Q. “Narratives assume, in Blanca Chester’s words, “a common matrix of cultural knowledge.” The Four Old Indians are perhaps the best examples of characters that belong to a matrix of cultural knowledge, which excludes many non-First Nations. What were your first questions about and impressions of these characters? How have you come to understand their place in the novel?”
When I was younger I used to like reading books that involved decisions and consequences: you would read a few pages and then make a choice between option A and option B (each option would lead to a different page and set of plot points). As a child if I disliked the option I had chosen – or my characters met with an unfortunate demise – I would immediately go back to the last cross roads and make another choice, sometimes I would have to go back to the first cross roads in my novel and make a different choice. While first reading Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King I felt as if the Four Old Indians were ghosts, or spirits, who ran throughout the novel changing it at will.
My first impressions were that they were figments of Dr. Hovaugh’s imagination, characters he was chasing and looking for who appeared and re-appeared at will, seemingly saw everything, entered into the storyline where they felt like, and generally caused a certain amount of mayhem. Without much prior knowledge of First Nations cultural knowledge I was unable to place certain aspects of their stories and did indeed wonder if the Women whose stories they were telling were indeed other characters that had ended up out of their place in history and storytelling by accident.
As the novel progressed it became clearer to me that these characters were not as distanced from the action as I had previously thought – even though the characters names like Ishmael and Robinson Crusoe brought to mind fictional characters from Western literature – these characters were clearly not Ishmael from Moby Dick and Robinson Crusoe.
When the Four Old Indian’s turn up to Lionel’s job its incredible to see how their interactions seemingly affect the novel, the jacket they give Lionel fits him perfectly and he enjoys wearing it, whereas after leaving their presence “the jacket had become uncomfortable, tight, as if it were slowly shrinking around him.” (King). As well the fact that the Indian’s, and the reader, can hear what Coyote is saying implies that they are not quite human.
As a Classical Studies student I often find similarities between Greek mythology and most pieces of literature – it was more difficult to find such similarities here except for the river images – however the way these characters behaved reminded me greatly of the Gods in Greek and Roman mythology. The main male Gods: Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades – who ruled the heavens, seas, and the underworld respectively – displayed more human characteristics than expected. These Gods would often interact (in different forms and shapes) and interfere with humans and cause chaos in the human realm.
For me, by the end of the novel, the Four Old Indians held a special place between the real and the supernatural. Like the old humans that they are they run away and attempt to interfere in other peoples lives, like the ancient gods they resemble they often interfere where they might not be needed and change things which need changing – for example the John Wayne film.
Works Cited
Chester, Blanca. “Green Grass, Running Water: Theorizing the World of the Novel.” Canadian Literature 161-162.161/162 (1999): 44.
Flick, Jane. “Reading Notes for Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water.” Canadian Literature 161-162.161/162 (1999): 140.
Hornblower, Simon, Antony Spawforth, and Oxford Digital Reference Shelf. The Oxford Classical Dictionary. 3rd rev.; 3rd rev. ed. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.
King, Thomas (2012-10-30). Green Grass, Running Water. HarperCollins Canada. Kindle Edition.