Charging Elk

Heartsong of Charging Elk
I really enjoyed this novel even if the story was told at an agonizingly slow pace. I thought it was interesting to read about these familiar locations-the black hills, Pine Ridge, Fort Randall-and to read about a leading character from the prairie. Charging Elk’s story made my heart bleed—in a good way. Charging Elk’s story of constant defeat , isolation, and betrayal, is the same you can find in almost any story of an immigrant character trying to adapt to an alien environment. He bumbles his way through language, customs, and manners as best as he can and ends up finally adjusting to the point that he would turn down his one opportunity to return to his home.

This entire story is about the perspective of the alien other. No matter where Charging Elk goes, he is perpetually the outsider. On the prairie he stood out for being the darkest of the lakotas and a so called wild Indian living away from the reservation. In France, he becomes a sexualized creature rather than a human. Every character that interacts with Charging Elk seems to be drawn to his character by his novelty and subdued sexual intrigue. You see some characters describing him based on their impressions of wild west story books, others only judge him based on his performance within the wild west show. He is a walking talking imaginary figure parading around in the real world-how can you not pay special attention to something as unique as Charging Elk? None of the characters are really prepared to deal with Charging Elk as though he were a real man, just as though he were the essentialized version of either the noble native or the screaming dangerous unpredictable savage that scalped innocent pioneers for giggles. I found it interesting that out of all the characters discussed within the novel, only the children treat Charging Elk like a real man. Mr. Soulas is delighted to have Charging Elk as a pet, maybe to go so far as to say another of his children, but he never gives Charging Elk the respect of a grown man. The children are fascinated with him, marvel at him, and give him the tools of language to communicate his thoughts and his past.

I found it ironic that Charging Elk tried so hard to avoid assimilating to the white ways that had his people planting vegetable gardens and living in little huts only to end up in France adopting their language, living in houses, wearing the white clothes, and even at one point planting a vegetable garden. This story almost sounds as though its trying to hammer home an underlying theme of the inevitability of escaping ones fate.