Similarities Between God And The Indian

In the play God and the Indian, it can be argued that Johnny (Lucy) Indian is not actually present in the story at all as a physical why person, but rather that she is a representation of George’s guilt of what he did to Johnny, and a representation of all Natives who were forced into the residential school system as a whole, taken away from there families and culture. There are many references and suggestions in the play through quotations from one of the characters or stage descriptions that can prove that Johnny was never present with George. It is possible that throughout the whole of the play George never has a conversation with the real Johnny Indian, because at the very end of the play, after Johnny has left the office, George
is looking around for the gun that Johnny had but he cannot find it, even though he knows Johnny did not take it with her. The fact that he can not locate the gun that Johnny brought with her and did not leave with, implies that this may have all been a delusion, George’s guilt coming back to haunt him because the gun can not just disappear, if it is not there then maybe Johnny was never there either. Furthermore, there are also many quotations that can further exemplify that Johnny was indeed not present.
Johnny herself many times states that she is dead, so perhaps she actually is and none of this is real. George mentions it himself, when he says,“That's the thing with delusions, sometimes they can appear so real” (Hayden Taylor 19), giving the reader the idea that none of what is happening is occur between two people, but rather that George is imagining everything. This puts the idea in the reader's mind that it indeed was a delusion. Johnny herself at times implies that she does not exist anymore, saying, “Me… I’m a memory. Whose memory I’m not sure,” (Hayden Taylor 17) leaving the reader believing that she might be telling the truth, that she is a memory, perhaps a memory of George’s past mistakes and guilt, or even a memory of all Natives that were abused in Residential Schools coming back to haunt those who wronged them. She also reminds George many times that she is actually dead, killed by what he did to her. She reminds him, “Your a ghost, I’m a ghost. All these memories of what happened to me, to Sammy, to all of us… It’s dead. I’m a ghost” (Hayden Taylor 39), and perhaps it was all true, that Johnny was never there because she is dead, and her ghost is coming to haunt George to torture him about what he did, to remind him about, and to make him accept and acknowledge what he did so she can rest in
peace.
All of this comes together to suggest that the past came for George, perhaps in the form of a delusion of his guilt, or Johnny’s ghost coming to remind him of what he did. Either way, most likely Johnny never went to see George in person and it was just George’s imagination, his worst nightmare coming to haunt him.