Griever: An American Monkey King in China: Analysis of Major Characters
"Griever: An American Monkey King in China" is a novel that explores the cultural intersections and complexities of identity through its central character, Griever de Hocus, a mixed-blood individual from the White Earth Reservation who assumes the role of a trickster merged with the Monkey King from Chinese mythology. The narrative delves into themes of liberation and existential questioning, as Griever interacts with a diverse cast of characters, including Hester Hua Dan, his love interest whose tragic fate significantly impacts his journey.
The novel presents Griever's escapades in China, where he navigates a world full of political corruption and personal dilemmas, highlighted by his relationships with characters like Egas Zhang, a corrupt university director, and China Browne, who seeks him out. Each character embodies various cultural and philosophical ideas, adding depth to the exploration of mixed heritage and the conflicts that arise from it.
The story weaves in mythological elements, with characters like Yaba Gezi and Pigsie representing the blending of different cultural narratives. Overall, "Griever" serves as a thought-provoking commentary on identity, belonging, and the transformative power of myth, inviting readers to reflect on the implications of cultural hybridity and the human experience.
Griever: An American Monkey King in China: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Gerald R. Vizenor
First published: 1987
Genre: Novel
Locale: Tianjin and Beijing, China
Plot: Experimental
Time: The early 1980's
Griever de Hocus, a fair-skinned mixed-blood from the White Earth Reservation. He merges through dreams with the trickster of Chinese mythology, the Monkey King. As the combination Native American trickster/Monkey King, he re-imagines the world, invents a nonspatial, nontemporal existence, and attacks the hypocrisies of the Chinese as well as his fellow American exchange teachers and the human race in general. He is the son of a gypsy whose “Universal Hocus Crown” caravan stopped long enough at the reservation to sell plastic icons, miniature grails, and a book on health, and for the gypsy to engender Griever. Griever impregnates Hester Hua Dan and is very happy about it, even though he is fondling the breasts of Gingerie a few moments before he learns of Hester's (and their unborn daughter's) death. In true trickster form, he “liberates” prisoners and chickens, is safely smuggled out of danger, and winds up on Obo Island, a land where mythological people exist in real form. Ultimately, the trickster escapes the “terminal state” of China in an airplane bound for Macao. He is the central decentralizing character in an intensely political trickster novel.
China Browne, who also is from the White Earth Reservation. She goes to China to locate Griever. She finds Wu Chou, who shows her a scroll with pictures drawn on it. The pictures on the scroll tell the story of Griever de Hocus. A letter to China from Griever opens the book, and a letter to her closes it.
Matteo Ricci, a rooster, Griever's constant companion and the source of many puns about liberated cocks and their inability to “fit in.”
Egas Zhang, the director of foreign affairs at the university where Griever works. He is the totally corrupt father of Hester Hua Dan.
Kangmei, the daughter of Egas Zhang's wife and Battle Wilson, an idealist, poet, and petroleum engineer from Oklahoma. She lives on Obo Island, smuggles Griever to safety, and, at the novel's end, flies off with Griever in an ultralight airplane.
Hester Hua Dan, Egas Zhang's daughter, who has an affair with Griever that results in pregnancy. Griever is ecstatic, but while he is delivering mooncakes to Lindbergh Wang during the Marxmass Carnival, Hester drowns herself to escape her father's anger.
Hannah Dustan, one of the eight American exchange teachers. She cannot tolerate mixed-bloods and believes that people who can be recognized for what they are, such as Jews and Chinese, will do better in the world. Mixed-bloods live in a no-man's land, as far as she is concerned. She is plagued by dreams in which immigrants and children (all mixed-bloods) haunt her, their hands covered with mold. She does not know that Griever is a mixed-blood; otherwise, she would not tolerate him.
Yaba Gezi, “the mute pigeon” of old Chinese mythology, who first appears in Griever's dream. He is rarely spoken of in China, but in Native American mythological style he is part of the dreaming and the waking worlds. Griever meets him in person on Obo Island.
Pigsie, who teaches his pigs to play basketball. He studied the operation of ultralight airplanes in the United States before his lewd and lustful behavior resulted in his fall to the position of colorful swine-herder. His name is taken from the Chinese “comic opera” stories of the mind monkey.
Sandie, who also has a name from the Chinese comic opera. Sandie is the Chinese government's official rat hunter. After studying at the University of California at Berkeley, Sandie became embroiled in politics and was demoted to the rank of rat hunter as a result.