Green Grass Running Water--Reader Response

I really like this novel. Everyone warned me that it would be nearly impossible to follow, but I didn’t find that to be the case at all. I read a lot of satirical books and this one was one of the easier ones.

One thing that I thought was odd and interesting was the author’s decision on who got quotation marks when they spoke. The four women didn’t get quotation marks in their stories, but the four Indians (who are presumably the same people) got quotation marks when they spoke in the story. This reminded me of The Things They Carried because O’Brien doesn’t use quotation marks at the beginning of the novel.

One thing that did confuse me was the narrator/character “I”. At first I assumed that “I” was a character because when he speaks the author writes “I says,” but then the author writes “I tell” (2) which is the wrong tense and/or verb conjugation for a third person character. But if the name “I” is used in the sense of personal narration then the author wouldn’t write “I says”, he would write “I say”. Overall, trying to figure out who exactly “I” is was the most confusing part of the book. I’m hoping we can talk about him in discussion.

There were three major cultural themes throughout the novel. The first was the cultural differences between Indians and white people. One thing I thought was ironic was that while the Canadian government was trying to stand up for Indian rights it couldn’t decide whether or not the Indians were actually Canadians. When demanding the Sun Dance costumes back the Canadian government says “people of Canada and our aboriginal brothers” (310) which does unify in that statement that the Indians are “brothers”, but it also inherently states that the Indians are not Canadian. Throughout the novel white people and Indians make sweeping and racist generalizations about the other ethnicity. The other cultural theme was the difference between Americans and Canadians. Latisha’s husband tries to tell her basically how Canadians are pushovers and Americans are strong, but Latisha doesn’t translate it as this and gets back at George by chanting to her baby that he’s Canadian. The difference between America and Canada is over-generalized when an American states “everyone knows the US is sleazy, but Canada is supposed to have some integrity” (312). The third cultural theme is the comparison of Indian ceremonies to Christianity. The most amusing part of this for me was the bible stories intertwined with the stories of Thought Woman, First Woman, Changing Woman, and Traveling Woman. When First Woman pairs up with Ahdamn (an ironic name in itself) I thought it was an interesting jibe at Christianity when the author states “I don’t know where he comes from. Things like that happen you know” (40). This statement could be making fun of the fact that in the bible people just kind of show up magically by the hand of God, or it could be combining Christian stories with Indian beliefs by stressing that Indians don’t really need to know where people come from, they’re just there. I wonder if the author is trying to say that Christians (or white people) jump to conclusions when they label people because when the rangers run into First Woman “Yes they says, it is the Lone Ranger” (75). This statement could be alluding to naming Jesus as miraculous, or it could be alluding to how white people just gave Indians white names when they first came to North America.

I’m hoping we can discuss the “I’m God…you remind me of a dog” (72) quote because I think it has a lot of meaning for such a tiny increment of the story.

I don’t’ really know why the cars float around in the lake. There could be some sort of symbolism of the four cars and the four women who float but I don’t’ really know, I hope we can cover that in discussion.

I was surprised that Latisha doesn’t throw George out of the house immediately after he beats her up. Is there any symbolism in Elizabeth’s determination and saying “‘Yes I can’” (276) over and over again? Why would Latisha name her son Christian?

I’m hoping that in the seminar we will discuss the similarities between Karen and Alberta. Both are interested in Indians who tried to act like white men (according to Norma). It is ironic that Karen presumes she is pregnant and then is sorry she isn’t even though she doesn’t really seem to want a child and that Alberta presumes she is not pregnant when she is, even though she only thinks about having a child.

I’m really excited for class discussion. I’ve spotted a lot of irony and satire, but I’m sure I’m missing quite a bit of it as well because I don’t know who Nathaniel Bumpo is among other things. When we discuss this I’m hoping I’ll be able to string all of the pieces together.