Truth & Bright Water

Truth & Bright Water by Thomas King

This is a story about a 15 year old boy battling an imaginary line. This imaginary line was drawn to separate one type of life from another, and the only thing connecting the two was a bridge. Like the entire book, the bridge holds a lot of symbolism. It was old, rickety, and delapidated. It supported very little and beneath it lie the refuse of the two cities it connected.

The lifestyle of so many Native Americans changed by living in an American border town. There was still a significant Native American population, but the behavior and the culture of the neighboring reservation was dwindling. The celebration of that culture happened in an event called Indian Days. A carnival to showcase the Indian lifestyle was more of a tourist attraction than a celebration. Tipis were set up because that is what tourists expect. Buffalo were purchased because that is what tourists expect. Native American cuisine was cooked and "secret" recipes were sold under the table because that is what tourists expect.

King makes the allusion to the German tourists frequently throughout the story. King is making a point about German writers who believed they knew the most about the native people, and much like westerns are shown on tv with inaccurate details, these books were laughed upon by native people. How is it that the best stories of the native people were written by a German author?

King opens up a lot of symbolism for each character. The mother, who is alluded to most, is symbolized by flowers. She makes the most out of what she finds, and throughout the story, when there are flowers, her presence is assumed. They are on the window sill, on the piano, on the stage after her great performance, and most intriguing of all, in Monroe's church.

"You know what the trouble with the world is?"
Elvin, Tecumseh's father, believes it is a number of things, as he changes his response every time he rhetorically asks his son. One minute it's trash and the next it's Indians...but we see later on that King relates the two. Trash, or toxic waste to be specific, was new money. Getting rid of waste into the river between Truth & Bright Water became significant after we found that Monroe Swimmer got rid of something else in that same river...Indian remains.

Under the bridge that was old, rickety, and delapidated, the rejection of the towns was found. The old ways of life, the free ideals of native people were now on the same level as toxic waste and trash.