Potiki BY Patricia Grace PDF

Preview

Summary

Lecturer: Paloma Fresno
Notes about the novel "Potiki" by Patricia Grace developed chapter by chapter....

Description

POTIKI BY PATRICIA GRACE - Names for different chapters: the narrators. Most of the chapters written by Roimata and Toko. - It starts with a Prologue. She talks about a carver. The novel developed different from the prologue. - The novel starts with the presentation of Roimata herself. When greeting, she first says where she comes from, who her family and ancestors are and then herself. It also starts with a flashback (Chapter 3) with Roimata explaining her childhood and her arrival to the community. - Tamihana Family: genealogy, community. Composed by Roimata (James, Tangimoana, Manu are her sons), Hemi (father) (James ), Mary (Toko is Mary’s son), Joseph (Mary’s husband, Toko’s father) Grannie Tamihana (grandmother). - She describes how each of her children was born and then move to explain her childhood. - Different voices and different perspectives → Polyphonic novel → narrated from different perspectives, about the same fact, breaking with the so called “Single Story”. - Each character has its own chapter. How the different characters react to the same events. - Gender difference, age, generation, people with special needs, Physical and mental needs. - Every character is important and has an essential role for the novel. - She is showing the Maori point of view and how it is not homogeneous. Opening in Chapter 3: she was a close friend to Mary and Hemi. She is alone because her father died, so she decided to return to the village, to find her roots. She has been disconnected from the land, dislocated. When she returns, she realizes there is a funeral going on. There is a cycle going on, because she returns when her father died, but she married and had sons → death and life. Hemi is rooted to the Earth. When the novel starts (Chapter 10),  Hemi’s sad because he has lost his job (freezing works), and he wanted to use the knowledge he has to help the community, to cultivate the land (as he’s presented to someone who takes a lot of care of the land).

In Chapter  3: in the last page (song, poem): Roimata talks about Rona. Maori story that talks about Roma, she falls down because it is dark and she falls and drops the water she was carrying, and blames the moon for not helping her, and the moon gets angry with Roma. The moon takes her with a tree that she holds avoinding to be taken by the moon. She is unrooted as Roma, she is dueling in the sky, she is lost, as opposed to Hemi, who still had the connection to the land. - Papatuanuku (Earth mother) → she reverses the gender roles. - Ranginui (sky father) In the myth, there is a separation of earth and sky for their children. Another reversal thy are united by the children instead of separated. Chapter 2: Mary is in charge of taking care of the Meeting House (whare nui) → Marae. Mary is Toko’s mother, and in chapter 4, Roimata tells us how Toko is born. Roimata is pregnant, and Too is about to die. Toko’s father ( Joseph) moves around, working. Different women take the role of mother for Toko → Motherhood. Toko and Manu complement each other, because Manu is weak, shy, although very protector, physically healthy but mentally weak, but Toko is physically disabled although he is strong → Kind of brothers, although they are not. End of chapter 2: she perceives the events in a different way. She has a loving relationship with one of the figures, as he was alive. How she understands the world is how she relates with the figures. She calls him loving-man, liking to live together. Maui is seen as a Demi-god and Trickster. He plays a lot of tricks, but at the same time, he does a lot of DEEDS for humans. He has the ability of foresight, having predictions. Prolepsis → moving forward the time, “The stories are changing”. Chapter 5: “And although the stories… beginning nor endings could be defined” → kind of summary of what the metaphor of the spiral means. Issue of time: no beginning, no ending. The spiral suggests change and transformation, regeneration, transformation, it is brought to life: Stories, carvings, songs, etc. An example is the meetinghouse. Symbolic because this symbol is the one that represents the old man, who can generate life too. Chapter 6: entry: although questioning gender roles, questions age. Reverses it: Mary is an adult, now as a child, and Toko is at the other way around “now I am older than she is ” → represents ancestors. Knowing child, knowledge figure. His mother is the younger. In Maori is traditional to preserve the placenta when a child is born, so as to bury it later, but with Toko this is not possible because his lost in the sea. The gift he receive is all the stories he know. - Biculturalism (two heritages being combined, bicultural in essence) vs. hybridity. →

- Chapter 8 : Oral accounts of history transmitted from generation to generation

TOKO He is treated very much as an old person. In this character, she revises the idea of motherhood. The author rewrites or revises with this character the Maui myths. In someway, he becomes a kind of Jesus (Bible, Christianity), he symbolises the combination of this biculturalism (heritage and background, because he grow up in this bicultural background, with education) and hybridity. Mix and combine cultural traditions to create this character, and this hybridity is very difficult to separate/divide. Hybridity is a general term to apply to colonial criticism, so the novel is bicultural. Toko is the embodiment of this two figures (Maui and Jesus).He tells us different stories (denying the idea of history), tell the story of this people by different means. Through these stories Grace is vindicating the power of myths, legends, the novel is written in a context of politics. We have a polyphone novel, every single person tells us their views. He tells us different stories such as maori myths, legends, history, Toko’s birth and the Fish story (chapter 8). The context is New Zealand. - Fish story: for his age and lack of strength he is not capable to take out this fish. He has this kind and ability to make predictions which is called foresight. Grace uses Toko in the novel to announce what is going to happen because he has this kind of vision, and this as a literary resource is a prolepsis. The way in which Toko express this is “the stories are changing”. Those are stories from the past (Maui) but they have been through a different turn, they are contemporary myths revised. Toko’s birth story is in the past, but there is a change, as if he is born now. Maybe, this is to focus on the raping if Mary. Toko is in charge of telling the stories. The novel is written in a context of politics. In chapter  9, he goes to see his grandmother (who takes care of him) and she tells him where he comes from. She names him; there is a cycle because he is named because of an ancestor of her grandmother. His name derives from a past period of time in which 8 people died of sickness. He received the name of the people who died, but he represents life because he contributes to feed the community and helps them. Toko’s name is explained derived from those who died, as a survivor (religious connotations). In the passage, there is a quote which is “multiplication of eels ” and Grace makes reference to death and life, and makes also reference to the multiplication of fish and bread in the Bible, another reference to Christianity. There is this idea of cycle or regeneration (death/life → related to the spiral) and it is related to how Toko’s story connects to the past and also to the present (sense of regeneration). This particular episode, rather than symbolises death, it

represents the survival, he manages to survive, he has physical difficulties but he manages to take this fish, so this fish brings life. There are connections with the biblical material. There are different stories which we are going to analyse which are the Water story, the Fire story, and then finally the story-stars/death (where he dies). Chapter 10: “in  his day they had been expected to… it was good for them ”. Sense of fight and survival. Following reading it, there is a description of hot Tangimoana was born. As the first part of the novel is used by grace to introduce all the characters and presents the family, the last page of chapter  11,  is related to the prolepsis used by Grace, where she uses Toko to announce what is going to happen in the second part of the novel (kai = food). “Toko hurried in after us…” → Prolepsis. Toko perceives this kind of presence, who are going to destroy the garden and this is the way they support themselves. In part one, there is the presentation of the family: Tangimoana, James and Manu. All of them go to school, and Tangimoana later goes to university, so they stand for education. We have older and younger generations because Grace is interested in representing different generations. . Toko and Manu kind of complement each other. · Tangimoana and James: represent this young generation. The author tries to represent different generations, the older ones, and the younger ones; with their different respective perspectives of the environment.

Another example of how thins young generation behave is in chapter  12: new story for ourselves. This chapter announces the events that are going to happen. In chapter 12, Toko once again is making connections between the past and the present. It is significant that Grace introduces this story just before they have their conflict. There is a boy who does not want to go to school because he thinks it is not useful, and another character which is the grandfather who is called Rupena. The old story of Te Ope (community) is during the WW1, and here the government came and said that they needed their land for war purposes (temporary). But after the war ends, they won’t give it back, they destroy the houses and make them move somewhere else but the grandfather starts claiming the land. The way of fighting of older generations were a bit less radical, but when the young character arrives he realises what the grandfather attempted to do historically. Rupena represents the later generations that had different forms of fighting, connecting this fact to the different traditional stories told in the tribe. We connect this to what is happening in the novel later on, and also, it connects to the Land March and in 1981, when people occupied the land which the government used to war purposes for a long time.

Rupena (Reuben’s father) and Reuben: after the war ends, they don’t give back the land, and they do a recreation area, reclaiming the land by sending petitions and letters. Rupena represents the later generations that has different forms of fighting. It connects to the occupation of the land for war purposes in 1981. Reuben find letters and starts cultivating the land, to build a meetinghouse. → building that symbolizes who they are, to attach their rules. → regeneration. “Reuben’s reply was that while… die there is they want to. ” more people begin to support them. Grace creates a fictional story closely based on real events that took place. TANGIMOANA She studies law and has a legal knowledge to fight, she embodies the kind of figure of a strong woman. This is an example of how young generations behave. Parallelism between what happens to the community and what happens to the characters. ROIMATA Everyone in the community has a role to play. She is a kind of a mother and at the same time, a teacher. Maori people were excluded in the field of education. She has children, so she offers a kind of explanation on how different children react to education. Manu says that in school they have no stories for him → what he receives at school does not connect to their story. The other children do feel comfortable in school: Tangimoana wants to go to university. Chapter 5, page 49: Grace says/states that each child feels different about school. She is talking about geography, she desribes the kind of material. The way in which it is taught the Earth and the way children perceive it is different. “Tangimoana had stories of people… ” → maybe Tangimoana comes home talking about history and she brings these chacaters with her, but they have their own heroes and characters. For Mary, stories is the meetinghouse, and inside there, she has a kind of connection with these figures, and with these figures she builds kind of stories. We do not have one single story/one single version of events, but we have different stories, and in fact, the novel states that, there is no one single version of the story. Manu means bird in Maori, because of Manu had issues and problems at school, Roimata decided to create a school at home (oral tradition vs. written tradition). Roimata incorporates all school stories together with her own with television, story telling, newspapers, and this is a good meatphor to understand the novel itself by combining traditions: Grace is writing a novel which is conventional BUT this novel is different (unconventional) because she uses Maori names, myths and Maori words, combines all these things. Every name in the novel has a meaning Roimata = tears, Tangimoana = tears of the sea, Manu = little bird.

PART 2 - This second part of the novel, starts with the arrival of Mr Dollarman. They want to build a complex for tourists. Part 2, Chapter  15, second page: “we  could not afford books… ” Manu itself do not find himself in the books, they cannot afford buying books, so they decided to make themselves their own books, and those books were more inclusive because their story did not appear reflected in the conventional books. Taoma means treasure, because they are very valuable not materially but spriritually, and this word is very important. Grace is trying to say that they could not afford books but they do not need those books, because the only book they need is their house, and that is why it is so tragic when the house is destroyed and they have to build a new one. The book kind of symbolises how they live in community, and stories that are alive, and that is why they say that stories are changing and adapted. Hemi repeats all the time: “all we need is here” → they are selfsustained community and they do not need anything fromt the outside: no laws, no rules… Idea: we do not need anything but what we have here, we do not need to be rescued. Chapter 13: Important symbol of the meetinghouse  in the novel. This chapter is titled Dollarman, and this is how the community named Dolman who wants to turn this place into a soulless place for fun, where as the Tamihana’s want to keep it alive with the souls from the past years. Different perceptions of the land, People Before , how this is represented in this chapter? Dollaman only thinks what he can do with and gain from the land, and the others defend the land, they do not want to get rid of something that builds their identity. What he is offering to them is that the houses will be relocated and of course the site that they want to build is for benefit from tourists: a complex with a parking, for instance. But the land that community has is very important but for Dolman is a way of paying less and gaining profit. “There was in the meeting-house a warmth” → very large explanation of Dolman and then brackets, and this brackets represent the thoughts of Maori people, but they are not really answering. “Amenity now… already…” → we do not need your amenities, we have it now. “Block J136” is how houses are called. There is no clear dialogue between them. They discuss the ideas of value and costs, and later on he says that they need ot move on and think about the future, but they answer that for them, the future is the past (dichotomies ownership/belonging, material/spiritual, future/past) Page 93, at the very end: “Wrong again. We haven’t come a long way at all.” We = Maori / you = pakeha.

Chapter 14: How Toko perceives the scene? After Dolman leaving because the proposal is rejected, the community is left alone and settlers started working around the community and they start working in the middle of the night and a family woke up because settlers were making very loud noises because they make explosions to build the road. Chapter  15: they start working changing the land and Roimata thought that there is nothing we could do. They decided to turn their backs to what was happening. Roimata represents the passiveness and the accomodation. Tangimoana feels very angy and she with other young people feel that there are ways of fighting this, she reacts in a more active way and in the end, she makes something for things to change appealing to the government to help them. What Grace is showing is the different attitudes of different generations. When the land is transformed with the machines, things begin to change: chapter  16. This is why Grace is using this idea of despair. “The stories are changing,” → stories (birth, fish, flood, water, fire, stars) → “Now, stories changed”. Chapter 17 starts with the quote “The story changed”, as a result of the arrivals of settlers. Not only the stories are destroyed. They need fire as a gift. The one who had fire was the ancestor of Maui called Mahuika. In each of her nails, underneath, had fire. She keeps losing the nails as she gives fire. With the last nail, she burned everything with anger. She trough the nail and is spread everywere. Maui calls the gods to send rain so as to stop the fire. The world is flooded. Reference to how the water destroys the world, like in the myth. There is no reason why they should be punished for. Reversal of how things happen. Toko is trying to make sense through mythological knowledge. There are new stories. TOKO He tells different stories: Story of water:

Story of fire: Chapter 20: Not specified how it happens but it is destroyed. Marai? is the house, you need to wait outside to be welcome. When you are coming into the house, the great ancestor is there welcoming you. There is a difference between the outside world (the world of light) PICTURE, when you enter into the house there is a kind of new realm, it is a kind of dark environment. Poupou means pillar, and each of the pillars represents an ancestor, and in the middle of them there are different patterns. It is very rich and elaborate and it takes years to built this, and this is why it is terrible when it is burnt down. Night and day. The house is destroyed. We also find an explanation of how the roof of the house, which is considered to represent the sky is burned. At the same the house represents a human body.

Chapter 21: When the house is destroyed, and it is there some house which is not destroyed, and this is VERY IMPORTANT. Toko speaks about the effects of the fire. Mary takes care of the house and she has a special affection with one figure which she calles “the loving man,” and one figure is not destroyed. This is the poupou that gets saved and it not destroyed, page 3 in this chapter. “We began then to sort through the burnt timbers… so that the new could spring from th eold which is the natural way of things” . They bury the destroyed poupous, they return to the Earth, this is a symbology about how things return to the Earth → idea of Death and Life, regeneration: death is a new kind of beginning, regeneration. After saving this poupou, they rebuilt the house, so there is this spirit of constant struggling. “There were enough people among us who were experienced planners… black mud dye.” The house is very old, built by the ancestors, and now they are the younger who has to build again the house so they have to recover those ancient skills to rebuild the house. “We were all caught up in the excitement of planning, building and decorating the new house… and work and grouth.” → All the symbols tell different stories, so what he says is that they recovered some of those but also they created a new ones. Toko refers to the house as a place that has been rebuilt incorporating all the new stories. The pannels that they are building are the things that happened to them, for example, conflict, and they create something that symbolises struggle → story that is alive because it changes. This is the whole point of the novel, the myths that Grace uses are not only Maori myths but also she reincorporates them wit...