Motorcycles and Sweetgrass Essay Questions

What is Virgil’s major problem?

Virgil Second has a problem that is not so easily solved. His ranking among the eighteen grandchildren of Lillian would probably be ninth. Unless it was eighth or tenth. He doesn’t carry the “bad boy” cache that gets cousin Chucky attention from girls just as much as it gets attention from cops. Nor is he quite up to the level of the flip side of his cousin Kelly who recently met the prime minister as the result of winning a speech contest. As our narrator points out with a peculiar form of viciousness: Virgil is a boy just built for the bell curve. Or, in other words, his major problem is that he is so completely average that there isn’t even anything about his average quality that sticks out. He is a seventh-grade student so dislocated from being interesting that he counts vanilla ice cream, bad sitcoms, and ginger ale as the highlights of his life.

What sight does Virgil bear witness to that takes this story well outside the domain of realism?

Elements of realism do permeate the story: it is easy enough to recognize that we all live somewhere in the spectrum of the universe in which the tale unfolds. What there is no denying or getting around, however, is that there is one particular aspect of the story above all else that steps outside the boundaries of most people’s experience. And it is quite fitting that the model of the “norm” in the story is there to witness it. John and his motorcycle are present which means there is a good chance that strange occurrences will take place, but neither Virgil nor his companion Wayne nor anyone else could be prepared for what takes place in the woods under the dark cover of night.

As they both watch hidden from view, the stranger who arrived on motorcycle proceeds to have an argument with a group of raccoons, headed by one particular participant standing on a stump. As Wayne wonders whether he might actually be under the influence of drugs, he and Virgil witness John defending himself against unproven charges he contends are nothing but slanderous and libelous accusations.

What are some other examples of the Trickster archetype?

The stranger who shows up on motorcycle and calls himself John turns out to actually be a Native American version of the Trickster archetype named Nanabush, or possibly Nanabouzoo. As Uncle Wayne explains to Virgil, the Trickster loves irony, has the ability to shapeshift, and, as the name suggests, is driven by a psychological impulse to deceive people. Nanabush appears as a major character in Native American playwright Tomson Highway’s play The Rez Sisters though in a much different way than John appears. This, of course, can be interpreted as confirming Wayne’s contention about his ability to change appearance. In the early part of the novel’s existence the Trickster archetype was most familiarly known to readers in the form of the comic book character Loki as portrayed by actor Tom Hiddleston in the explicably popular Avengers movie franchise.

Uncle Wayne actually is right on target, however, as the Trickster archetype has taken on an amazingly flexible ability to change shape, form, and purpose in pop culture. For instance, Tom Baker’s incarnation in Doctor Who certainly qualifies while David Tennant’s does not. Lilo eventually discovers that Stitch is a Trickster while Bart Simpson began as an unqualified Trickster before eventually becoming less so. (One could make the same argument of Loki in his devolution from Branagh’s original Thor.) Bugs Bunny, Star Trek’s Q, and Willy Wonka are some of the most instantly recognizable and beloved examples of the Trickster.

What role does Dakota play in the text?

No one can make the case that Dakota is one of the main characters, but she is more important than she seems. She provides more entry points into the character of John and also into the different ways in which Indigenous children engage with their heritage. On the first point, she's a teenage girl who is entranced by the handsome John so she's not exactly objective, but through her we sometimes follow the narrative (e.g., when Maggie and John have sex), or propel the narrative (e.g., when Wayne and Virgil fear for her safety and try to find her). We also get a softer side of John in his interactions with the girl. On the second point, she was not raised with the same knowledge of Anishnawbe stories, which Taylor depicts as problematic. She barely knows anything about Nanabush and is thus missing out on the magic. At the end of the story, she is excited to delve into the stories, which will, putatively, allow her to understand herself and her people better.

How does Taylor subvert expectations about Indigenous literature?

First, Taylor locates his story in the present day; he does not choose to write about the days of settler colonialism. He wants to showcase real people living in contemporary society, not a romanticized historical period. Second, his characters are nuanced, fully-fleshed out, and amalgams of the Indigenous and the Westernized. They are not "savages," not victims, not heroes. They're regular people with relatable struggles even as they occupy a particular Indigenous space.