Little No Horse Syncretism

In the novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse by Louise Erdrich, the main character, Agnes, goes through many transformations throughout the course of the novel, be that spiritual, gendered, or in the basis of identity. Agnes’s identity, both as a female and as Father Damien, is an imperfect example of syncretism, as they appear at times as two distinct individuals, and at others, the individual identities are indiscernible. Syncretism is a term related to the concept of hybridity, and is defined as “…the fusion of two distinct traditions to produce a new and distinctive whole (Ashcroft).” In this case, syncretism is being examined in the context of the combination of Agnes’s gendered identities to form one new person, distinct
It isn’t explicitly stated, but one can assume that Agnes was the main character’s identity before she joined the convent. Sister Cecilia was an identity given to her once she committed her life to the church. In contrast, Agnes chooses her next adopted identity, Father Damien, as a means of survival. This need to survive is both physical, in seeking a way to find food and shelter once her home is destroyed and everything that holds meaning for her as gone, but also an emotional survival. At that point in her life, Agnes’s memory is spotty at best. She doesn’t remember quite where she’s been, or quite where she’s going. But she remembers the original Father Damien, and she remembers where he’s meant to be going. So, like Sister Cecilia, Agnes attempts to abandon her old identity, “… [trimming] off her hair and then she buried it with [Father Damien] as though, even this pitiable, he was the keeper of her old life (Erdrich 44).” So she temporarily quiets her identity as Agnes, an identity she no longer fully understands, in favor of an identity she knows, however basically. In fact, her original adoption of Father Damien’s identity is solely for emotional purposes. She’s washed up on shore, and has no way of knowing whether she’s going to live or die. She doesn’t know if she’ll have a next meal, or if she’d going to drown that night. Her only goal in
Agnes’s religious identity, by the ending of the novel is a unique blending of two different beliefs systems into one fit especially for her. This isn’t a sudden change either, rather being hinted at and explained throughout the novel. Father Damien begins to feel failed by his faith, that he as an individual with two identities has no place within the Catholic religion. Finally, by the end of the novel, Damien can claim neither faith as his own, but rather his own combination of the two. When he goes to die, he goes as a priest, still believing he is destined for Hell, a Catholic idea of a hell. But for comfort he calls upon the spirits of his Objiwe friends, in hopes that he can join them in their afterlife. Unlike the main character’s new religious system, which Erdrich clearly writes as a new, unique thing, their identity as a single person isn’t as concrete. It’s not completely absent, especially when they go to die, but the journey isn’t as smooth. For a majority of the novel, in gendering the pronouns, Erdrich genders the identity. In gendering the identity, it becomes more difficult for a reader to see the main character as a single person, associating female language with a solely Agnes identity, and male language with a solely Damien identity. However, there is a unity in the end. Right