So for this assignment, I was assigned twelve pages of Thomas King’s Green Grass Running Water to seek out allusions and other references that King employs. And, lucky for me, I was assigned a couple of reference rich sections at the beginning of the novel! There are two sections I will try to describe.
The first section that falls into my assigned pages describes the retelling of the creation story that features elements of the story of Genesis in the Bible. It starts off pretty clearly in that direction, with the addition of “that God” into the telling of the creation story, along with Coyote and the “I” character. It begins with the tale of the First Woman and how she goes on the back of Grandmother Turtle. This is an allusion to a First Nations creation story that I first heard in Thomas King’s previous book that we were assigned, The Truth About Stories. At the beginning of every chapter, King describes a new way to tell The World on Turtle’s Back creation story. In this book, he blends it with the creation story told in Genesis.
The stories start to come together when the First Woman and Grandmother Turtle decide to make a garden. It becomes clear that the garden is a reference to the Garden of Eden that appears in Genesis when it describes that the First Woman “lives there with Ahdamn” (King 40). However, it doesn’t completely turn into the Genesis story. In Genesis, Adam is created by God first, and Eve is created later. In this story, the narrator claims they “don’t know where [Ahdamn] comes from” (40). This places the importance on the woman in the story, which is a complete change of direction from the story of Genesis.
What’s interesting about the voice of the Christian God in this story is his commentary throughout. At first, he is obstinately against the story that the Coyote and the “I” character are presenting. Eventually, as he realizes what story they are actually telling: “Wait a minute, says that God. That’s my garden. That’s my stuff” (41).
I skipped over the next section, as it lacks any meaty allusions, so the next section I will discuss is the conversation between Dr. Joe Hovaugh and Dr. John Eliot. As Professor Paterson has already pointed out, Joe Hovaugh sounds an awful lot like Jehovah, which is another name for God in the Judeo Christian sphere. John Eliot, on the other hand, was a real guy. John Eliot, the real guy, was a missionary of the Puritan faith that strove to convert First Nations people to Puritanism.
The final section is short, but it has some important characters in it. As the reader will find out later in the novel, Hawkeye, the Lone Ranger, Ishmael, and Robinson Crusoe are the name of the Four Indians. The Lone Ranger is possibly the most interesting of these three names. The Lone Ranger was a character from television. He was a cowboy with a black mask, and he had a First Nations sidekick named Tonto. A film version of the Lone Ranger was recently released, and there was widespread criticism for the portrayal of First Nations in the movie.
Work Cited:
K, Adrienne. “I saw The Lone Ranger so you don’t have to.” Native Appropriations. Native Appropriations, 3 July 2013. Web. 21 July 2014. <http://nativeappropriations.com/2013/07/i-saw-the-lone-ranger-so-you-dont-have-to.html>.
Kiefer, James. “John Eliot, Missionary To the American Indians.” John Eliot, Missionary To the American Indians. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 July 2014. <http://justus.anglican.org/resources/bio/164.html>.
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3.3 | ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genre 98A May 2014.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genre 98A May 2014. UBC, n.d. Web. 21 July 2014. <https://blogs.ubc.ca/engl47098amay2014/unit-3/lesson-3-3/>.
“Earth on Turtle’s Back.” YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 21 July 2014. <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOxrvbA_KCE>.
“Genesis.” Web. 21 July 2014. <https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Genesis+2%3A4-3%3A24&version=NIV>.
“Read Bible Online.” Read Bible Online. N.p., n.d. Web. 21 July 2014. <http://www.readbibleonline.net/?page_id=8>.
Hi Patrick, I enjoyed your blog post! You definitely did get a good section with all these theoretical undertones to it. How do you think Kings story about creation changes from his “Truth about stories” versus “Green Grass running water?” You mentioned that there are similarities and I completely agree, but what are the differences? And what is their function?
Interesting in how you brought up the criticism about The Lone Ranger movie. I’m curious to know, but what was your first thought when you came upon the name Hawkeye? When I read it, I immediately thought of Marvel’s Hawkeye/Clint Barton (he was in The Avengers). It’s slightly awful, knowing full well that it is an Indigenous reference. Even when I searched up Hawkeye on Google, the first result is the Wikipedia page to the Marvel character, while all the Google Images results are of Hawkeye in the Avengers/Jeremy Renner. But from the other results I find, Hawkeye was the name of a 1957 and 1994 TV series. I’m 99.9% sure King isn’t trying to reference a Stan Lee character… so what does that tell us about our culture? Or is that more of an indicator to myself?
I think it is a strong indication of what western culture is like. King seems to mock how westerners have adopted the name Hawkeye. In GGRW, Old woman says Hawkeye “sounds like a name for a white person who wants to be an Indian” (329).
I like how you bring up the modern hawkeye (Marvel’s version) because it seems pretty obvious that it was inspired by the Natty Bumppo (the original fictional hawkeye in popular culture). In my opinion, I think this is an example of the western voice overshadowing others. I think not many people would realize that hawkeye refers to an actual tribe (http://www.wnd.com/2004/05/24491/).
Hi Patrick, I like how you get straight to the point in your post. You write: “What’s interesting about the voice of the Christian God in this story is his commentary throughout. At first, he is obstinately against the story that the Coyote and the ‘I’ character are presenting. Eventually, as he realizes what story they are actually telling: ‘Wait a minute, says that God. That’s my garden. That’s my stuff’ (41).” Why do you think King has chosen to portray Christianity and certain Biblical figures in the way that he has in GGRR (eg. God is rather petulant, Noah as a pervert, Jesus as a sexist)? What purposed is served in making God speak in a more informal tone? Is there some sort of significance to be derived from Coyote and the narrator telling the story of the garden instead of God telling the story?