Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1998. [Vol. 5.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 25)
Studies - Szabolcs Szilágyi: Verbal Versus Non-Verbal Aspects in The Rez Sisters and Dry Lips Oughta Move to Kapuskasing
(Speaks directly to Nanabush, as though he/she were there, directly in front of him; he doesn 't see Nanabush/Patsy standing on the upper level.) Aw, Boozhoo how are ya? Me goo. Me berry, berry good. 1 seen you! I just seen you jumping jack-ass thisa away... (110-111) He is the one who could express himself in a very sophisticated way but who is not turning away from English totally. What we can see in the examples of the Wasy men is how they come to terms with the difficulties their human nature has caused. Dickie Bird Halked blames Christian religion for being the cause of his having been born in a bar of a drunkard and then brought up as a bastard. Big Joey sees women to be the main source of his personal problems for not finding a woman he can trust and a woman he would choose to be his only partner —the possible loss of his potency is yet a further just explanation. Simon Starblanket finds the English language (along with other forces of colonisation) to be the major evil of his life. And although he does not deserve the treatment he gets from his fellow Natives, it is not the language that pushes his life in the direction he is heading, finally ends up accidentally shooting himself. He was the one who was trying to assimilate but still tried to hold on to the old traditions and values as well. This is what cannot work, it does not seem possible. You either give your full self to convert or you are lost. The closing scene is again the hockey game, which takes place shortly after Simon's death, and its commentary is delivered by Big Joey in the same old fashion: mixing English with Cree/Ojibway. This seems to be the only solution: yes, one can retain some of its past but it has to be melted into something much larger, much more accepted by English culture: for example, a hockey game. In writing both his plays Highway employed both native and English languages —its reasons can be explained, but the urge to explain them might lead us astray. On the one hand, we could blame Highways's own lack of education as the main reason for the lack of sophisticated English. One can also find a subtle irony, in the fact that he used both languages at different levels —English when it was a mere tool in an almost pointless conversation as the majority of the scenes involve the 'humanised' problems, and Cree or Ojibway when it was meant to express spiritual harmony, attempt for such harmony 93
