Page 316 [316]
JUDIT ÁGNES KÁDÁR
Beyond the interpersonal identification challenges, Elijah unconsciously
formulates his own (ethnic) identity. Xavier observes the changes and defines
his own identity in relation to Elijah’s transformations: “Elijah wants to
become something he’s not”,’° from “a dirty bush Indian”” but smart trapper
he can become “somebody.” Interestingly, he de-stigmatizes himself through
adapting to Anglo needs, and then through acting out the warrior stereotype.
“He says he couldn’t speak in his old voice even if he wanted to now. It’s gone
somewhere too far away”,'* he collects scalps, a symbolic act that reinstates
his position as “a true Indian warrior.” Elijah gradually becomes an oversized
cartoon-like Indian, whose personality changes can be detected from early
childhood traumatic experiences through adolescence up to the embodiment
of the stereotypical merciless killer Indian warrior. He developed his own
argument, too: killing many helps those killed get to the spirits’ world,” and
scalping is necessary to prove the “confirmed kills” he has achieved. The army
peers underline and validate that fearful image of a hero: “Breech says that it
is our Indian blood, that our blood is closer to animal than that of a many”.”°
Actually, while Elijah replaces the stigmatized Indian image with that of
the heroic warrior on the one hand, on the other hand, he replaces it with a
temporary identification with fellow non-Native soldiers: “We are an army to
be reckoned with suddenly, no longer the colonials, as the Englishmen call us,
looking down at us”.”’ Here he shifts from double to single minority status,
and then with the top number of killings he becomes an achiever doing “[m]
ost in our regiment. Most of any Canadian. Or Brit for that matter”.””
Interestingly, Boyden makes use of irony in passages that otherwise take
a stand against racism, for instance the two Cree pals observe that a “Fritz
smells differently than an Englishman or a Frenchman or a Canadian”.
In another instance, Elijah tells others that Xavier is a “heathen, speaks his
own tongue fluently, nothing else”,** that way serving whites’ craving for the
well-known stereotype and protecting his friend. Finally, another incident
shows how racism is turned against the very person who was shown to be
racist earlier: when Frenchman raped Niska in the church and called her a
squaw whore” goes mad and commits suicide, the local community refuses
his Christian burial.
16 Ibid., 86.
17 Ibid., 297.
18 Ibid., 145.
9 Ibid., 107.
20 Ibid., 109.
2 Ibid., 242.
2 Tbid., 36.
2 Ibid., 144-145.
24 Tbid., 207.
> Ibid., 108-181.
* 314 +