Why I loved Green Grass Running Water

    Green Grass Running Water (GGRW) is a novel by Thomas King that I was introduced to in my 11th-grade IB English class, which has stuck with me ever since reading it. The novel is set in a small town called Blossom and the characters surrounding it. GGRW is based on many Native American folklore and origin stories and includes many allusions and references to pop culture and Christian religious stories. I adored this novel because there were so many different references to discover when re-reading the novel. Also, Thomas King is incredibly funny. In this post, I will only go over 3 of my favorite elements of this novel: the entirety of Coyote as a character, the representation of Native folklore and colonial Christian stories, and the Alberta-Lionel-Charlie love triangle and all it represents.

    To begin, Coyote is a trickster character that King uses in many of his novels, but in GGRW, Coyote is used as a bridge from traditional culture to the modern age. He is seen all throughout the novel interacting with all the characters either directly or indirectly to restore balance and sense in the storyline. Coyote is a childlike figure who adds some comedic effect but also adds some important symbolism to the storyline. For example, his interactions with dog/God at the beginning of the novel symbolize the superiority complex of Western/European beliefs over Native beliefs, as dog/God has a somewhat condescending tone with Coyote. This is made evident by the simple language dog/God uses with Coyote, making Coyote seem unintelligent and inferior. Coyote's entire character is brilliant and really shows King's abilities.

    Secondly, King's cheeky representation of the colonization of Native folklore by Christian Europeans is absolutely genius all on its own. The main part of the book representing this is the chapters relating to the Women (First Woman, Thought Woman, Old Woman, Changing Woman). All of these interact with characters from the Bible, but King makes their interactions very cheeky, even comedic, poking fun at the absurdity of the demands of the White Christian God. For example, in part 2, Changing Woman falls out of the sky into a canoe full of feces. In the boat with her is a man named Noah (yes, it’s the guy with the boat). He is convinced she is sent to be his wife and have sexual relations with him. She refuses, as any woman would, and thinks he must be insane. Even when they sail to an island he still tries to have sex with her, but she avoids him like he is the plague (understandably). This whole interaction is King attempting to show a Western audience how ridiculous or foreign or just plain weird colonial Europeans were, but also showing how strong and resourceful Indigenous people had to be to survive. Another example is in part 3 when Changing Woman interacts with A.A. Gabriel. He insists her name must be Mary and treats her somewhat like you would a child. He tries to control her and change her identity, but she stays firm in her beliefs. This portion is a representation of colonization and "White Washing" done to the Indigenous peoples of Canada through residential schools, the Sixties Scoop, etc.

    Also, the entire Charlie-Alberta-Lionel love triangle is King's way of introducing modern identity struggles of Native Americans. Charlie and Lionel, relatives from the same community who used to work for the same "crappy" TV company, are both in love with the same girl. She is torn between the two but doesn't really seem to want either of them. She is an educated woman, a professor, who wants a baby but not necessarily a husband. Charlie is successful and says he "made something" of himself, but he sides with Sifton, a man who is building a dam near Blossom for profit that ends up killing Eli. Despite his success, he is criticized for acting white. Lionel, less of a success, is also accused of acting white like his uncle Eli who moved to Toronto and then back to Blossom, but I don't believe these accusations to be as strong as the ones toward Charlie. Lionel struggles with his own identity as a Blackfoot man, whereas Charlie actively sides with white colonial ideas, like Sifton and the dam. Alberta being torn between the two is a symbol of the struggles Indigenous youth have with their identity and cultural belonging.

    To conclude (or TL;DR), Thomas King is a genius and he is insanely funny and witty. His novel GGRW is possibly one of my favourite novels of all time because of so many reasons, but mainly because of the character Coyote, the Native X Christian parody, and the love triangle's symbolism.

PS: for the purpose of this post I am using the terms "indigenous" and "native american" interchangeably.

PPS: I know this isn't a great 5 paragraph essay and my ideas are a little all over the place, I may or may not have rambled on about Thomas King at a party (I do not remember doing this) and that kinda jambled up my head about what I'm trying to say :(