Reading King’s Green Grass, Running Water was like reading a sequel to Robinson’s Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England. Because both stories had characters with coyotes in them, it made me even more confused, as if the two stories overlapped one another. There are many narrative elements that are similar in the two stories that replicate the type of storytelling experience so often promoted by Robinson.
I decided to make a comparative chart on the similarities and differences I noticed in Robinson and King’s style of narrative. In Robinson’s Coyote Makes a Deal with the King of England, I noticed that the sentences are short and terse. This mocks the type of storytelling a person would use as if they were pausing and breathing in-between sentences. As a result, the effect of this type of storytelling is quite realistic and adheres to the elements of oral creation stories. The short sentences may also mean that the storyteller is pausing to make sure the audience understands the story. I think the way Robinson narrates the story is very effective in addressing readers and the audience directly because of this assumed feeling of intimacy and friendliness. This strategy is also effective in drawing in readers to LISTEN. Quite similarly, in King’s Green Grass, Running Water, the coyote also beging the story with brief and short sentences, just like Robinson’s. I think both authors use this technique as a way of engaging and interacting with readers, to draw them in closely and make them listen to the story carefully.
Another similarity these two stories shared is the frequent amount of dialogue between characters. This type of back and forth conversation between characters requires the narrator to act as if he was reproducing a scene, which I believe is another element of great storytelling. These dialogues enhance liveliness in a story, which can give the audience/readers the feeling that they are actually experiencing the story again, or as if they were actually in that scenario, reliving the moment. King and Robinson do an exquisite job at retelling their journey or what the characters are seeing exactly to share their story. I think that King has adopted to Robinson’s narrative skills well, and the two authors together do a wonderful job in creating a lively story through the performance of storytelling.
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King’s GREEN GRASS |
Robinson’s COYOTE MAKES A DEAL |
| Jumps from story to story, held together by the coyote that connects everything together | Uses short, terse sentences that mock storytelling in person as if a person is pausing and breathing. It may also mean that the story teller is pausing to make sure the audience understands |
| Seems to be alluding to characters from different books | Moments of suspense that makes the audience wonder who that mysterious figure is |
| Seems to be a parody of how story telling should be “a long time ago, in a far away” “not again” (12) | Asks rhetorical questions to address the audience ask them participate/engage |
| The coyote begins the story with brief and short sentences, just like Robinson’s. | Addresses the audience by using ‘you’, which again asks the audience to participate in the storytelling and makes this an active interaction between the story teller and audience |
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.1.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres. 15 Apr. 2014. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl470/unit-3/lesson-3-1/>.
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto: Harper Collins, 1993. Print.
Robinson, Harry. “Coyote Makes a Deal with the King Of England.” Living by Stories: a Journey of Landscape and Memory. Ed. Wendy Wickwire. Vancouver: Talonbooks, 2005. 64-85.