Throughout Indian Killer, John is searching for the "right" white man to kill. As narrated in the third chapter "John knew he could kill a white man, but he was not sure which white man was responsible for everything that had gone wrong...Which white man had done the most harm to the world?" (27). At the end of the novel however, it seems as thought he find the white man responsible-Jack Wilson-yet he decides not to kill him. Instead, he decides to inflict what appears to be a Mark of Cain upon Wilson and then commits suicide.
John's decisions at the end of his life interested me greatly, and I wasn't entirely sure how to read them, as they lend themselves to a variety of readings. John declares to Wilson "You're the one who's responsible" (404), yet when Wilson asks what he is responsible for, John is curiously silent. While there is the interpretation that John has decided that this man is the one who is responsible for the state of the world and the oppression of Indians-there is another possibility: …show more content…
With this interpretation, John's life can almost be seen as a sort of Frankenstein narrative: a tale of the created turning on his creator. When John first meets Wilson, the encounter is given a mystical quality. "...Wilson was too shocked by John's obvious resemblance to his own hero, Aristotle Little Hawk, to be afraid. Wilson felt as if he'd brought Little Hawk to life through some kind of magic. Wilson had always felt magical, but he'd had no idea how much power he really possessed" (268). By creating a bastardized representation of Indian men-cut off from any real source-through his character Aristotle Little Hawk, John appears to literally embody this literary creation of Wilson's. His life, as one can imagine, is troubled as he has no sense of identity-it has been spawned from the imagination of a writer with little knowledge or sensitivity concerning
John's decisions at the end of his life interested me greatly, and I wasn't entirely sure how to read them, as they lend themselves to a variety of readings. John declares to Wilson "You're the one who's responsible" (404), yet when Wilson asks what he is responsible for, John is curiously silent. While there is the interpretation that John has decided that this man is the one who is responsible for the state of the world and the oppression of Indians-there is another possibility: …show more content…
With this interpretation, John's life can almost be seen as a sort of Frankenstein narrative: a tale of the created turning on his creator. When John first meets Wilson, the encounter is given a mystical quality. "...Wilson was too shocked by John's obvious resemblance to his own hero, Aristotle Little Hawk, to be afraid. Wilson felt as if he'd brought Little Hawk to life through some kind of magic. Wilson had always felt magical, but he'd had no idea how much power he really possessed" (268). By creating a bastardized representation of Indian men-cut off from any real source-through his character Aristotle Little Hawk, John appears to literally embody this literary creation of Wilson's. His life, as one can imagine, is troubled as he has no sense of identity-it has been spawned from the imagination of a writer with little knowledge or sensitivity concerning