The Surrounded (Zia Book)

The Surrounded by D'Arcy McNickle

There is so much to love about this novel and so much more to say. I will try to be brief in my comments :

D'Arcy McNickle is half white and half Native American Indian, and the hero he creates in The Surrounded, Archilde Leon, is half white (Spanish) and half Native American Indian. In order to write authentically from this postition, one needs to live it - and McNickle did.

Can anyone who isn't born half Salish (Flathead Indian) on an Indian reservation really convey the desolation and the hopelessness that exist there? OR effectively blend an exploration of past traditions with the new world? The Surrounded is not just an exploration of hoplessness and despair - it is a story about a young man who returns to the reservation in order to say good-bye to it.

Things don't turn out as Archilde Leon expects them to. Instead of remaining aloof to the older Indians' ways, he starts listening to them with "his mind." Archilde is trying to reconcile the two worlds and cultures that he not only was born into, but were thrust upon him. And in the process, the reader recieves the gift of a glimpse into the culture and beliefs of the Salish.

There are the expected statements about the harm caused to the Indian at the hands of the white man, "Bringing the outside world to them was not exactly like bringing heaven to them". McNickle brings home the injustices with a understated simplicity that is more effective than any amount of grandstanding could possibly be.

McNickle also eloquently creates a white man who is confused about his own part in the Indian tragedy. There are no cookie-cutter good-guy/bad-guy characters in this novel. The characters are all confused and complicated; they question their complicity in the injustices perpetrated on the Indian - they question their actions after seeing the results.

Archilde's mother, Catharine, is not the archetype of "the Indian"; she has embraced Christianity for years before returning to her roots. Her journey back to her "Indian-ness" is fascinating. His father, Max, is not sanctimonious in his "whiteness"; he questions his actions and the effects of them. Archilde is searching for a common ground between the cultures where he can survive. Can he?

Please read The Surrounded and pay particular attention to the analogy about Archilde's encounter with the wild white mare in the Badlandsand and how it represents the white man's helpfullness (?) to the Indian. Then come back to this review and weigh in with your opinions, I would love to discuss them.

Thanks and Happy Reading!