A Thief of Time: Analysis of Major Characters
"A Thief of Time: Analysis of Major Characters" delves into the intricate dynamics of several key figures within the narrative, centered around the disappearance of Dr. Eleanor Friedman-Bernal, an anthropologist studying Anasazi ceramics on a Navajo reservation. The story weaves together her exploration of ancient burial sites and the ensuing investigation led by Joe Leaphorn, a lieutenant in the Navajo Tribal Police nearing retirement. Leaphorn grapples with his cultural beliefs while confronting a series of troubling incidents linked to Friedman-Bernal's case, including theft and murder.
Jim Chee, another officer, balances his police duties with his spiritual ties to Navajo traditions, further complicating the investigation. The motivations of other characters, such as Maxie Davis, a colleague of Friedman-Bernal, and Randall Elliot, a wealthy anthropologist with a controversial agenda, highlight themes of class conflict and ethical dilemmas in archaeology. Additionally, Harrison Houk, a landowner with a troubled past, and Slick Nakai, an evangelist with questionable dealings, add layers of intrigue and suspicion. Together, these characters create a rich tapestry of personal and cultural conflicts as they navigate the mysteries surrounding the Anasazi and the implications of their work and beliefs.
A Thief of Time: Analysis of Major Characters
Author: Tony Hillerman
First published: 1988
Genre: Novel
Locale: New Mexico
Plot: Detective and mystery
Time: The 1980's
Dr. Eleanor Friedman-Bernal, an anthropologist whose specialty is Anasazi ceramics. Formerly married to an archaeologist who ran off with another woman, Friedman-Bernal is exploring ancient Anasazi burial areas on a New Mexico Navajo reservation in search of potsherds and the occasional intact pot. While exploring the ruins alone one night, she disappears, at about the same time an anonymous caller to the Navajo Tribal Police accuses her of violating the Antiquities Preservation Protection Act.
Joe Leaphorn, a lieutenant with the Navajo Tribal Police who is in the last two weeks of a thirty-day terminal leave prior to retirement. Nevertheless, he becomes involved in what appears to be a series of related events: the disappearance of Friedman-Bernal, the nighttime theft of government vehicles, and a pair of murders. Though a Navajo, he is not afraid of the chindi, spirits of the dead, because his career has immunized him against all but one, that of his wife, whose death he continues to mourn.
Jim Chee, also an officer with the Navajo Tribal Police. He has strong ties to tribal traditions and religion, and he is concerned about disturbing the ghosts of the dead. His police responsibilities conflict with his beliefs when he has to search ruins of ancient burial grounds. Chee is hatathali, a Navajo singer and medicine man who has been trained to lead curing ceremonies. Having ended a relationship with a non-Navajo woman because of their cultural differences, he is tentatively embarking on a new one, this time with a fellow Navajo, Janet Pete, a lawyer with the tribal legal services office.
Maxie Davis, who is part of a contract archaeology team, with Friedman-Bernal, engaged in dating more than one thousand Anasazi sites, inventorying them, and determining which are significant enough to be preserved. Self-made and class-conscious, Davis remembers having been put down by the upper class over the years, so she instinctively resents someone like Elliot. Davis, who is Friedman-Bernal's friend and neighbor, telephones the sheriff to report her colleague's disappearance.
Randall Elliot, a wealthy former Navy helicopter pilot in Vietnam, now a specialist in cultural anthropology and a coworker of Davis and Friedman-Bernal, particularly of the former. According to Davis, once Elliot and she publish their study of the Anasazi, there will not be anything left for other scholars in the field to write. Elliot, who is very conscious of his upper-class birth and flaunts it, is drawn to Davis despite their different backgrounds. He hopes to impress her with his scholarship and thus overcome her instinctive class-motivated antagonism. To support his theory that genetic flaws could explain the disappearance of the Anasazis, he resorts to illegal digging, and when Friedman-Bernal catches him at it, he tries to kill her. He murders two others to prevent them from talking to the authorities.
Harrison Houk, a wealthy landowner, sometime dealer in Anasazi pots, and survivor. Twenty years earlier, his son Brigham allegedly killed the rest of the family (Brigham's mother, sister, and brother) and then presumably drowned, though his body was not found. Faced with death, Houk hastily scrawls part of a message to Leaphorn, telling him that Friedman-Bernal still is alive. An atypical act for a tough guy and a scoundrel, it is significant to Leaphorn, who believes it is related to Houk's one known soft spot, for his schizophrenic son Brigham. Another discovery Leaphorn makes about Houk is that the arthritic old man took the same downriver kayak journey at night every full moon, a dangerous trip that the detective replicates and that leads him not only to Friedman-Bernal but also to the fugitive Brigham, whose father for two decades had helped him avoid a life sentence in a prison for the criminally insane. These discoveries help Leaphorn solve the case.
Slick Nakai, a fundamentalist Christian evangelist of questionable honesty who tows his revival tent around the reservation, an area larger than that of New England. Although he calls himself simply a preacher, he also deals in ancient pottery, which he willingly takes in lieu of cash contributions and then sells to dealers and collectors such as Harrison Houk. Because of such dealings, Nakai is an early suspect in the disappearance of Friedman-Bernal, particularly after two of his sometime employees are killed.