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When Coyote Dreams
| Article
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10702 |
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Section : |
BOOK WORLD
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| Issue
Date : |
6 / 1993 |
2,500 Words |
| Author
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James Ruppert
James Ruppert is professor of English and Alaskan native
studies at the University of Alaska at Fairbanks. |
In Green Grass, Running Water, a novel by Thomas King, Coyote, four ancient Indian characters, and an unnamed first-person storyteller weave the myths of Native America with the traditions of Western literature and with the historical reality of the often-turbulent relationship between Native Americans and Euro-Americans. Much of King's text consists of alternate conversations between the storyteller and Coyote; conversations among four Indian characters called Hawkeye, Robinson Crusoe, the Lone Ranger, and Ishmael; and depictions of the lives of contemporary characters living on or near a Blackfoot Marked by an ironic humor, the story is peppered with historical parody and the popular cultural satire that is becoming King's trademark.
Of transformers and tricksters
The ability of characters to transform is an essential quality of Native American oral tradition. In the ancient stories, some beings find a permanent form; others with great spirit power can change and change again as they desire. Even more important, some characters often referred to by folklorists as transformers, have a definite task to restructure the fluid state of the world into the fixed nature we see in contemporary reality. Yet, underneath the apparent solidity we perceive in the physical world, the changeable nature that we share with the rest of the world still survives. This realm can be reached by ceremonial actions, but it also is the realm that the Native American stories of distant Time describe and recreate. King draws from this rich source of narrative evocation, combining it with postmodern attitude toward narrative and storytelling. King allows his sense of creativity free rein as he merges native creation stories with Christian belief and American Indian history. His goal is to reveal a truth that is as creative as it is insightful. Indeed, the first-person narrator quips, "There are no truths, Coyote,' I says. 'Only stories.' 'Okay,' says Coyote. "Tell me a story."
Another figure common to Native American oral traditions is Trickster. While tricksters fool other creatures and follows their lusts and desires, they also may teach cultural morality by demonstrating negative qualities. Through the paradox of their actions, tricksters often create positive social mores and natural phenomena. King makes Coyote, one of the better known tricksters, a character in the novel. This Coyote is naïve and beneficent, if something of a bungler. He brings the element of irregularity and unpredictability from the old stories into the novel's weaves as native myth and storytelling create both a foreground and background.
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