Let\u2019s start with the Medicine Wheel, as described in our class notes for this lesson:<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Medicine Wheel is a tool for healing both individual and community problems \u2013 but it is also a tool for teaching, which is really the same thing\u2026 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.\u201d<\/p>\n
The turning of the Wheel brings rejuvenation, allowing the seasons and the elements and seasons to continue their cycle. If the wheel stopped, then, the rejuvenation would not happen, and the world would become static and fetid. What could stop the turning of the wheel? The answer, I think, comes from telling stories.<\/p>\n
There are a number of characters in Green Grass<\/em> who express a desire to \u201cget the story right.\u201d\u00a0 Ishmael tells Crusoe it\u2019s \u201cbest not to make [mistakes] with stories,\u201d (King, 14) and a frustrated Babo says \u201cThat\u2019s not right either. I keep getting it wrong. I better start at the beginning again.\u201d (King, 93) Most crucially, the unnamed narrator of the story is set on telling the story of the water right, instructing Coyote to \u201cListen up\u2026 I only want to do this once.\u201d (King, 38) He ends up telling his story four times over the course of the novel, which ends with him preparing to tell it yet again.<\/p>\n None of these characters ever do seem to tell their story right, but what would happen if they did? I think part of the explanation is found in Blanca Chester\u2019s article, describing the novel\u2019s relationship between stories and reality:<\/p>\n \u201cThe stories themselves are re-created and they simultaneously re-create the world \u2013 again and again. The stories continue to theorize, and thus to create, Native reality.\u201d (Chester, 59)<\/p>\n Storytelling is cyclical, and each story told gives birth to a new world, or breathes life into the old one. Like the turning of the medicine wheel, storytelling is a process of rejuvenation. I do not think this is a coincidence, rather that the two are closely linked; the telling of stories is the process by which the wheel turns. I feel like this is well-supported by the novel\u2019s structure, which associates each of its four acts with one of the quadrants of the medicine wheel, and uses each section of the novel to tell a new version of the narrator\u2019s creation story. At the end of the novel, the rejuvenation process is complete (\u201c\u2018Look at that, Mary. It\u2019s spring again. Everything\u2019s green. Everything\u2019s alive.\u2019\u201d [King, 425]). But it is not over \u2013 a new cycle is beginning, as the narrator starts telling Coyote a new story of the water. (King, 431)<\/p>\n If storytelling is what keeps the wheel turning, rejuvenating the world, it follows that an end to storytelling would stop the wheel, throwing the world into decay. The idea of \u201cgetting the story right\u201d actually seems like a dangerous one, in that light \u2013 if the narrator got the story right, he wouldn\u2019t have to keep beginning again, and would stop telling it. Now that we have taken this appropriately cyclical route of explanation, I think I am ready to theorize Coyote\u2019s role in the novel: Coyote, using his trickster\/transformer abilities to alter or disrupt the narrator\u2019s story, ensures the story is never \u201cright\u201d so the wheel can keep spinning.<\/p>\n Coyote has two main tactics for keeping the stories coming. One tactic is disruption: he inserts events, such as the arrival of Moby-Jane (King, 197), and the things he say become dialogue in the story, such as in the exchange between A.A. Gabriel and Thought Woman (King, 271). Secondly, when the story ends, he asks questions and claims not to understand the story, forcing the narrator to start again:<\/p>\n \u201cBut what happens to First Woman?\u201d While the narrator wants to finish their story and be done with it, Coyote blocks this effort and makes the story begin again. The narrator seems to think Coyote\u2019s inattentiveness is a bad thing, citing it as the reason the world \u201chas problems\u201d and \u201cis a mess.\u201d But the pattern of their back-and-forth is anything but chaotic; it is predictable and cyclical. Their exchanges ensure the Wheel keeps turning.<\/p>\n I like this explanation, although it leaves a number of questions unanswered. For starters, what are Coyote\u2019s intentions? Does he know the importance of his role, or does he just enjoy a good story? Is he as silly as he appears, or does he just act that way in order to keep the narrator talking? Flick\u2019s description of Coyotes doesn\u2019t provide much in the way of hints, as she notes they are \u201ccapable of being brave or cowardly, conservative or innovative, wise or stupid.\u201d (Flick, 143) I am also still lost about the identity of the narrator, and why it is important that they keep telling the story, instead of passing it onto Coyote, as was their intention. I would love to hear thoughts on any of this!<\/p>\n Works Cited:<\/p>\n Chester, Blanca. \u201cGreen Grass Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel.\u201d Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. July 1, 2015.<\/p>\n Flick, Jane. \u201cReading Notes for Thomas King\u2019s Green Grass Running Water.\u201d Canadian Literature 161-162. (1999). Web. July 1, 2015.<\/p>\n King, Thomas. Green Grass, Running Water. Toronto: HarperCollins, 1993. Print.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Prompt 2 – Coyote Pedagogy is a term sometimes used to describe King\u2019s writing strategies (Margery Fee and Jane Flick). Discuss your understanding of the role of Coyote in the novel. Before jumping right into my views about Coyote\u2019s role in Green Grass, Running Water, I think it is important to write about other elements […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":27639,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/27639"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":72,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/72"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.ubc.ca\/maxm470\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Medicine](\"https:\/\/upload.wikimedia.org\/wikipedia\/commons\/thumb\/0\/01\/Royal_Military_College_of_Canada_Aboriginal_Leadership_Opportunity_Year_drum.jpg\/220px-Royal_Military_College_of_Canada_Aboriginal_Leadership_Opportunity_Year_drum.jpg\")
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\n\u201cOh, boy,\u201d I says. \u201cYou must have been sitting on those ears. No wonder this world has problems.\u201d
\n\u201cIs this a puzzle?\u201d says Coyote. \u201cAre there any clues?\u201d
\n\u201cWe are going to have to do this again. We are going to have to get it right.\u201d
\n\u201cOkay,\u201d says Coyote, \u201cI can do that.\u201d (King, 100)<\/p>\n