Good Triumphs over Darkness: Popul Vuh and Part-Time Indian - Essay Example

Good Triumphs over Darkness: Popul Vuh and Part-Time Indian The Popul Vuh is the closest equivalent to a Mayan bible that exists. It contains the Mayan creation story and many other myths. It is generally considered the most important text in existence of Mesoamericans. On the other hand, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian is a recent novel written by the Spokane Indian author Sherman Alexie is a story about a boy who must make decisions in his life concerning going to an off-reservation, all-white school and how that will affect the way he will relate to his family and tribe. While at first glance these two works might seem to be vastly contrasting and containing few similarities, they show similarities in theme and world-view upon closer examination. In both texts we find a view of the struggles between light and dark, or good and evil, and the view that those with good and a just cause on their side will prevail. In the beginning of the creation story in Popul Vuh, the gods unsuccessfully attempt to create humans, making trees and animals instead. The story then diverges into the story of the twin gods Xbalanque and Hunahpu who attempt to deal with Seven Macaw. Seven Macaw is an arrogant, overly boastful, and prideful character, and this is seen as a bad character trait. As such, the twin gods have a just cause on their side, and as such they are sure to be successful. After dealing with Seven Macaw, the twins then decide to avenge the death of their father by participating in games and trials with gods of the underworld. Now we are literally dealing with characters that are more than just representations of evil or darkness. The gods of the underworld will obviously be defeated because in this world view it is the characters who are aligned with goodness and light that are always going to be triumphant; it is seemingly inevitable. Once again, because they are characters with a just cause behind them, they are fully able to successfully accomplish the goals they set out to meet. Finally the gods are able to construct people successfully out of maize. They consider themselves successful because the final people are able to show respect to their gods by performing sacrifices in order to give thanks to the gods. As we can see, people are considered to be good and just when they are not arrogant, such as Seven Macaw, and it is when people are on the side of good and justness that they are able to accomplish their goals. In the last section, the Quiche are plotted against by all of the other tribes. However, because the Quiche are just and good, they are able to triumph over all of the other tribes and absorb them into their members. What we can take away from all of these examples from the Popul Vuh is that goodness and justness is valued in people, and when they have causes on their side and are not arrogant, they are able to overcome whatever odds. In Part-Time Indian, the characters who embody darkness are less literal representations of what one would think of as darkness. Nevertheless, they can still be viewed as such. Some of the characters who can be said to embody darkness are the ones who espouse racist points of view. Racism, as viewed by the book, is a simply destructive force, and it brings no good about in the world. Therefore, we can view the racist characters as the representations of darkness. When the character makes a horribly racist joke, Junior responds by being offended a first: “I felt like Roger had kicked me in the face. That was the most racist thing I’d ever heard in my life” (Alexie 64). The kind of comment that the character Roger made was obviously an attempt to do nothing more than be hurtful, and in this it is not difficult to view him as a character who represents darkness. Even though Roger had an entire group of friends with him, because Roger is aligned as a representative of darkness, he will not be able to triumph. Junior punches him in the face, and all that Roger is able to do is to sit there and looked stunned. What seemed like seemingly insurmountable odds, like when all of the other tribes decided to gang up on the Quiche, simply was not so, and Junior was able to overcome these odds and come out the victor. Because of this one act of standing up for himself, Junior is able to more readily integrate himself into the Rearden school and become successful in the goals he wishes to accomplish. The stress on Junior to not succeed in his escape of the reservation does not only come from the all-white school but from people on the reservation as well. Probably the most difficult person for Junior to deal with who is upset with him is his best friend Rowdy. Rowdy sees Junior attempting to better himself and leave the reservation as an insult to everything that he thought they stood for. The problem is that Rowdy is being arrogant and hurtful. He is not looking from a perspective of beyond how Junior attending Rearden affect him. Because he is unable to view things beyond himself, he is being self-centered, and this is an arrogant way to live. When they finally have a fight about the subject, it deeply affects Junior: “My heart broke into fourteen pieces, once for each year that Rowdy and I had been friends. I started crying…But I had to stand eventually, and when I did, I knew that my best friend had become my worst enemy” (Alexie 52-53). Even though they had at one point been friends, Rowdy is now working as an agent of darkness, casting a gloom over Junior’s life. This, of course, cannot keep Junior from reaching his goal. Throughout the rest of the book, Rowdy and Junior continue to put each other in positions where they are forced to confront what they have meant to each other, and this continues to cast a shadow of gloom throughout. At the end of the book, when Rowdy eventually comes to the realization that this is the best thing for Junior, he ceases to be a problem for Junior “We played until dark. We played until the streetlights lit up the court. We played until the bats swooped down at our heads” (Alexie 228). Rowdy had always been Junior’s best friend and had helped Junior deal with his myriad of problems. Junior’s cause was just, and because of this, there was nothing that was going to stop him from what he needed to do. Though these two texts come from vastly different time periods, they do have similar thematic elements. This, of course, is something that can be seen in many texts, of light triumphing over darkness, and is just another example of how this similar thread finds ways of presenting itself throughout history. Works Cited Alexie, Sherman, The Incredibly True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Little, Brown and Company, New York, 2007. Tedlock, Dennis, Popul Vuh: The Definitive Edition of the Mayan Book of Life and the Glories of Gods and Kings. Touchtone, 1996. Read More