Masculinity is rough, assertive, and imposing whereas femineity is soft, passive, and modest. These are common gendered descriptors that most of grown up knowing inside a standard patriarchal society where women are intended to play a supporting role. In these patriarchal societies women often do not get to play important roles that advance the narrative. The Ojibwe tribe of the Great Lakes region are one such patriarchal society that places men at the forefront of tribal roles and tracing lineage; of which Louise Erdrich draws heritage. Other societies however are matriarchal, putting greater emphasis on the importance of women and sitting them at the forefront of society. The Laguana Pueblo tribe is one such society which Leslie Silko is from. Silko and Erdrich are two women from tribes with differing leadership, who also depict gender in a similar manner in their works of literature. Despite being from tribes that have differing views on gender roles and values, Louise Erdrich in her novel Tracks and Leslie Silko in her novel Ceremony, often play into the same gendered tropes for men and women before distorting them and blurring the lines. 

     One of the first gendered tropes that Erdrich and Silko depict is that masculinity is often shown to be a destructive force that comes in to wreak havoc, not caring who or what it leaves in its aftermath. Two such characters from Tracks and Ceremony exemplify this quality in its entirety: Boy Lazarre and Emo. When Lazarre becomes a driving force in Tracks, it is due to an act of violence that he commits against Margaret, with Nanapush recanting that, “Lazarre had sliced Margaret’s braids clean off and now he was shaving the rest of her scalp… He did a careful job. He shed not one drop of her blood” (Erdrich 115). Like Lazarre, Emo receives a similar treatment shortly after he is first introduced in Ceremony by telling how he collected the teeth of Japanese soldiers. Tayo’s internal response to this story sheds further light onto Emo as a character, with Tayo believing that, “Emo grew from each killing. Emo fed off of each man he killed, and the higher the rank of the dead man, the higher it made Emo” (Silko 56). While the extent of the physical aftermath differs between Margaret and the Japanese soldiers, it is important to note that the intent of both offenders is just as important as the physical result. While Lazarre did not physically assault Margaret in the sense there was no bloodshed, by slicing off her braids Lazarre destroys an integral part to who Margaret is as a person. In Ojibwe culture, one’s hair is what connects them to Mother Earth; through shaving Margaret’s head Lazarre cut off her connection with the Earth. In Emo’s case he takes delight in the wanton violence that he was able to enact during his time on deployment. Extending to the discussions surrounding Emo, even the fact that he was able to kill within the context of “white warfare” is met with disdain as it was not honorable due how impersonable it was.  

      Following the depiction of masculinity, Erdrich and Silko depict femineity with similar gendered tropes as a restorative force that is used to repair what is broken spiritually or physically and guide others down better paths. Erdrich and Silko depict these traits with their characters Fleur Pillager and Night Swan. Despite the misfortune that is reported to follow Fleur around, at her core she is an altruistic and caring person. When Pauline shows up to her family’s door following the birth of her child, worn and ragged, Fleur does not owe her anything but insists on taking care of her by bathing her and providing her with clean clothes. Pauline’s description of this greatly adds to the caring nature of Fleur, by explaining that she, “[Fleur] rinsed away the sting of nettles, aggravation of hook burrs. She dislodged the invisible strands of screwgrass that had woven into my skin” (Erdrich 154). Night Swan functions in a similar manner to Fleur, in the sense that they both have additional supernatural powers and caring personalities. Following Night Swan and Tayo’s brief tryst, Tayo confides to Night Swan the insecurities that he is experiencing revolving around his heritage to which she responds with, “They are afraid, Tayo. They feel something happening, they can see something happening around them, and it scares them… They blame us, the ones who look different. That way they don’t have to think about what has happened inside themselves” (Silko 92). For Tayo, this conversation with Night Swan represents the beginning of his healing process, apart from Josiah he has not had anyone tell him that who he is isn’t someone to be ashamed of. The effect that Fleur has on Pauline is not just a physical one, bathing and clothing her, it is also an emotional one with Pauline beginning to feel the care that Fleur is providing her. Unfortunately, however, Pauline later twists this act into one that was trying to lead her astray. Night Swan also influences Tayo’s psyche, with what she tells him to be the first step that he is taking on his path to recovery. Prior to Night Swan he had not had anyone not judge him on his mixed heritage, let alone assure him that there is nothing wrong with it. 

      However, both authors play with stereotypical ideas of gender and swap what their goals are. Masculinity then becomes a restorative force instead of a destructive one, of which we see this with Nanapush and Betonie. Like Fleur and Night Swan before them, Nanapush and Betonie both play important roles in the healing of other characters. Following the death of Fleur’s second child is when Nanapush steps into the role of a healer, being the one to ground her in her time of grief. Recognizing that she is going through what he had gone through with the passing of his wife and child, he instructs her to streak her face with charcoal and cry. Fleur instead stays in her bed, to which Nanapush takes a more direct approach in helping her by explaining that, “You will not be to blame if the land is lost, or if the oaks and pines fall, the lake dries, and the lake man does not return. You could not have saved the child that came so early” (Erdrich 178). Prior to this Nanapush uses wit and comedy as a safeguard to how he feels, even discussing his own potential death with Eli as if it was a joke. In this moment with Fleur, Nanapush lets his walls down with her and connects with her on a different level: a parent who lost a child. Betonie is also vital in the furtherance of Tayo, as he mixes his Navajo culture with Tayo’s Pueblo culture and even the teachings of white medicine to perform a modified Red Antway Ceremony. During the Ceremony Betonie mixes traditional therapy into it, telling Tayo that, “There are no limits to this thing, When it was set loose, it ranged everywhere, from the mountains and the plains to the towns and the cities; rivers and oceans never stopped it” (Silko 122). In addition to being able to connect on a similar level of having mixed identities, Tayo can be vulnerable for the first time around another man following his return from the Pacific. However, this is also just another stop along Tayo’s journey, with Betonie telling him that, “This has been going on for a long time now. It’s up to you. Don’t let them stop you. Don’t let them finish off this world” (Silko 141). This is not the last stop in Tayo’s journey, and Betonie has done all that he can for him. It is now up to Tayo to continue his journey of healing, and break the vicious cycle that he is in. 

      Erdrich and Silko continue to distort the usual depiction gendered tropes by having femineity become a destructive force rather than a restorative force. With this distortion of femineity, we see this best represented with Pauline and Tayo’s Auntie. Following the death of Mary Pepaw, Pauline takes a form of delight in her passing that allows her to sleep soundly at night. Due to this Pauline believes that she has a new calling stating that she, “wore the nuns’ cutoffs, followed in Bernadette’s tracks, entered the house where death was about to come, and then made death welcome” (Erdrich 69). In Pauline’s own words she welcomes death, and later in the novel she even becomes the bringer of death when she kills Napolean believing him to be the Devil. After Tayo was left in the care of his grandmother and Auntie, he noticed signs that his Auntie cared more for Rocky than she did him despite being her nephew. His grandmother was fair in treatment of both, but Tayo was able to tell that his Auntie was “ashamed of what his mother had done, and ashamed of him” (Silko 52). For as long as Tayo could remember, he was aware of that shame that she held for his mother but especially him since he was not full-blooded Pueblo. To be shunned by society is one thing, but to be shunned by those who are supposed to care for you is damaging to the core. 

      In an ever-changing world, how gendered tropes are depicted in media and literature is a snapshot into that moment of time. How we are raised, and the environment done so influences our opinions and beliefs early on, but as we age how we think starts to change. Due to the environments that they were both raised in, the way that Louise Erdrich and Leslie Silko depict gendered tropes would be vastly different as they come from patrilineal and matrilineal tribes respectively. In both of their works, Tracks and Ceremony, they incorporate traditional stories and symbols, but they do not strictly follow the tropes that they would have been raised in. Both women depict these tropes in a traditional patriarchal sense, before blurring the lines of gender and switching the roles of the gendered tropes. While their upbringing absolutely influenced how they write and other aspects of their lives, how Erdrich and Silko depict gender tropes are not radically different despite coming from two different tribes with opposing views on gender roles. 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Erdrich, Louise. Tracks. New York City, Harper Perennial, 2017.  

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Silko, Leslie. Ceremony. New York City, Penguin Classics, 2006. 

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