Dr Patterson writes that “there is no doubt that King wants us to work to get the story,” and that “his invitation is specific.”There are many allusions and references in Green Grass, Running Water which are worth exploring. In the section which I was assigned (pages 300-317) there is certainly some work to be done in regards to understanding King’s use of outside sources. One of the most interesting references King makes is in regards to John Wayne, the quintessential Hollywood Western hero.
Of obvious significance to the novel is the nature of John Wayne’s role in film. Wayne was a typecast performer, generally playing the white cowboy in struggles against often Native American adversaries. Wayne was symbolic of the mythological cowboy figure, which justified violence against Indigenous peoples and reinforced theories of their inferiority. In the traditional cowboy versus Indian narrative the Indian is an obsolete person, destined to be eradicated to make way for progress and civilization. The clash between Indigenous culture and modernity is a recurring issue in King’s novel. Charlie, Lionel, and especially Eli struggle with their identities and their heritage throughout the text.
What is particularly interesting about John Wayne is that his personal belief system was not entirely different from his on screen performances. Wayne was an outspoken Republican and a conservative, and a supporter of both Richard Nixon and Ronald Reagan. Wayne was active in Senator Joseph McCarthy’s Communist witch hunt of the 1950s, even starring in the anti-communist propaganda film Big Jim McClain. Later, he would make the film Green Berets, which was part of an effort to rouse public opinion in support of the Vietnam War. Wayne’s striking views on indigeneity and race relations were recorded in an interview with Playboy magazine in 1971:
“I believe in white supremacy, until the blacks are educated to a point of responsibility. I don’t believe giving authority and positions of leadership and judgment to irresponsible people … I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from [the Native Americans] … Our so-called stealing of this country from them was just a matter of survival. There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.”
John Wayne is more than a symbol of the American West. For many people, and I think for Thomas King, Wayne represents an insidious tradition of bigotry, hatred, and injustice inherent in North American culture. Through Wayne’s work in Hollywood, this tradition is normalised and perpetuated. The participation of Native Americans in the production and the viewing of the Westerns in Green Grass, Running Water might represent an internalized racism, something which the Four Indians resist through their “fixing” of the John Wayne film.
The pervasiveness of a sort of cultural malady is iterated by the normally mild-mannered Babo on page 314. Babo is herself a reference to a character in Herman Melville’s Benito Cereno, the tale of a black slave revolt aboard a Spanish ship. “All sorts of slaves in the world” Babo says, “Drugs, television, junk food, religion, cars, sex, power, cigarettes, money, fashion, jobs, designer kitchens, politics.” Here King’s analysis appears to be reaching beyond Indigenous issues, into a broader critique of Western consumer culture. Indigenous issues might be a part of an overarching imbalance, according to King.
“Yellowstone, Mount Saint Helens, Wall Street… Krakatau? Yes, it was indisputable. Everything made sense” Dr Hovaugh ruminates on page 313. What is the meaning of Hovaugh’s list of geographical locations? What do Wall Street and Krakatau have in common? Krakatau was the sight of a devastating volcanic eruption in 1883 (Mt. Saint Helens and Yellowstone are seismically active areas as well). Here King appears to be likening Wall Street to a cataclysmic natural disaster. I would like to suggest that John Wayne’s bigotry, Babo’s “slaves,” and a volcanic Wall Street are interrelated. The issues which Indigenous peoples have faced through the ongoing process of colonization are the product of a particular paradigm, of which the aforementioned things are a part. Power and money are the prevalent malignant forces of this paradigm.
Of course, I am basing my analysis of King’s symbols and character around a very particular worldview. But I believe that the connections which King makes are strong enough to support this. Even if this is not the message of the novel as a whole, I believe it is one of many messages which King includes in the text for the consideration of the reader. King’s intent with Green Grass, Running Water is probably not to promote a rigid and encompassing ideological framework. Rather, I feel like the purpose of the book is to stir a variety of feeling and ideas within the reader.
Works Cited:
King, Thomas. Green Grass Running Water. Toronto. Harper Perennial. 1993. Print.
Paterson, Erika. “Lesson 3:3.” ENGL 470A Canadian Studies Canadian Literary Genres. University of British Columbia Blogs, 2013. Web. 3 March 2014.
“Big Jim McClain Trailer” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YJJfVgU4pJM Web. 17 March 2014.
“The Green Berets Trailer” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F49A3zS3no0 Web. 17 March 2014.
“John Wayne Playboy Interview” https://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/Wild_Wild_Cold_War/files/2011/11/John_Wayne_Playboy_Int2.pdf Web. 17 March 2014.
Hello Stepan!
Thanks for your fascinating insight into John Wayne’s real life opinions and behaviour, outside of his movie roles. The Playboy quote is incredibly shocking but not unexpected, I suppose, given his political leanings.
Watching the movie trailers, I thought the one of the taglines from the Big Jim movie summed up Wayne’s general approach to troubling issues: “With his big fists he defies danger’s darkest challenge.” In Wayne’s case, this danger would perhaps be the success or even the interests of any racial or ethnic group besides his own. But what I find really interesting about Wayne in Green Grass, Running Water is how Lionel is so dearly attached to him as a quasi-positive role model. Perhaps Lionel is unaware of the unappetizing behaviour of the real life John Wayne, as I was until reading your post, but even so, his on-screen behaviour can hardly be interpreted as positive for anyone immersed in First Nations culture. I realize that this may be outside the reading section you focused on above, but why do you think Lionel has such an interest for Wayne even as an adult? Do you think the role of Lionel’s new leather jacket in the novel has anything to do with his changing understanding or opinion of John Wayne?
Hi Keely
I agree, its peculiar how Lionel looks up to Wayne in the text. Lionel is certainly a flawed character. My interpretation of this element of the text was that this was a way for King to comment on the internalizing of racism and colonial attitudes. As far as the particular significance of the jacket…. that’s a very good question!
Hey Stepan!
Thanks for the insightful blog article.
I do believe that King’s novel is intended to get the reader to subconsciously associate many of the set moral guidelines they already have ( such as thriving for equality ) into a context where they will themselves understand. For instance, the fact that King uses many allusions can be so that the reader can relate to the unfairness (or the main issue) of the allusion itself, and make their own judgment call. For me, I felt that John Wayne was very unfair and close minded, and that his opinions would not lead to a more equal reality. After deciphering the true meaning behind the allusions, and who John Wayne was referring to, I began to realize that my set opinions were in fact related to a bigger picture – one that allows me to understand the issues and troubles surrounding many aboriginal affairs (something that King is clearly trying to get others to understand, indirectly of course).
Hi Stepan (and Keely),
In response to Keely’s question about the role model in John Wayne that Lionel admires and his jacket, I think that Lionel’s attitude is a product of his ennui. He’s so bored in Blossom, he’s aging, getting fatter, still wearing his now threadbare gold blazer at Bill Bursum’s store. I think Lionel very much relates to his uncle Eli in that they come to view their First Nations heritage as an obstacle to overcome, as something not modern, not important, not cool. This idea has probably been drilled into their heads consciously and subconsciously their whole lives through popular culture, attitudes of real people in their communities like Bill Bursum and specialists like Dr. Hovaugh, and a normal young person’s resistance to find anything their parents appreciate. You have to admit that there is something vainly alluring in the glittering drama and adventure and glamour of Hollywood productions instead of learning from grandparents. I think seeing few people from their community excel or even leave the reserve also impacts the worn down self respect in Eli and Lionel to the point where they reject their heritage and wish they were anything but native (probably a contributing factor to why Eli left for Toronto and refused to travel home for the Sundance for years).
Where this ties in to the jacket is in the fact that Lionel first puts it on in Bill’s store and it is just a jacket, there is not yet a deeper meaning or history to the jacket. Aesthetically it probably looks cool. All part of Lionel’s waking up and deciding to turn his life around. When Lionel and Eli arrive at the Sundance and see their family they begin to reevaluate their identities as First Nations men, and Eli actually begins a little earlier by standing up to Sifton and living at the dam. Tension reaches its climax when Lionel and his family are confronted with George’s appearance at the Sundance, and after seeing George’s behaviour Lionel feels constricted and uncomfortable in the jacket. I think Lionel is confronted face to face with the fact that he is aboriginal, and that this fact will not and cannot change, and that George’s behaviour is disgusting. He sees in the most intimate of situations that his own family is being exploited in a way that the West has been exploiting indigenous North American people since colonization. I think Lionel finally sees a side of discrimination that hits home, and this prompts his discomfort in the jacket that belongs to George, who represents the ideologies that John Wayne supports.