Selected passage
(inc. page #)
Page 269-270 - Dene
(Sorry for the large word
count since I used some filler
at the beginning for the books
and names)
Page 290 - Tony
Analysis
In Thomas King’s, The Truth About Stories, he speaks upon the
impact of the importance of storytelling, and how the world reflects
one big story. In Thomas C. Foster’s, How To Read Literature Like
A Professor, Foster speaks upon the importance of symbolism and
how it can be used to find underlying themes in literature. In the
case of Dene Oxendene, a storyteller, his final say in the novel
reflects the deep oppression against Native Americans, and how
their stories remain silenced. Dene is at his booth at the powwow
when it gets shot, the poles supporting the booth save him from the
bullet, however the booth collapses into him. The booth is a
representation of Dene’s whole story, a tangible object that is the
embodiment of the desire to share the Native American story. The
bullets are the societal factors that in essence silence these stories that
Dene longs to tell. Dene then gets up from underneath his booth
but then thinks that he “should have stayed under his collapsed
booth” (270). This is representative of how Native Americans place
themselves as an undeserving target of oppression, and when they
speak out, they face consequences. Dene wanting to stay under the
booth is not only a literal representation of safety, but is a symbolic
representation of how people speak out about Native oppression,
but society almost forces them to stay silent and not share their
stories.
Every story told, every character, ever single event has one thing in
common, an ending. Tony Loneman is a physical embodiment of
the cycle of oppression, and his ending, albeit leaving the physical
world, is a symbolic beginning for a new life for him in the afterlife,
and also a new person to tell his story to a new generation. As Tony
is dying, he hears a bird singing, this bird is said to pull him up.
Through HTRALLAP, this bird can be identified as him being
pulled into the afterlife. However, he says that the bullet holes inside
him are anchored, as if “in each hole a hook is attached to a line
pulling him down” (290). Tony, as a symbol himself for the
oppression that Native Americans face, represents the fight against
discrimination, and how although some people may give up in the
fight, there will be someone, something, pulling it back down to
Earth and continuing to fight. Tony is never explicitly stated
whether he is alive or dead, in which case if he is alive, it is a
representation of the continuing fight and how Tony has broken the
cycle of oppression and won against the odds. If Tony has tragically
passed, because he started and ended the novel, representing a cycle,
then his story ends and a new one in a new generation begins, much
like how there were varying ages in the novel that represent new and
old fights, and new and old stories. Why has the author chosen to
not give a happy ending, although it is satisfying? To represent that
in this world there are no happy endings, that even if characters like
Tony made the right decision, that they were just predetermined by
factors beyond their control, that they too will lose no matter what?