Another Native Lit Response

Samuel Levesque

NA Lit

Response to The Surrounded

At first glance, Storyteller and The Surrounded seem to be very different books. Storyteller is a radical attempt to challenge the conventional novel, incorporating myth, poetry, photography, and short story forms. McNickle’s The Surrounded is, as far as structure goes, a rather standard novel. It has a main plotline beginning with Archilde’s return to his childhood home, moving through a series of events and crisises ending with his arrest. Behind and interwoven into this overall story are the back-stories of many of the characters (such as the story of Max and Catherine’s estrangement) and “side” plots (such as Mike’s torment in the Jesuit school and subsequent cure) that have bearing on the main plot line, but exist as somewhat distinct sections.

It is probably safe to say that The Surrounded had some effect on Storyteller, as it was one of the first novels about Native Americans published by a Native American, but I see Storyteller as more of a response to, rather than an echo of, The Surrounded. McNickle was very “American” in his style and his life, in some ways an example of an “assimilated Indian”, whereas Silko, despite her accomplishments in the “white” world, seems to identify much more with her “Indianness” and defy European-American literary traditions. The difference is that The Surrounded tells a story about Indians in the white man’s language using standard literary forms, while Storyteller tells an Indian story in the white man’s language, without regard to white traditions or form. Storyteller seems to be saying to The Surrounded, “Why don’t you be more Indian? If you’re going to tell stories about us, why tell them like a white man?”

Nevertheless, there are echoes of The Surrounded in Silko’s work. Story and history are central themes and catalysts in both books. Old Modeste’s story at the feast opens Archilde’s eyes to his people and his history, just as Silko’s aunt’s stories kept her tied to her tribe and birthplace. Also interesting is the fact that both books deal with mixed families, Archilde’s Salish-Spanish, and Silko’s American-Laguna. Both involve European people who live and work amongst the Indians, although in McNickle’s character Max, such a life is both uneasy and somewhat lonely.

As far as the women in both books go, there is a noticeable difference. The majority of Silko’s protagonists are women, and many of the most important actors in her tales are mothers, daughters, grandmothers, or other female relations. In contrast, McNickle’s female characters, though important to the plot, serve mainly as catalysts and are not terribly well fleshed out. Both authors write strong female characters, both independent and capable, but Silko’s characters are more fully realized, and more numerous.

Throughout this course, as well as in my outside reading of Native American writing, I have found it interesting how the gender of the author almost always mirrors the gender of the majority of the characters. There are characters of both sexes in both books, but a preponderance of women inhabit Storyteller, whereas it is mostly men who play out the story of The Surrounded. I do not think this has much to do with any chauvinism or blatant feminism on the part of either author, but more with the fact that most writers write what they know. Whether this is also due to some cultural differences, the pueblo peoples matriarchy, or a more separate gender dynamic within NA cultures is more perhaps in the hands of an ethnographer than a lit major.

One motif I see in common between the two books is the idea that what was brought to the Natives by the whites was far more harmful than beneficial, often in subtle ways. Aside from the obvious germs, guns, and alcohol, whites brought with them a material culture and spirituality very much at odds with that of the Salish and Laguna peoples.

It is this cultural/spiritual conflict that lies at the heart of The Surrounded, the imposition of a hierarchal, materialist worldview onto a decentralized, nomadic people. This same conflict comes out in “Storyteller”, and both The Surrounded and “Storyteller” end with someone being punished for a crime, however just or unjust the case may be. Both the protagonist in “Storyteller” and Archilde run into a system of law that will either punish them for something they did not do, or refuse to punish them for something they did do.

The other common motif is the story of the harm done by the Indian Schools, although both books also show some small good coming from them as well. Both Silko and McNickle got their education from mission schools, and whatever their retrospective regrets, it is true that their stories wouldn’t be the same without this intervention, unjustified as it was. Archilde’s time in the schools was unpleasant, but he came away with a useful skill and an ability to function more in the white world than his brother Louis. Silko’s aunt, introduced early in Storyteller, is another example of an Indian educated away from home and returning to her people. This in no way justifies the harm done to Indian children like those in “Lullaby” and Mike and Narcise, but it shows the kind of liminal space these people were forced into by the conflict between their traditional cultures and their western education.