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Symbols
The image of water begins and ends the novel, and it symbolizes both the power of nature and nature’s role in determining the course of humanity. Water features prominently in each of the novel’s four creation stories, with the narrator telling how at the beginning, everything was water. In a typical example of one of these stories, Thought Woman enters the flowing waters of The River and soon finds herself swept along in the current, which is beyond her control. The role that the River plays in literally guiding Thought Woman signifies how water has metaphorically guided Thought Woman and all of her descendants into the present day, with factors like rivers and precipitation often playing a key role in determining where Indians settled.
In the present-day (1990s) plot threads of the novel, water plays an important role in the form of a dam that has recently been constructed near the small town of Blossom. White men like Clifford Sifton have been promising that the dam will be beneficial to everyone, but knowledgeable Indians like Eli realize that it is often unwise to try to control nature through man-made means. The dam makes fishing in the area worse, showing the consequences of meddling with the natural world. In the end, the water proves nature’s power, after an earthquake damages the dam, and the water returns to its usual flow. Throughout Green Grass, Running Water, water is an unstoppable force that drives characters’ actions, but it also makes life possible and helps return things to their natural order.
Water Quotes in Green Grass, Running Water
The Green Grass, Running Water quotes below all refer to the symbol of Water. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Prologue
Quotes
So.
In the beginning, there was nothing. Just the water.
Coyote was there, but Coyote was asleep. That Coyote was asleep and that Coyote was dreaming. When that Coyote dreams, anything can happen.
I can tell you that.
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Part 2
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The sky! shouts the little man. Hallelujah! A gift from heaven. My name’s Noah, and you must be my new wife.
I doubt that, says Changing Woman.
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Part 3
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So that Thought Woman takes off her nice clothes, and that one gets into the River.
Whoa! says Thought Woman. That is one cold River. This must be a tricky River.
Swim to the middle, says that tricky River. It is much warmer there.
So Thought Woman swims to the middle of that River and it is warmer there.
This is better, says Thought Woman, and she lies back on the River and floats with the current. Thought Woman floats on that River, and that one goes to sleep.
I am very sleepy, says Thought Woman, and then she goes to sleep.
Hee-hee, says that River. Hee-hee.
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And in a rather perverse way, Eli had come to enjoy the small pleasures of resistance, knowing that each time Duplessis opened the gates a little too much or turned on the light a little too late, it was because he was there.
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Part 4
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Well. Old Woman watches Young Man Walking On Water. She watches him stomp his feet. She watches him yell at those Waves. She watches him shout at that Boat. So, she feels sorry for him. Pardon me, she says. Would you like some help?
There you go again, says Young Man Walking On Water. Trying to tell me what to do.
Well, says Old Woman, someone has to. You are acting as though you have no relations. You shouldn’t yell at those happy Waves. You shouldn’t shout at that jolly Boat. You got to sing a song.
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Sifton felt it first, a sudden shifting, a sideways turning, a flexing, the snapping crack of concrete and steel, and in that instant the water rose out of the lake like a mountain, sucking the cars under and pitching them high in the air, sending them at the dam in an awful rush.
And the dam gave way, and the water and the cars tumbled over the edge of the world.
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“Okay, okay, here goes,” says Coyote. “In the beginning, there was nothing.”
“Nothing?”
“That’s right,” says Coyote. “Nothing.”
“No,” I says. “In the beginning, there was just the water.”
“Water?” says Coyote.
“Yes,” I says. “Water.”
“Hmmmm,” says Coyote. “Are you sure?”
“Yes,” I says, “I’m sure.”
“Okay,” says Coyote, “if you say so. But where did all the water come from?”
“Sit down,” I says to Coyote.
“But there is water everywhere,” says Coyote.
“That’s true,” I says. “And here’s how it happened.”
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Get the entire Green Grass, Running Water LitChart as a printable PDF.
Water Symbol Timeline in Green Grass, Running Water
The timeline below shows where the symbol Water appears in Green Grass, Running Water. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Prologue
At the beginning of creation, the narrator says, there was just water. Coyote is asleep and dreaming. One of Coyote’s Dreams gets free and starts looking around,...
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Part 1
Picking up from the prologue of the novel, GOD asks Coyote where all the water in the world came from. Coyote tries to explain that there are two worlds, Sky...
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...who lives in Sky World. She walks off the edge of the world and reaches Water World. She ends up on the back of grandmother Turtle. First Woman and grandmother Turtle...
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...go back to the beginning, so Hovaugh says in the beginning, there was nothing except water.
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Part 2
...about how Changing Woman looked over the edge of Sky World into her reflection in Water World and fell out of Sky World into a canoe in Water World.
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Elsewhere in Blossom, Eli Stands Alone watches as the water rises by his porch. Clifford Sifton walks by and Eli invites him in for coffee....
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Part 4
Continuing the creation story, Old Woman floats in water. She looks and sees a Young Man Walking On Water. He’s looking for a fishing...
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Continuing the creation story, Old Woman leaves Young Man Walking On Water and floats in all kinds of water. She eventually ends up on land, where she...
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...office by the dam and is surprised when he sees some cars floating in the water. Parliament Lake, the one by the dam where Bursum has property, is one of the...
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...to definitely be pregnant somehow. Eli died when his cabin was destroyed by the flood waters from the broken dam. Norma, Alberta, and Latisha come together to help rebuild the broken...
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...he laughs. Coyote and the narrator again argue about whether in the beginning there was water or whether there was nothing. The narrator tells Coyote to sit down and promises to...
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