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The Theme of Identity in the Novel Medicine River by Thomas King
Medicine River, a novel authored by Thomas King, was set in contemporary life in Canada in 1989. The book exclusively narrates the life of the area’s indigenous people, as it tries to recognize their complex and their controversial identities of being half-white and half-indigenous. Thomas King tells the story of a young man, Will Sampson, in the original persona style (Mackie 65). Will Sampson, who had a white father and an indigenous mother, found it hard to fit in the society where he was alienated because of his mixed blood, “Your mother married a white’’, Will’s cousin interjected (King 14). Earlier in his life, Sampson’s family was evicted from the reservation because their dad was white. Sampson had to prove that he could belong to the indigenous community through inheritance and make an extra effort to fit society. Throughout his life, Sampson had to make decisions that resulted from being of metis heritage (Christie 53). This work seeks to explain comprehensively how the theme of identity has shaped Sampson’s life and decisions from the time of his birth, growing up and finally being convicted from the community and living in Toronto as a photographer.
The question of status proved to be a stubborn dilemma for generations because many laws had been formulated during the contemporary era. People who were indigenous and pure habited the Medicine River (Christie 56). On the other hand, Will had mixed blood, and he was excluded from the reserve center. Many of his relatives, according to the law, were allowed to live in reserve, and James, Will’s brother, was eager to return to the sanctuary. Still, their cousin dimmed their expectation by telling them that it could not be possible. ‘’No, you cannot, because you are not Indian anymore”, their cousin, Maxwell, broke their heart (King 14). The cultural conflicts and revelation broke Will’s heart. Maxwell also added, “You can do that, but you cannot stay. It is the law” (King, 14). Will decided to move to Toronto while his family resettled to the reserve. In Toronto, Will resolved to casual jobs such as photography to make ends meet. According to Will, he had made peace with himself that he was Indian, and nothing could challenge his parentage’s belief. Although the laws that were passed, forced their family to settle in Calgary, his comeback was with deliberate decisions to fight his way back to Medicine River town (Mackie 69). After Sampson returned to Medicine River, he sought to discover his Indian roots in reserve. Harlem, his best friend, told Will had many relatives in the reserves, which would help him understand his ancestry. Will started a photography company called Medicine River Photography, “I own my own business too’’, Will confirmed to Harlem (King 170).
In the novel, the narrator is a photographer, and his work was affected by his ancestry results. As Will went on with his work, many decisions were determined by his family’s actions on his life as he grew up. Sampson regarded the reserve as two sides of the lens, where his father was white and mother native, status and non-status, native and Canadian (Mackie 66). Will always wondered on which side he belonged. The first glimpse of his ancestry was when he saw some photos of his family from a small box, which he got from his mother (Christie 60). Will sought to know the lives of all the images in the photos and wished to discover the experience they had on the reserve. Will took the concept of the pictures to visualize their particular lives, regardless of their ancestral metis. The sanctuary had assimilated in the modernism of appreciating photography as a technology that normalizes identities in society. This assimilation gave the idea of isolating the individual ancestry to bring out a distinct cohesion in the community. The Indians did not believe in photography, and one Anglo-Canadian asked, “It is somewhat ironic how Indians view photographs” (King 180). However, Will had a quest to make, unveiling real stories beyond the frames and bringing reality, which is mostly veiled behind the photography.
Will was determined to break the borders, which separated the reality and allusion created by how the community viewed people’s identity. Together with Will, Harlen worked to make sure the community resolved from being fed with “Indian-ness” (Christie 56), which the community adamantly stuck. In discovering his father, Will found that his father had an amusing way of showing love, because he had never experienced a hint of his father’s affection. “Bertha says that your father loved your mother a lot’’, Harlen told Will (King 15). The photography business in Toronto helped Will to have a positive attitude in his life. The work of a photographer is to work on the negatives to bring a positive result, and Will took the opportunity to develop a positive experience about his identity (Christie 60). Unlike his friend, Will had many negative comments about his life and the community. The negative attitude could raise many issues about racism in the city, and Will had to reverse the approach to change his environment (Mackie 70). It was not long before Will admitted that “by the end of the first year, I was making money’’, (King 84). In the novel, Will’s work on the negatives can be seen as a metaphor for showing how a person can work on the images and positives to see the world in two different lenses. In the end, Harlem convinces Will to recollect all the photos that presented his ancestry into one collection. Later, Will had to organize for a group photo that comprised the old and young, and he had to position himself well to take a clear picture of the members of the reserve, an action that indicated a new start of his identity. “Come on, Will. This one is going to be the good one”, Harlen was sure that the pictures were good (King 169).
On return to the reserve, Will had to make an important decision about his role in the sanctuary as mixed blood. Will had to abandon the white lineage entirely to fit well in society (Christie 62). Will could openly deny the existence of his father, who would tie him back to white ancestry. Will’s relatives were reluctant to disclose anything about his father, although they knew almost everything about anyone in the community. The issue of Will being mixed blood did not matter anymore after Harlen suggested to him that he should wallow deeper into the community affairs. “Keep him out of trouble and talk him like a father’’, Harlen advised him, when he encouraged Will to help an injured player (King 127). Will had no other option because he had resolved to forget about his ancestry, and getting deeper into the society affairs seemed like a good idea. Unlike the white community, the Indian community valued the community integration, and this idea fuelled Sampson to mingle comfortably. “The team gives the boys something to belong to, something they can be proud of’’’, Harlem encouraged Will (King 25). Will lacked friendship from his family from his childhood. When the community offered a fellowship in the basketball team, Will found his identity among his friends, the basketball team, and the new photography shop. Will got intimate with his team that he finally had to admit to Harlem that he got depression when they lost close games (Christie 76).
In conclusion, the novel tries to educate the process of finding where one belongs by determining the source or roots of identification. As discussed above the ancestral belonging can determine one’s way of viewing life, which might be negative or positive. With an environment surrounded by people who want to have a positive change, one might be able to appreciate their identity. In the case of Will Sampson, he had to undergo a series of testing and polishing, symbolized by his photography work. Will had to polish the negative attitude of his ancestry to improve the community of Medicine River.
Works Cited
Christie, Stuart. “Time-Out 🙁 Slam) Dunking Photographic Realism in Thomas King’s Medicine River.” Studies in American Indian Literatures (1999): 51-65.
King, Thomas. Medicine River. Penguin, (2018): 1-204.
Mackie, Mary M. “Status, Mixedbloods, and Community in Thomas King’s Medicine River.” Journal of American Studies of Turkey 8 (1998): 65-71.