Truth and Bright Water

Throughout the novel, King makes use of elements of fabulism, a mode of writing in which fantastical elements are inserted into otherwise mundane, everyday settings. One of the more significant fabulist moves in this section is the complete disappearance of the church after Monroe has finished painting it. The insertion of elements of the unreal into what is otherwise a realist narrative creates a sense of whimsy and playfulness that juxtaposes the emotionally weightier elements of the story, particularly in this section. The novel’s portrayal of Tecumseh’s childhood is one that is marked by both great tragedy and a sense of wonder and astonishment. The fabulist elements in this section work to create that sense of wonder.

This sense of play is also closely associated with Monroe and the “magic” he brings to Bright Water through his art. The complete disappearance of the church, followed by Monroe’s gifting of the church’s contents to the locals in Chapter 30, gets at the idea of the reclamation of culture. As the end of this section makes clear, Monroe’s entire artistic life is dedicated to the reclamation of Indigenous bodies that have been stolen and used for profit by white institutions. The gifting in Chapter 30 suggests not only that the project of cultural reclamation is possible, but also that its outcome might materially benefit Indigenous communities. Everyone in Bright Water comes away with pieces of the church that are not only personally meaningful to them but that also increase their material and/or social capital. Monroe’s art suggests that the redistribution of white wealth built from Indigenous suffering is a primary mode by which Indigenous communities can find a path toward personal and financial profit.

The revelation that the jumping “woman” was in fact Monroe supports the novel’s message about rebirth through the fantastical and imaginative: What might look like an act of self-destruction turns out to be, as if by magic, a form of cultural rejuvenation. The jumper’s identity also adds texture to the novel’s observations about masculinity and gender dynamics. Tecumseh and Lum assumed the person jumping from the Horns was a woman because of the figure’s long hair, but also because of the way the figure moved and interacted with its surroundings: “The woman seems to float in the lights. She turns and weaves her way across the hard ground, her hair streaming, her arms spread wide as if she were a bird trying to catch the wind” (7). These descriptions associate the figure with a delicacy, grace, and beauty that in Tecumseh’s mind can only be associated with femininity. That Monroe can embody these attributes demonstrates that the masculinity he performs isn’t afraid of embracing the feminine, queering the norms that the rest of the men in the community adhere to. Tecumseh’s realization about the jumping woman’s identity comes at this stage of the novel in part because of the concrete discovery he makes associating Monroe with human bones, but also because this is a turning point for Tecumseh’s understanding of what masculinity can look like. This is the first moment in which Tecumseh can imagine a masculinity that incorporates the feminine; in this way, his revelation about the identity of the jumping woman shifts the trajectories of both the plot and of Tecumseh’s understanding of himself.

Tecumseh’s changing approach to Navigating Toxic Masculinity informs the conclusion of the subplot surrounding Rebecca. The lack of resolution to his relationship with Rebecca is meant to feel surprising and even dissatisfying. The masculinity that Elvin and other men in Tecumseh’s life model is very much defined by its proximity to, and relationship with, women. Elvin perceives his failed relationship with Tecumseh’s mother as a failure of his own masculinity; he flirts with Lucy Rabbit to affirm this masculinity while simultaneously using Tecumseh as an intermediary who might help restore his broken relationship with Tecumseh’s mother. Meanwhile, Tecumseh himself is pushed by both Elvin and Lum toward a relationship with Rebecca; Elvin and Lum see this as a necessary step in the formation of an adult masculinity. Tecumseh’s rejection of the need to create this relationship, epitomized by the fact that he doesn’t even say goodbye to her before she leaves, suggests that the masculinity Tecumseh is coming to embody is very different from that of Elvin or Lum’s. Tecumseh’s masculinity is not defined by his sexual or romantic relationships with women; it is instead one that allows him to define his individuality outside the dictates of heteropatriarchal culture. Since Lum’s more conventional mode of masculinity plays a role in his death, this shift may save Tecumseh from similar self-destruction.

The final chapters are marked by a sense of utter finality in some ways—such as the death of Lum—and by a complete lack of resolution in others. Many of the narrative’s central tensions go unresolved, though King hints at various answers: that Mia was Cassie and Elvin’s daughter and was given up for adoption, that Tecumseh’s mother was once romantically involved with Monroe (raising the possibility that Monroe is Tecumseh’s biological father), and that Rebecca is the ghost of the girl the skull belonged to. King’s resistance to resolution not only suggests that learning to live without answers is a part of growing up, but also that it’s a part of what defines Indigenous identity. Many of the unanswered questions in this novel are questions about suppressed personal histories. However, there are also suppressed and fractured Indigenous histories that define Tecumseh’s boyhood: Unlike Rebecca, Tecumseh no longer knows his people’s language, and at the end of the story Monroe and Tecumseh make up new rituals for want of existing ones. This suggests that The Search for an “Authentic” Indigenous Identity is in some ways futile and ultimately beside the point; Monroe’s actions revivify the community despite their lack of deep roots. The lack of resolution that defines the ending of the novel reflects the way in which Tecumseh, as a young Indigenous man, must learn to grow up in the absence of definite answers and clear histories.