Themes In Green Grass Running Water

Green Grass Running Water by Thomas King highlights the difficulties experienced by Indians in contemporary society when forced to find a balance between a “successful” modern life and a traditional native lifestyle. The characters Charlie and Lionel attempt to adhere to mainstream society’s views in an effort to become “successful” and “satisfied”, however, to achieve their goal of true happiness, they must grow closer to their families and traditions. The challenge for these two characters is that when they become consumed with what white society deems successful, they, in fact, become distanced from home.When Lionel and Charlie fully understand that conforming to white society takes them farther from their native heritage, it finally becomes
He is a lawyer who works for the same company which is fighting Eli, his uncle, to open a dam which will destroy much of the land used by the Indian reserve. Charlie drives a red porsche, he uses it to show that he makes a large sum of money and to show off. However, it is possible the vainest attempt to seem successful, in fact, he extremely dislikes the colour red, this is known when Charlie went to pick up his rental car, “As he got closer, the first thing that Charlie noticed about the car was that it was red, a colour he hated” (King 152). This proves that he himself does not even like the car! “he realized that some of the red was in reality, rust.”(King 152) The rust on the vehicle is symbolic of Charlie and his life, every time he has a short meaningless relationship with a woman or purchases something, he is like the red paint, but eventually, the rust eats it all away, much like the underlying lack of true feelings of joy and satisfaction. Something only true love and joy can bring, which happen to stem from family and culture. Modern society wants people to value objects with monetary value and deem their owners as better people, only because they can afford certain things. The solution to this problem would be for Charlie come home to his family and culture, which is centered around real emotion and relationships, not artificial feelings. This is proven when, Charlie's Mother, Lillian, on her deathbed made the following statement: “It was your father's nose that brought us home.” (King 151). What she meant is that his father’s false nose created enough problems which caused his movie career to fail, initiating their return to the reservation. This means that no matter how popular his father became or how much money he made in Hollywood, they still were not at home. For Charlie, it means that no matter how “successful” his is if he is not at home then he will not