Many allusions appear in pages 78-90 of Thomas King’s novel Green Grass Running Water.

In the beginning, both the Lone Ranger and Norma reference the need to stay awake.  Lionel then goes on to reference the mountains and how “if it weren’t for the clouds…you could see all the way to the mountains” (79).  Norma then responds, “you could see the mountains real good if you came out to the reserve once and a while” (79).  I believe that King’s references to sleep and the mountains are symbolic of Lionel’s need to deal with his problems head on.  Working in the city, allows him to escape somewhat from his demons, but the closer he gets to the reserve the clearer and bigger the mountains are; thus, the bigger and clearer his problems become.  Looking at Dream Interpretations it is clear that mountains symbolize obstacles that you will/need to face.

One of the big obstacles that Lionel has to face is his dead end job.  In the flashback where Bill Bursum is trying to recruit Lionel as an employee, he refers to Lionel’s cousin Charlie as “Charlie Looking Back” (80), which Lionel then corrects to “Looking Bear” (80).  Between this mistake and the fact that Charlie “brought a lot of business [to Bill] from the reserve” (80), it is obvious that Bill doesn’t genuinely care for Charlie, but just likes the fact that Charlie brought in “all that easy Indian business” (83)–hence why, Bill now wants Lionel to work for him too.  Bill even goes so far as to stretch the truth a little in terms of the position’s pay in the hope of reeling Lionel into the position.  But, more importantly, this all leads up to the fact that Charlie refers to Bill as “Buffalo Bill” (83).  Buffalo Bill was a former “Indian Fighter”, yet made most of his money by exploiting Indigenous people with his traveling “Wild West” shows.  Buffalo Bill, essentially used First Nations people and their hardships for monetary gain, under the pretense of giving Indigenous people the opportunity to leave their homes and represent their culture.  Though, it is not absolutely certain that Buffalo Bill was the “Indian Fighter” that many believe him to be, I believe that the “Buffalo Bill as a killer” version of the story is what King is using to allude to Bill Bursum.  Like Buffalo Bill, Bill Bursum is exploiting Indigenous people by using Charlie and Lionel to get more customers;  Bill did not hire them purely for honest reasons, but more so as a means to an end (a.k.a a means to make more money).

This section of the novel also carries on Alberta’s story and, more specifically, her marriage to Bob.  One of my favourite quotes of the novel is the description of Alberta’s hatred of planes, which is an allusion to her marriage to Bob.

“[Alberta] rarely flew, hated planes, in fact.  In a plane, she was helpless, reduced to carrying on an inane conversation with a total stranger or to reading a book while she listened for the telltale vibration in the engine’s pitch or the first groan of the wing coming away from it’s fuselage.  And all the time, that faceless, nameless man sat in the nose of the plane, smiling, drinking coffee, telling stories, completely oblivious to impending disasters.  Marriage was like that” (85).

I love this quote because it paints such a clear picture of her marriage to Bob.  She knows that the impending doom (divorce) is inevitable, while Bob is pretty oblivious and just continuing on living as if nothing could be, or go, wrong.  At the same time, I find it curious that King chose the name “Bob” for Alberta’s husband.  Alberta’s name is original and gives the impression of wide open spaces and freedom, just like the province of Alberta itself.  Bob (short for Robert) on the other hand is a name that has been popular for generations and doesn’t produce any substantial images, except maybe an image of British decent.  Compared to the name Alberta, it is ordinary and lifeless.  As a result, Bob seems to want very mundane things.  He wants a government job, kids, a “larger apartment” (86), and a car.  In response to his requests, Alberta says, “we don’t need them” (86), upon which Bob replies, “Nobody needs those things.  But everyone wants them.  You want them.  I want them.  You don’t want to spend the rest of your life in a tepee, do you?” (86)  This quote shows that Bob only cares about living a “normal” life and just being one of the billions of people who buy things they don’t need, but want.  Likewise, he dismisses the idea of Alberta even wanting to live in a “tepee”.  After all, in Bob’s opinion, why would a sane, “normal” person, want to live in a tepee?  Bob is clearly chasing a dream, that isn’t technically his own, but society’s.  Like the socially accepted idea of a woman’s place being in the home, “Bob wanted a wife; he did not want a woman” (87).  As a result, he represents Alberta’s struggle against societal norms.  Bob is everyone in her world telling her to “be a woman” and  settle down, not go to school, make a home, and have many children.  Thus, when Alberta meets up with Bob for coffee after they’ve broken up and learns that Bob is finally living the life he wanted with his new woman, Alberta realizes at that moment that she “had never felt so free” (87) before.  By escaping Bob and his plans for her as his wife, she escaped the socially acceptable responsibility of being a women.  So now, instead, she can live free of her gender stereotype, just as her name suggests.

Near the end of this section, we are also introduced more in-depth to Alberta’s father, Amos.  Interestingly enough, Amos refers to Alberta’s mother, Ada, as “Daarlink” (88), which “is what comes out when a Russian says ‘darling'” (Darlink).  But at the same time, Amos is of Hebrew origin (Amos).  Likewise, “the name is seldom used in this century, perhaps because of lingering negative connotations from the highly politically incorrect radio show ‘Amos ‘n Andy’ that was popular in the 1940s and 1950s” (Amos).  Within the radio show, two white men created an “aural blackface” (Bowman) by putting on various voices and acting out various “black” stereotypes.  The infamous name, therefore, aptly suits Amos (Alberta’s dad) because within this passage we see that he is an abusive drunken idiot who refers to his wife as having an “ugly cow face” (88).  The apple doesn’t fall far from the name, if you get my drift.

Works Cited

Amos. n.d. Web. 18 July 2014. <http://www.thinkbabynames.com/meaning/1/Amos>

Bowman, Dona, et al. “Amos ‘N’ Andy was the rare representation of black culture on 1950s TV–but at what cost?”A.V. Club. 7 July 2013. Web. 18 July 2014.

Buffalo Bill. n.d. Web. 18 July 2014 <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Buffalo_Bill>

Darlink. n.d. Web. 18 July 2014 <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=darlink>

King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.

Mountain. n.d. Web. 18 July 2014 <http://www.edreaminterpretation.com/mountain-2/>