The Devil
“I looked in horror upon the strong claws that grew out of his fur-covered fingers. His feet were like his hands. Trailing at his heels was a scaly tail tipped with a serpent’s open jaws. His face was a patchwork: he had bearded cheeks, like some I had seen palefaces wear; his nose was an eagle’s bill, and his sharp-pointed ears were pricked up like those of a sly fox.” This imagery describes the author’s first visual encounter with the Devil. Up until Christian missionaries with intent to convert, she had never even conceived of the idea of a supernatural agent actively seeking to urge people to commit acts of evil. The devil does not exist in indigenous spirituality. One can well imagine the horror that came over her upon seeing a visualization of this foreign concept. What is particularly notable, however, is that this particular image of the Devil bears little evidence of the white men who created him, becoming instead a crazy quilt of animal features in an attempt to distance themselves entirely from the whole business of evil.
A Brass Figure, Actually
“A vast multitude…gazed upon a huge stone image…The stone figure was that of a woman upon the brink of the Great Waters, facing eastward. The myriad living hands remained uplifted till the stone woman began to show signs of life…Her face was aglow with compassion. Her eyes swept across the outspread continent of America, the home of the red man.” It would be difficult for many people familiar with the sculpture to instantly recognize this imagery as a description of the Statue of Liberty. She is made of copper, after all, not stone. It is not entirely clear from context whether the author actually saw Lady Liberty with her own eyes or not. What the context does reveal is that it is not intended to be taken literally. Yes, it is literally a description of the statue, but the build-up toward the “stone woman” coming to life becomes yet another addition to the recurrence of fabulist fiction making up a substantial bulk of the collection.
Legends
In fact, the collection opens with the author’s versions of more than a dozen ancient legends which all also contain the same sort of imagery. “All of a sudden there was heard a heavy footfall near the entranceway. The oval-shaped door frame was pushed aside. In stepped a large black foot with great big claws. Then the other clumsy foot came next. All the while the baby badgers stared hard at the unexpected comer. After the second foot, in peeped the head of a big black bear!” The emphasis of the imagery throughout these legends is—such as that put to use describing the Statue of Liberty—personification. Non-human characters gain a visceral sense of identity through imagery which enforces upon them more human-like attributes. The purpose of this is to strengthen the identification between the reader and these characters so that the morals and lessons of the tales will make a stronger impact.
Irony
In a short piece titled “The Red Man’s America” irony is brilliantly incorporated into imagery to subvert the reality of America as compared to its theoretical ideal. “My country! ’tis to thee, Sweet land of Liberty, My pleas I bring. Land where OUR fathers died, Whose offspring are denied The Franchise given wide, Hark, while I sing.” The musicality of this parody is retained, but the message is made quite clear by precise lyrical alteration. The tweak from “my fathers died” in the original conveys a deep-seated ideological divide between Europeans and indigenous people. The imagery of American citizenship as a “franchise” to be handed out and shared makes an especially strong impact today given the evolution of the term.
