Killers of the Flower Moon: Allusions 3 key examples

Cather's novel tells the story of two European American children (one from Virginia, and one a Czech immigrant) who move to Nebraska at the end of the 19th century. They are part of an influx of white "pioneers" the U.S. government incentivized to move to the plains as part of an effort to claim territory and displace American Indians from the region. My Ántonia is framed as the memoir of one of the children, Jim Burden. Jim recalls traveling from his native Virginia to Nebraska and feeling as though he is moving "outside man's jurisdiction" and over the edge of civilization. Jim's sense of traveling beyond the edge of civilization contributes to the notion that he and the other pioneers are the first humans to touch the plains.

Jim's sense that he is expanding "man's jurisdiction" to the plains for the first time is a one-sided view of history. American Indian people had long been living on the plains before pioneers like Jim arrived. The United States had also long been meddling in politics on the plains and throughout North America. By the late 19th century, the entire country had been indelibly shaped by the interaction between European and American Indian culture and politics.

By referring to this line from My Ántonia, Grann undoes the narrative that white people brought civilization to the plains all on their own. Mollie Burkhart and her sisters are Osage children leaving the culture they know. They are headed to Catholic boarding school, which loosely represents the culture Jim and Ántonia leave behind. As such, they are mirror images of Jim and Ántonia. If Jim really were a pioneer moving from civilization to a wild place "outside man's jurisdiction," Mollie should have the sense that she is moving back along his tracks toward civilization. Instead, she experiences her big move just like he does, as a journey from familiar civilization into the vast unknown. Grann implicitly argues with this allusion that history is in the eye of the beholder.

The term "Reign of Terror" has historically been used to describe the extremely bloody French Revolution at the end of the 18th century. For a long time, many European governments had consolidated power and wealth among a small group of aristocrats who claimed to have a birthright to their elite social position. By the late 1780s, French revolutionaries rallied around the idea that the government should act in the interest of the "general will" of the people rather than to protect aristocratic power and wealth. They saw aristocrats and their sympathizers as tyrants, and a general tone of paranoia overtook French politics as some people went into hiding and others tried to hunt them down. Marie Antoinette is among the most famous aristocrats who were brutally executed during this period because of her title and what she represented. Many, many more people were killed (often by way of public beheading), supposedly to make way for a new, more egalitarian world order.

There are obvious parallels between the French Reign of Terror and the Osage Reign of Terror. Both involved violent killing sprees motivated by social struggles over power and money. In the case of Cowboy and Elizabeth, the term "Reign of Terror" helps capture the tone and stakes of their childhood growing up in Ernest's "house of secrets." It would have been bad enough to grow up with a father who betrayed their family by murdering their aunt and uncle. What Cowboy and Elizabeth experienced was even worse because Ernest's secrets and betrayal were connected to an entire political power struggle. That power struggle played out on the domestic stage, coloring the children's upbringing with the same kind of paranoia that French aristocrats faced during the French Revolution.

The tactics of the French revolutionaries remain controversial to this day. Whether or not the public executions were effective, it is undoubtedly ironic that so many people were murdered in the name of human rights without any kind of fair trial. Grann's regular use of the allusion invites thoughtful comparison of the two events. Ultimately, Grann emphasizes another layer of irony at play in Oklahoma during the 1920s and 1930s. White journalists felt compelled to describe the Osage murders as a repeat of the French Reign of Terror. However, whereas the French revolutionaries mobilized against an aristocratic class that had long been hoarding wealth and power from the rest of society, white Oklahomans began murdering the Osage in direct response to the Osage's sudden rise in socioeconomic status. Prior to gaining the oil headrights, the Osage had been systematically deprived of wealth and power by a white ruling class. In many ways, such as the appointment of white guardians, this was still the case even when the Osage were wealthy. By calling the Osage murders a "Reign of Terror," white journalists painted the Osage as a greedy ruling class and conveniently glossed over the real social history behind the racial violence.

In the Bible, Cain and Abel are brothers, both sons of Adam and Eve. Cain is the eldest and is tasked with working the land. Abel, meanwhile, is tasked with raising sheep. When God is more appreciative of Abel's work than Cain's, Cain gets jealous and kills his younger brother. He lies when God comes asking after Abel, claiming not to know where he is. God, who is all-knowing, calls Cain out on his lie. "Your brother's blood cries out from the ground," he tells Cain, meaning that the very ground Cain is supposed to work is now obviously soaked with blood from Abel's murder. God curses Cain to a lifetime of hard work with no yield: never again will he be able to find any land to work that produces crops. Instead, he will forever live with a guilty conscience. Any person who tries to kill Cain for what he has done will face a seven-fold greater punishment. This curse makes it clear that no earthly force can ever right the wrong Cain has committed.

Webb's use of this line from the Bible—and Grann's choice to end the book on this line—emphasizes the lingering tragedy of the Osage murders. A long history of racist legislation led the Osage to live above rich oil deposits, but the murders themselves were motivated by simple greed and envy, much like Cain's. Hale and other white Oklahomans believed they, too, deserved the riches the Osage reaped from the land. So great was their bitterness that they began killing. The allusion emphasizes that by the time of the murders, this was not a simple struggle between one racial group and another. Rather, because Osage and white Americans had been marrying one another and having children together for a few generations, it was a family affair. Like Abel, many of the Osage were betrayed by their own loved ones.

Now, generations later, the descendants of murderers and murdered alike still live with the fallout. Margie Burkhart, for instance, descends from both Mollie and Ernest. The auditory image of the blackjack leaves "rattling restlessly in the wind" hints at the presence of God refusing to let anyone involved rest with a quiet conscience. No matter how much work Grann or anyone else does to solve the mysteries of the Osage murders, there is no way to make it right. The blood will forever have been spilled. In fact, trying to settle the case like Grann does may result in an even more restless conscience than the killers themselves ever had.