54 pages • 1 hour read
LeAnne HoweShell Shaker
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2001A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
The Importance of Community
Throughout the story, Howe emphasizes the idea that it takes a community to accomplish anything. This is evident through the structure of the novel overall: No one character has all the knowledge necessary to understand what is happening. It is not until the characters come together and share their knowledge that anything can be accomplished. The theme of community plays out on a small scale with the Billy family at its center, and on a larger scale, as the various members of the Choctaw come together to support the Billy family. Howe demonstrates this in smaller ways, such as when Isaac attempts to avoid the rude questions of a reporter from CNN, after Redford’s death. He feigns senility and is aided by a young Choctaw cameraman who tells the reporter to find someone else to question.
Characters who forget the importance of community, like Redford/Red Shoes and Anoleta/Auda, usually face negative consequences. One of the many reasons why Auda does not have to sacrifice herself in the same way that Anoleta did is because she has the support of her family, and eventually the community. Anoleta, on the other hand, insisted on being the only one who could kill Red Shoes. Communal support is crucial: In fact, Redford/Red Shoes’ main sin was to divide their communities. Red Shoes did this to defeat the English and the French but succeeded only in turning the Indigenous people against each other, and in pitting Choctaw against Choctaw leading to the Choctaw Civil War that ignited after his death.
The white colonizers, French and English, reinforced these divisions and later solidified by the American Indian Removals of the late-18th century, resulting in the division of the Choctaw into the Oklahoma Choctaw and the Mississippi Choctaw. Reuniting this community is one of the main goals of the characters in the 20th century, symbolized by the interment of Redford near the Nanih Waiya and the joint ritual performed by Delores with members of the Mississippi Choctaw.
Throughout the story, the characters are consistently concerned with the fate of all members of the community, even those who have sinned against the tribe. Thus, it takes over 20 years for the Choctaw to decide to execute Red Shoes. As Haya tries to explain to Bienville, they still love “Red Shoes […] because he doesn’t know that he has become corrupted. He’ll never believe that, even if someday he causes us all to die” (loc 2643). Similarly, Auda loves Redford, despite what he has done to her and what he has done to his people. They are still part of the community, even though they are harming the community. Nothing can break those bonds.
Life and Death
Much of the text centers around death rituals and the concept of the afterlife. At one point, Father Renoir, a French cleric living with the Choctaw in the 18th century, claims in his letter to his superiors in France that the Choctaws “pay more respect to their dead than any other race” (loc 3454). According to the story, the Choctaw death ritual involves posing the corpse on a platform with some of their most treasured positions for about six months after death. At this point, the bone picking ceremony is performed. Koi Chitto performs the ceremony for his wife, though usually husbands did not perform this ritual for their wives. The ceremony honors the life of the deceased and releases their spirit; for Shakbatina, this happens when Koi Chitto “tears Shakbatina’s skull and spinal column from the rest of her bones” (loc 2085). This frees Shakbatina to become the guardian of her people.
Unlike Western culture, the Choctaw believe that death is not necessarily an ending. In fact, the novel indicates that for the Choctaw, death is merely the beginning of a new phase. This is evident throughout: Shakbatina remains a presence despite her death. Similarly, Isaac and Delores volunteer to die, in a sense, and thus protect the Choctaw from the greedy Osano spirit of Redford/Red Shoes. Death is where one is reunited with their loved ones and where they look forward to spending eternity with those they loved.
The novel emphasizes the importance of death rituals throughout, especially through Delores’ story. Delores gave up her career to become a bone-picker, to restore this ancient rite to her people, and her work led to a revival of traditional Choctaw music and practices. Howe suggests through the story of Redford/Red Shoes that without such death rituals, spirits remain untethered, free to wreak havoc on their communities. This sheds a new light on death practices, one again unusual in Western culture. When archeologists discover ancient burial sites, such as the one at Nanih Waiya, they assume that a corpse buried with elaborate grave goods was an important and powerful person. Howe argues that for Indigenous peoples, the opposite is true. In Redford/Red Shoes’ case, for example, the grave goods trap and prevent him from harming anyone else. Indeed, at Shakbatina’s bone-picking, her possessions are divided among her daughters. Hoarding material goods is not seen as a path to honor.
Performativity
There are a surprisingly large number of actors in the story: Tema and Borden, Dovie and Delores, and Divine Sarah (or Sarah Bernhardt). Howe aligns the spirit and passion of the performer with the Indigenous character of the trickster. Trickster characters are common in a variety of cultures, but they hold a special place in the stories and tales of the Indigenous peoples of the Americas. The trickster can take on many different forms, and through the performance of those different forms, they help the other characters gain wisdom or keep evil characters from doing harm.
This is especially apparent in the character of Divine Sarah, who takes on the personas of Sarah Bernhardt, Shakbatina, Great Mother Porcupine, the elderly Choctaw woman, and the volunteer switchboard operator. Through these many personas, she helps Auda and her family, leads Carl Tonica to his death, and advises Isaac and Hoppy.
However, many of the other characters also use performance: Isaac performs senility to get out of answering questions, Adair performs the role of shaman for her clients, and Auda performs the role of warrior when she goes to kill Redford. The successful character is the one who can perform a variety of roles. Hoppy, for example, is a warrior, fighting for his aunts and his family. He is also, however, a respectful student, learning from both his uncle and from Divine Sarah. Similarly, Adair’s happiness depends on not being just one thing (a successful stock market trader) but also a lover and one day, a mother. Shakbatina embodies this performativity best: She is a peacemaker and a warrior, a mother and a lover, a guiding spirit and a tired old woman, all at one time.
Howe argues that the more roles a person can perform, the better off they are. Redford/Red Shoes’ downfall comes from being unable to imagine themselves as anything but a chief or warrior. Thus, they can’t empathize with those they would lead. However, it is the empathy acquired through performativity, such as Delores’ sacrifice, that a true leader needs.
