to Adam and Eve in the Genesis story of the Bible, who were known as the first man and woman. However, in Flicks notes, she also describes that First Woman is an allusion to North American Indigenous culture as she was the First Woman on Earth and fell out of the sky. Both allusions share very similar stories, like Adam and Eve in Genesis create the Garden of Eden while First Woman is also the creator of Turtle Island.
140-144
Lone Ranger (140)
The famous character from the early 1930s series “The Lone Ranger” also made appearances in multiple sequel movies. According to Flick, Thomas King admired the Lone Ranger in which he tried to incorporate his character into his literary works.
Ishmael (141)
Ishmael is another biblical allusion as he is Abraham’s son in the Genesis section of the Bible. However, Ishmael is also a recognized figure in other religions, including Judaism along with Islam. Flick also notes that Ishmael can also be viewed as an allusion to the novel Moby Dick as he is one of the lead characters throughout the story. Ishmael’s character falls under two of King’s allusion trends as he is a character in a Herman Mellville novel like Cereno and is apart of Genesis.
Robinson Crusoe (144)
It is a fictional novel that is about the life of Crusoe and his adventures of escaping to castaway islands for years and encountering local populations. Although the novel is told as a fictional tale, many believe that it is based on the similar adventures Alexander Selkirk took part in. In Flicks notes, it states that Crusoe’s “shirt with the palm trees” is a subtle reference King uses as a connection to the castaway islands.
145-147
Sky World (145)
A reference to the Heavens, known as the Sky World, where powerful forces reside according to the Anishinabe culture. They will often share many stories about the sky world, but it is common for communities to have a Wabeno-innin, also known as “The Men of Dawn,” who hold all the Sky World knowledge.
Big Canoe (147)
Another one of King’s Genesis allusions in which this one refers to Noah’s Ark, a large boat created to save Noah and his family and all the known animal species. As the novel states, “this canoe was a big canoe. And it was white. And it was full of animals” (147). The “canoe” was so big that it measured out to be a total of 510 feet long, whereas the Challenger space shuttle measured only 184 feet.
– KO
Works Cited:
“Benito Cereno.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 5 Jan. 2021, en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Cereno.
History.com Editors. “Wounded Knee.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 6 Nov. 2009, www.history.com/topics/native-american-history/wounded-knee.
“Ishmael.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/biography/Ishmael-son-of-Abraham.
Legends of America, www.legendsofamerica.com/na-ghostdance/.
“Lone Ranger.” Encyclopædia Britannica, Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc., www.britannica.com/topic/Lone-Ranger.
Network, Canadian Heritage Information. “The Anishinabe of Central North America.” Indigenous Astronomy: The Anishinabe of Central North America | The Anishinabe of Central North America, Government of Canada, Department of Canadian Heritage, Canadian Heritage Information Network, www.virtualmuseum.ca/edu/ViewLoitDa.do;jsessionid=6567C79E816212CC0773C6533849593B?method=preview&lang=EN&id=5186.
“Noah’s Ark.” Ark Encounter, arkencounter.com/noahs-ark/.
“A Quarterly of Criticism and Review.” Canadian Literature, canlit.ca/article/reading-notes-for-thomas-kings-green-grass-running-water/.
“The Real Robinson Crusoe.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 July 2005, www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-real-robinson-crusoe-74877644/.
“Turtle Island.” The Canadian Encyclopedia, www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/turtle-island.
Hi Kyle,
Thanks for teasing out and researching these allusions and connections in GGRW. I found your hyperlinks very informative! You’ve collected quite an assortment of stories here–from creation myths to novels and political movements. Your focus on Ishmael’s biblical origins is a thought-provoking one for me. I think that, in my readings of the novel, I have always focused on the Melville connection that King accentuates with Changing Woman’s adventure on the whaling ship with Ahab. But you’re right to look back further, I suppose–it’s a significant part of the narrative that King is co-opting that many of the characters bear Hebraic names (Ishmeal, Ahab, and the rest). One starts getting a real sense of the depth of story that King is working with. Elements from the Hebrew Bible (especially Genesis) stand out in your notes, and I wondered if you’d thought about what King is doing by reaching back into that distant, primordial history–and joining these stories, for instance, with those of the Sky World and Turtle Island, since you point out some interesting parallels there. Or (slightly related question, maybe), do you have any thoughts about how the rehearsal of these stories affects the sense and direction of time in the novel? You make a striking mixture of antiquity and contemporaneity yourself in comparing Noah’s Ark to the Challenger space shuttle!
Just a few musings! All the best,
Connor
Hi Connor!
Thank you for the comment and you make some interesting points on how these characters I related to biblical notions can also relate to Melville’s stories as well. It seems that King really focused on these two narratives when it came to making character connections throughout GGRW. To answer your question I would argue that King seems to be making a juxtaposition around the narratives between the creation stories of colonial cultures like Genesis in comparison to the creation stories told through Indigenous cultures like Turtle Island. I argue this because King seems to like sharing multiple perspectives throughout his stories in GGRW along with the Truth About Stories and looking at how these different stories of creation relate to one another.