Analysis Of Thomas King's Green Grass, Running Water

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Recommended: Postcolonial theory in indian literature

Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water challenges the prevalent idea of colonial history. King retells and revisions the past in order to convey the post colonial ideas. King uses the creation stories, the four Indians, the narrative, and the three vanishing cars to argue and revise the effects of North America’s history on the Blackfoot people and the telling of the past. From the moment in which Christopher Columbus reached the New World in 1492, it was thought to be the initial discovery of North America (Christopher Columbus). King sets his book in 1992, 500 years after Columbus’ voyage. King’s telling of the past and their effects of colonial history are displayed in the novel. Green Grass, Running Water attempts to rewrite the stories
In the prologue GOD is concerned with the water, "Where did all that water come from? shouts that GOD” (King 3). “King displaces God 's role in creation” (Cox 5). In the story of First Women she is placed in a garden, with Ahdamn, that is already practicing civility. Ahdamn’s attempt to rename the animals in the garden with industrialized names represents the Europeans belief of being the first people in the New World. There is a difference between the popular Adam and Eve story and Kings creation story. In King’s story, GOD acts out of aberrant behaviour and First Women leaves freely and the garden is already civilized. The second creation story is satire of Noah’s Arch. Changing Women falls from the sky into canoe of poop. A “little man with a filthy beard” is there, and he claims Changing Women to be a gift from God, assuming she is his wife (King 145). Changing Women’s creation story represents the difference between Christianity and the spirituality of the Indians (Gomez-Vega 6-7). When Thought Women meets Robinson Crusoe, a famous writer, and he makes lists of the good and bad. This represents Christianity imposing culture on the Native Americans and dismissing the Native traditions (Maithreyi 7). Then
The four Indians, Lone Ranger, Ishmael, Robinson Crusoe, and Hawkeye, are based off icons of the white people in the colonial era. These pieces of literature have an underlying tone of imperialism (Maithreyi 3). By trying to fix the world they try and revere the effects in which colonization had on the Blackfoot people. They begin this by changing the ending of the popular western hollywood movie. The movie portrays a stereotypical view of the indigenous culture. King hopes to dispel the ideas of these stereotypes and does so by changing the movies. Alberta is introduced by teaching her students about the history of Fort Marion. The four Indians are imprisoned in Fort Marion, but unlike history, they escape (Gomez-Vega 13). The 4 Indians try to fix the effects of colonialism on Lionel. ““By the time Lionel was six, he knew what he wanted to be. John Wayne. Not the actor, but the character,” who was the idealized westernized man (King 241). This presence of western ideas in Lionel left no room for a Native future. The 4 Indians set out to revise these ideas in Lionel. As Lionel accepts his culture, he stand up again George Morningstar at the Sun Dance to protect his culture, resembling and revising history (Totter 13-14). In addition to trying to fix the world, the 4 Indians narrate the creation stories. To the Indians, how the creation stories are important. In the novel the 4 Indians

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