Truth and Bright Water

“‘Saw the Cousins.’ Lum grabs the fur at the back of Soldier’s neck and pulls it into a wad. ‘Up by the church.’”

This passage highlights King’s ability to introduce information into the narrative without explaining it. At this stage in the story, the Cousins have not yet been explained, and they will go unexplained for a few chapters more. The natural flow of conversation and description, uninterrupted by expository asides to the reader, helps create the novel’s naturalistic, slice-of-life sensibility.

“I pointed out that Sylvester Stallone wasn’t blond and neither was Jim Carrey, but Lum said that being white was the same thing as being blond.”

King makes ample use of allusion in order to render Tecumseh’s viewpoint. These specific film references not only situate this narrative in a specific historical moment but also characterize Tecumseh by showing what types of films he watches and what types of masculinities he has exposure to. The association of masculinity with whiteness speaks to the ways in which Western gender norms have influenced colonized cultures, linking together Navigating Toxic Masculinity and The Search for an “Authentic” Indigenous Identity.

“Some of the stories were probably true and some of them were probably false, but everyone who knew Monroe agreed on one thing. He could draw.”

King is willing to play with the narrative’s distance from the point of view character to give information. Here, the narration pulls back from (and nearly out of) Tecumseh’s point of view toward a more omniscient viewpoint. This is one of many examples of how King’s exposure to oral storytelling traditions shapes his narrative-building.

“Skee comes out of the kitchen and dumps my plate into the tub. He sees me and nods. Then he picks up the money and drags a rag across the counter, pulling the pieces of corn and the gravy and the chicken fat and the coyotes over the edge and into the garbage.”

This passage shows the layered ways in which King uses symbols. Skee’s actions here create a sense of closure and a natural endpoint to Chapter 4, which has almost entirely focused on Elvin’s production of the coyote figurines. The actions may seem mundane, but the fact that Skee so thoughtlessly groups the figurine in with the food waste comments on what Skee thinks of the figurine and, by extension, Elvin’s attempts to commodify Indigenous culture for white consumption.

“In the distance, clouds are on the move, thick and white. But as they clear the bridge, they begin to separate and change, and by the time they reach the church they look like long, slender bones.”

The imagery King employs here creates an unsettling atmosphere at the end of an otherwise upbeat chapter—one in which Tecumseh befriends Monroe and satisfies his goal of getting a summer job. The bone simile also imagistically resurfaces the mystery driving the novel’s plot. Relatedly, the imagery foreshadows the reveal about Monroe being the jumping woman by associating bones with Monroe’s residence and place of work.

“[M]y mother has also fastened unexpected things to the quilt, such as heavy metal washers that run along the outside edges and the clusters of needles that she has worked into the stitching just below the fish hooks and chicken feathers.”

Much of the characterization in this novel comes indirectly in the form of character actions. This passage highlights an example of characterization via an object closely associated with one character: Tecumseh’s mother. The fact that she makes a quilt that is full of everyday objects, including dangerous objects, speaks to a need to document and remember the quotidian aspects of life—a need fulfilled through the creation of a piece of art.

“The skull is the problem. Any one of these theories works fine until I get to the skull.”

The narration in Chapter 9 provides many examples of how King characterizes Tecumseh via Tecumseh’s interiority. The methodical way in which Tecumseh categorizes his theories about the jumping woman evokes not only his curiosity but also the intellectual rigor that he applies to problem solving.

“One year, when we were still all living together in Bright Water, my mother decided we should take a vacation.”

This opening sentence of Chapter 10 marks a complete chapter told in flashback. King uses flashbacks judiciously throughout the narrative, only interrupting the plot’s narrative momentum to offer anecdotes that do significant character work. Here, the placement of the chapter-long flashback grounds the tension between Tecumseh’s parents that has been sub-textually present through the previous chapters. This flashback also offers a new lens through which to read the parents’ coming interactions.

“As we clear the border, my father looks at me. ‘They love that dumb Indian routine.’”

King uses Elvin’s dialogue to show how Elvin’s self-awareness feeds his self-loathing. This interaction, coupled with what has already been shown about Elvin’s desire to commodify his identity for white consumption, builds on the novel’s exploration of how colonized people perform identity for the colonizer’s gaze.

“‘I’ll bet you and mum had a lot of boyfriends.’ Aunt Cassie laughed and rolled her eyes. ‘All the boys wanted to be our friends.’”

This exchange between Tecumseh and Cassie is an example of the unfinished conversations motif. Cassie, like most of the other adults in the novel, redirects Tecumseh’s questions when she doesn’t want to answer them. This creates a web of silences that defines Tecumseh’s past and drives him to uncover the adults’ mysteries.

“Some of the clothes are really stupid, and some of them are cute in a goofy sort of way, but I can’t remember ever wearing any of them. A few are still in cellophane wrapping as if they have never been used.”

This passage in which Tecumseh watches his mother give Cassie his baby clothes highlights King’s ability to stay in Tecumseh’s point of view while also offering information that Tecumseh doesn’t immediately interpret. The fact that Tecumseh notices the still-wrapped clothing sets him up for the inferences he later draws about Cassie’s relationship to Mia. The fact that this information appears now but is not interpreted until much later speaks to Tecumseh’s thorough, careful deduction.

“A primeval paradise. Peaceful. Quiet. Snow on the mountains. Luminous clouds in the sky. The rivers tumbling over dark rocks. Blah, blah, blah.”

This passage in which Monroe describes the paintings he used to restore is an example of characterization through diction. Monroe is comfortable using multiple registers of English around Tecumseh—everything from “primeval” to “blah, blah, blah.” Unlike the other adults in Tecumseh’s life, Monroe doesn’t feel the need to modulate the way he speaks or the questions he answers to cater to Tecumseh’s perceived needs.

“‘The buffalo aren’t really real, you know’ […] ‘I don’t know,’ I say. ‘They look sort of real.’”

This quote marks a turning point for Tecumseh as he begins to understand the project of Monroe’s art. Tecumseh’s willingness to buy into the “realness” of the fake buffalo suggests that he’s beginning to understand the value of art as a tool for reclaiming the past and understanding his own identity.

“My father smiles at me and taps me in the chest with his fist. ‘I love you son,’ he says. ‘You know that, right?’ ‘Right.’ […] ‘Tell your mother I love her too.’”

This dialogue, which immediately follows Elvin’s statement about how beating your child is sometimes justified, uses the scene’s negative space to characterize the nature of Elvin’s love. By asking, “You know that, right?,” so soon after discussing beating a child, Elvin associates this act of abuse with what he perceives to be love. Elvin then extends this thought about love to Tecumseh’s mother, associating the specter of violence with that “love” as well.

“Behind the bulldozer and above, a wave of seagulls breaks over the hill and floods into the coulee. They rush over the machine and tumble into the shadows, flashing in the prairie sun like fire and ice. The machine follows them into the side of the hill, drops its blade, and begins to push at a dark mound. I look at Lum. He smiles and spits on the ground. ‘Garbage,’ he says, his voice hissing in the wind. ‘The new buffalo.’”

The juxtaposition of imagery in this passage helps characterize the experience of life in Bright Water. King mixes naturalistic descriptions of land and animal life with the more sinister descriptions of landfill machinery at work. Lum’s conflation of these images suggests that the character of Bright Water is changing as Western industrialization encroaches.

“Robbery was ruled out, and because there were no signs of foul play and nothing to indicate suicide, the cause of death was listed simply as ‘exposure.’”

This concluding paragraph to the anecdote about the German couple who mysteriously died in their RV is emblematic of King’s tendency to leave plot points unresolved. At this stage, there doesn’t seem to be a clear reason for an entire chapter devoted to this anecdote to disrupt the narrative flow. The fact that there’s no clear answer to the question posed by the anecdote only prefigures how the novel will treat some of its central plot questions.

“I have forgotten that there are only two parts for women in Snow White, and I’m sorry now that I’ve mentioned it.”

The novel’s primary example of intertextuality is the inclusion of the Snow White retelling. Here, King uses intertextuality to characterize both Cassie and Tecumseh. Tecumseh’s lack of critical thought about the role of women in the story speaks to the lack of thought he has put into gendered power dynamics in his own life. Cassie’s inability to see herself in the narrative at all suggests that she doesn’t see herself engaging in any archetypal femininities.

“‘She’s pregnant,’ I tell Soldier. ‘Aunt Cassie is going to have a baby.’”

Tecumseh’s personification of Soldier is a consistent theme throughout the novel. Here, Tecumseh talks to Solider as though the dog is capable of speech. This personification is in keeping with the novel’s overall treatment of Soldier, who is in many ways a more active character than Tecumseh.

“‘She throws you away and you think she’s going to come back.’ Lum rubs the skull against his face. ‘Silly baby,’ he says. ‘Silly baby.’”

Lum’s beginning to talk to the skull marks a significant turning point in his character and indicates that trauma from the loss of his mother is beginning to take an unhealthily central place in his personality. This passage underscores the effects of the intergenerational familial trauma that so many of the residents of Truth and Bright Water must cope with.

“In the old days, it was easy being a hero. And glamorous. All you had to do was slay a dragon.”

In this discussion of legacy and the role of masculinity in society, Monroe rebuts the idea that the conventional notion of “heroism” is relevant in his and Tecumseh’s society. This represents a stark contrast to the type of masculinity that Elvin, Franklin, and the other men in Tecumseh’s life model for him—one that is based in large part on violence.

“‘They want to know the secret of authentic frybread,” Edna tells me in a low voice. ‘The guy with the bones offered me twenty-five dollars.’ ‘Did you tell them?’ ‘Naw,’ Edna says. ‘I’ve got my pride.’ ‘Right.’ ‘The Deutschmark is strong right now,’ she says. ‘So, I’m holding out for fifty.’”

The residents of Bright Water have varied attitudes toward the reality that they must commodify their own culture to survive within a culture that colonized them. While Elvin often deals with this through anger and cynicism, here King shows a character coping with bleak humor.

“I turn toward the mountains and let the wind pass over my face. It feels clean and powerful, and I’m thinking maybe Lum is wrong. That maybe Monroe and auntie Cassie didn’t come home because they had no place else to go or because they were crazy, but because there was no place else in the world they wanted to be.”

Here, Tecumseh comes to his own conclusions about Loyalty to a Community Versus the Desire to Leave Home. Unlike many of the novel’s other characters, he seems to find a balance between these competing desires, as he suggests that the desire to leave home doesn’t necessarily have to change one’s relationship to home.

“My mother and my grandmother and Lucy Rabbit were there, of course. So was Skee Gardipeau, which surprised me. I didn’t think he and Lum were friends but Skee said that funerals weren’t about friendship.”

This chapter on Lum’s funeral is the book’s shortest chapter. This choice highlights the enormity of Tecumseh’s pain; he’s barely able to narrate what happens or give details about the funeral itself. King also uses this chapter to emphasize the importance of community in dealing with tragedy—a partial explanation for why so many characters stay in Bright Water despite their obvious frustrations with it.