The Flood by Joy Harjo
"The Flood" by Joy Harjo is a poignant narrative that intertwines the life of a sixteen-year-old Creek girl with the myth of the watersnake, a significant figure in Native American folklore. The story presents the girl’s seduction by a man at a lake, whom she perceives as an incarnation of the watersnake, blurring the lines between myth and reality. This encounter leads to tension with her parents, who view her premarital experience as a source of shame, prompting them to arrange a marriage to restore familial honor.
As the narrative unfolds, the girl’s belief in the sacredness of her experience contrasts sharply with the pragmatic views of her community. Her eventual disappearance during a tornado raises questions about her fate, with differing opinions on whether her death was a punishment for defiance or a tragic accident. The story emphasizes the profound impact of oral tradition on the girl’s psyche, suggesting that her connection to these myths ultimately leads to her despair and sense of isolation.
The narrator reflects on the gap between traditional beliefs and modern life, revealing her own disconnection from these old stories. The narrative concludes with a symbolic return of the watersnake, reminding the community of the enduring power of their myths and the consequences of forgetting them.
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The Flood by Joy Harjo
First published: 1990
Type of plot: Magical Realism
Time of work: 1971
Locale: An Oklahoma Indian reservation
Principal Characters:
The narrator , a Creek IndianAn unnamed sixteen-year-old Creek girl Her parents The man who lives by the lake The female elder of the Creek tribe The crazy woman
The Story
In the first of two first-person narratives, a Creek tribal member recalls the events leading to the death of a sixteen-year-old Creek girl. In connecting these events with the Native Indian myth of the watersnake, the narrator emphasizes the importance of old myths to the survival of the Native American people. The narrative voice then switches to the girl herself, who underscores how the myths of her people have "soaked into my blood since infancy like deer gravy so how could I resist the watersnake, who appeared as the most handsome man in the tribe."
In paralleling the incidents of the girl's life, the myth of the watersnake is a central influence on her perception of reality. One version of the legend recounts the tale of a young girl who is seduced by the water monster, who has transformed himself into a handsome warrior. The girl leaves her family to become the watersnake's bride and then lives with him at the bottom of a lake. In "The Flood," the sixteen-year-old girl also meets a man by the edge of a lake and allows herself to be seduced by him. From her point of view, the man who seduces her "was not a man, but a myth" and is an incarnation of the watersnake. Because of the mythic nature of the incident, the girl believes that she has participated in a sacred event. On the other hand, her parents simply regard her premarital sexual experience as shameful. By arranging a quick marriage to an "important" older man of the tribe, her parents attempt to erase the dishonor brought on their family by her misconduct. The daughter persists in believing that the man she met by the lake is the embodiment of the water monster who unleashes his power in violent rain and wind storms. The girl rejects the marriage arranged by her parents because she no longer feels comfortable in the "real world" that her family and future husband inhabit.
The girl disappears during a tornado that destroys her family's home. However, she dies not as a result of the force of the storm but from drowning. The oldest woman of her tribe regards the girl's behavior as a bad example to other young girls and believes that the water monster has punished her for disobeying her parents when she gave herself to a man before marriage. Other tribal members believe that the girl, in a drunken fog after consuming a six-pack of beer, has accidently driven her car into the lake and drowned.
The narrator offers a third point of view concerning the girl's death. She maintains that the impact of the tribal oral tradition had such a strong influence on the girl's imagination that her perception of reality could not be contained within the limits of day-to-day experience. The narrator implies that the contrast between the girl's futile life on the reservation and her belief in the rich heritage of her people has led her to despair and suicide. The influence of the mythic tradition on the girl at first appears anomalous to the narrator. The influence of modern life on the narrator is just as strong as the power of tradition has been on the dead girl. As a result, the narrator admits that she no longer considers the old stories important. Interpreting the events of one's life from a mythic point of view is out of place in modern society, just as the crazy woman who appears in the convenience store at the end of the story is out of place. The appearance of the crazy woman causes the narrator to remember the death of the teenage girl as well as the influence that the old stories had on her. As if in response to the evocation of the memory, it begins to rain. The water monster, in his role as a storm god, makes his presence known. He demonstrates his displeasure at being forgotten by the people by sending rain "that would flood the world."
Bibliography
Adamson, Joni. "And the Ground Spoke: Joy Harjo and the Struggle for a Land-Based Language." In American Indian Literature, Environmental Justice, and Ecocriticism: The Middle Place. Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 2001.
Bryson, J. Scott. "Finding the Way Back: Place and Space in the Ecological Poetry of Joy Harjo." MELUS 27 (Fall, 2002): 169-196.
Keyes, Claire. "Between Ruin and Celebration: Joy Harjo's In Mad Love and War." Borderlines: Studies in American Culture 3, no. 4 (1996): 389-395.
Lobo, Susan, and Kurt Peters, eds. American Indians and the Urban Experience. Walnut Creek, Calif.: Altamira Press, 2001.
Riley, Jeannette, Kathleen Torrens, and Susan Krumholz. "Contemporary Feminist Writers: Envisioning a Just World." Contemporary Justice Review 8 (March, 2005): 91-106.
Scarry, John. "Representing Real Worlds: The Evolving Poetry of Joy Harjo." World Literature Today 66 (Spring, 1992): 286-291.