Similarities Between Motorcycle And Sweetgrass

In the novel Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, the community of Otter Lake is troubled by a mysterious man named John; that out of no where comes into town one day. John breaks into buildings and steals items from them, he deceives people to trick them into thinking something else, and he lies about his identity to everyone he introduces himself to. He becomes a bad influence on the community.
To begin with, John breaks into buildings and steals from them. First example, John breaks into a church. However, he does not steal anything from it. He simply discusses things with Jesus. John and Jesus come to an understanding and Jesus teaches John a special new power. The reason John did this is because he was on bad terms with Jesus because of residential

schools converting Aboriginals to Catholicism. Second example, John breaks into a museum and steals some artifacts such as bones. The reason he does this is later found out in the book when Maggie is giving a speech about the newly acquired land she bought. One of the people listening to the speech notices a bone sticking out of the ground. John intentionally planted the bone on the land causing big commotion throughout the community. My last example is that John breaks into Maggie’s chief band office and steals confidential information on ideas residents of Otter Lake have given Maggie about what should be done with the new land. One day Maggie and John are together talking John mentions something about two of the ideas people have given Maggie. Maggie is suspicious about how John knows about these ideas but distracted by the man seducing her.
Next, John deceives people to trick them into thinking something else.

First example, John gets back at the woman that is rude to him at the beginning of the novel by seducing her. At the beginning of the novel when John/Nanabush is an old drunk indian he shouts out his apartment room window at a nice looking woman but she finds him creepy and flips him off. When John is in the shape of a young, well built blonde he goes back to the dry cleaners that he first saw that woman, finds her address and goes to her place of residence and seduces her. After they are finished having sex John leaves the woman without saying a thing to her leaving her behind. Next, John deceives Maggie into thinking that he is a trustworthy guy and takes advantage of her while she is drunk. One John offers to take Maggie on a picnic and she excepts. On the picnic John keeps giving Maggie more and more wine until she is drunk. He then asks her if she will go skinny dipping with him. Maggie thinks about the offer and finally says yes, by the end of the chapter they end up having sex. Lastly, John carves petroglyphs into Virgil’s rock making him believe that he is trying to take Virgils mother Maggie away. The first day Virgil meets John, John basically tells Virgil to stay out of his way. After John leaves Virgil notices petroglyphs on the rock that look like a man on a motorcycle, a woman, a sunset and a boy falling. This makes Virgil believe that John is trying to take his mother away from him for

good.
Lastly, John lies about his identity to everyone he introduces himself to. First example, John tells Virgil his last name is Tanner but he tells Maggie that his last name is Richardson. At Virgils rock by the train tracks John introduces himself at John Tanner; however, when John introduces himself to Maggie when he offers her help when she has a flat tire, he tells her his name is John Richardson. Why John does this is unknown but however he still does it. Next, John changes his eye colour multiple times throughout the novel so that people have a different perspective of him. When he goes to visit Lillian while she is dying he has blue eyes. However, when he first meets Maggie he has green eyes, when he goes to her house for the thank you dinner he has hazel eyes. When John met Virgils cousin Dakota he had blue eyes as well. He does this because he is able to deceive people he meets, almost like he is trying to get the community to argue over what his real eye colour is. Lastly, John hides the fact that he is the half god Nanabush from the entire world he meets. The entire first nations communities used to believe in Nanabush all the time. All up until they were sent to residential school; then that is when they are introduced to Catholicism. Natives stopped believing in Nanabush except for one girl. Lillian believed in him and knew he was real. John hides the fact that he was Nanabush from absolutely everyone he meets, except for Lillian, she is the only one that knows who he really will be.
Throughout the novel John has a negative influence on the community since day one that he shows up on Otter Lake Reserve. He breaks into buildings and steals items from them, deceives people to trick them into thinking something else, and he lies about his identity to everyone he introduces himself to. In the end he rides off on his Indian Motorcycle not looking back.