Writing Trickster Nanapush Analysis

ordering the world. Like trickster, Nanapush uses stories to re-create and reordering the native world. In Writing Trickster: Mythic Gambols in American Ethnic Fiction Jeanne Roister Smith remarks about trickster that “challenge the status quo and disrupt perceived boundaries” (1997: 2).

“Women writers of color who, historically subjugated because of both their race and their sex, other combine a feminist concern for challenging patriarchy with a cultural interest in breaking racial stereotypes” (Smith 1997: 2).

Laughter and humor are powerful medicines to cure Ojibwa crisis and ailments. It is a source their spiritual, physical, and cultural survival. He uses these in his narration. He tricks on them. “During the year of the sickness, when I was the last one

He says “I saved the last Pillager” (2). He embraces her and nurses her back to wellness. He cares her as his daughter. Fleur is a Native American woman with magical power. All the characters, especially Fleur is closely associated with nature. Fleur is also a better hunter than all other men on the reservation. She collects herbs. She saves Maries life in childbirth. Fleur loses everything from her life- her family is killed by consumption, her land is lost, her forest is leveled, she is alienated from her family, she is victimized to rape, her second child dies and her child is not ready to accept her as mother. But yet she keeps her strength to fight. Fleur Pillager is with her “teeth, strong and sharp and very white” (12). She embodies the characteristics of mythical wolf. Pauline adds when she returns from Argus, “young girl had never done such a thing before” (8). When Fleur returns to the reservation, Nanapush inquires about her rape. But she simply says “Uncle, the Puyat lies” (38). She tries to hide the tragedy that had happened to her from others. She tries to overcome the crisis, she faces. Fleur fails by the