Literary Uses of Traditional Themes: From "Cinderella" to TheGirl Who Sat by the Ashes and The Glass Slipper

Ellin Greene

Children's Literature Association Quarterly, Volume 11, Number 3,Fall 1986, pp. 128-132 (Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University PressDOI: 10.1353/chq.0.0281

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RUSSIAN TALES FOR CHILDREN:A SELECTIVE LIST

Afanasiev, Aleksandr. Russian Fairy Tales. Series:Fairytales and Folklore Library. Pantheon, 1976. Paper$8.95. ISBN: 0-394-73090-9__________Ritssian Folk Tales. 111. Ivan Bilibin. ShambhalaPublications, 1982. 'aper $9.95. ISBN: 0-87773-233-7Anna and the Seven Swans. Retold by Maida Silverman.Morrow, 1984. $11.50 ISBN: 0-688-02755-5Babushka: An Old Ritssian Folktale. Retold by CharlesMikolaycak. Holiday, 1984. $14.95. ISBN: 0-8234-0520-6

Downing, Charles and Joan K. Monroe. Russian Talesand Legends. Oxford Myths and Legends Series. Reprintof 1951 ed. Oxford University Press, 1978. $14.95.ISBN: 0-19-274106-3

The Firebird: Ritssian Fairy Tales. 111. Igor and KreniaYershov. Progress Pub., USSR, Imported Publications,1976. $4.95. ISBN: 0-8285-1136-5The Fish of Gold. Ed. Eulelia M. Valeri. Tr. LelandNortham. Silver, 1985. $3.95. ISBN: 0-382-09143-4The Frog Princess. Retold by Elizabeth Isele. 111. MichaelHague. Thomas Y. Crowell, 1984. $10.95. ISBN: 0-690-04217-5

Galdone, Joanna. The Littie Giri and the Big Bear. Clarion,1980. $8.95. ISBN: 0-395-29029-5The Girl and the Moon Man: A Siberian Folktale. Retold byJeanette Winter. Pantheon Books, 1984. $10.95. ISBN:0-394-86326-7

Krylov, Ivan A. Krylov's Fables. Tr. Bernard Pares.Classics of Russian Literature Series. Reprint of 1926 ed.Hyperion Conn, 1977. Paper $10.00. ISBN: 0-88355-490-9

Losin, V. Russian Folk Tales. Tr. Fania Glasoleva. MalyshPub., USSR, Imported Publications, 1978. $2.95. ISBN:0-8285-2911-6

Marshak, Samuil. The Month Brothers: A Sfovic Tale. Tr.Thomas P. Whitney. Morrow, 1983. $11.75. ISBN:0-688-01510-7

Morton, Miriam, ed. A Harvest of Russian Children'sLiterature. University of California Press, 1967. Paper$8.95. ISBN: 0-520-01745-5

Mountain of Gems: Fairy Tales of the Peoples of the SovietLand. Raduga Press, USSR, Imported Publications, 1984.$8.95. ISBN: 0-8285-2836-5Nosov. N. Eleven Stories for Boys and Girls. Progress Pub.,USSR, Imported Publications, 1981. $8.00. ISBN:0-8285-2082-8

Pushkin, Aleksandr. On Seashore Far, A Green OakTower. Raduga Press, USSR, Imported Publications, 1983.$6.95. ISBN: 0-8285-2718-0Ransome, Arthur. The Fool of the World and the FlyingShip. 111. Uri Shulevitz. Farrar, Straus and Giroux. 1968.$12.95. ISBN: 0-374-32442-5_________. Old Peter's Ritssian Tales. Pub. by Jonathan Cape,Merrimack Pub. Cir., 1984. $13.95. ISBN: 0-224-02959-2

__. The War of the Birds and the Beasts and OtherTales. Ed. Hugh Brazar. Pub. by Jonathan Cape,

1985. $10.95 ISBN: 0-224-02215-6RitssianMerrimack Pub. Cir

Robbins, Ruth. Baboushka and the Three Kings. 111.Nicholas Sidjakov. Parnassus, $5.95. ISBN: 0-395-27673-X

A Scythe, a Rooster, and a Cat. Retold by JaninaDomanska. Greenwillow, 1981. $11.75. ISBN: 0-688-80308-3

The Turnip, a Traditional Folk Tale. Progress Pub., USSR,Imported Publications, 1982. Paper $1.99. ISBN:0-8285-2850-0

Vasily and the Dragon: An Epic Russian Fairy Tale. 111.Simon Stern. Merrimack Pub. Cir., 1983. $9.95. ISBN:0-7207-1331-5

Zemach, Harve and Margot Zemach. Sait. Farrar,Straus, and Giroux, 1977. $10.95. ISBN: 0-374-36385-4Note: Imported Publications, 320 W. Ohio St., Chicago,IL 60610-4175 will furnish their annual catalog onrequest. Frequently the titles listed in their catalog are nolonger available, but they do have some excellent editions.They are the distributor for books printed in the USSR.

Paui Kiska is a member of the department of English, TheUniversity of Texas at El Paso, El Paso, TX.

Literary Uses of Traditional Themes: From"Cinderella" to The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes andThe Glass Slipperby Ellin Greene

"The study of folklore in literature entails at least twodistinct methodological steps," writes folklorist AlanDundes: "identification and interpretation" (230).Dundes criticizes folklorists for stopping at identification,

and literary scholars for failing to identify accurately andfully the folkloristic element or form in a given literarytext. Chiding literary scholars for their lack of folklorescholarship, Dundes says, "Without considering folk-loristic sources for literature, would-be critics are

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deprived of an absolutely essential means of seeing howpoets transform the common clay of folk imagination intoa literary masterpiece" (231).

This essay is an attempt to identify the folkloristicsources in two modern fantasies for children based onpopular folktale, and to indicate how folktale motifs havebeen used in conscious works of art. Stith Thompson'ssecond revision of Antti Aarne's The Types of the Folktale,FF Communications 184 (Helsinki 1961) and StithThompson's Motif-Index of Folk Literature (Bloomington:Indiana University Press, 1955-58) have been used toidentify the folkloristic sources. The tale type and motifnumber are indicated in parentheses within the text, asappropriate.

Of all known folktales, "Cinderella" probably has themost widely scattered versions. The earliest known comesfrom ninth-century China (see Waley 226-38 andJameson 71-97). Later versions represent a geographicalspread from Western Europe to Iceland, North America,and Africa. The meaning of the tale has been argued byscholars for more than a century, but no consensus hasbeen reached; nor is that likely, for the meaning changesto meet the needs of the time and of the individuallisteners. On the surface, Cinderella is the story of ayoung woman who feels mistreated, unloved and unap-preciated. Through some form of magical help (the spiritof her dead mother, a supernatural being, friendlyanimals, birds, or fishes) the heroine triumphs over heroppressors and receives her heart's desire. Early folk-lorists considered the tale a nature-myth about Spring orDawn. Modern scholars focus on die psychological ratherthan the mythological and view the story as a problem ofsemblance and reality.

The two works I want to consider are The Glass Slipper,by Eleanor Farjeon and The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes, byPadraic Colum. Eleanor Farjeon (1881-1965) and PadraicColum (1881-1972) were British contemporaries. Bothwere poets, both wrote for adults and children, both wererecognized by the children's book world, and both re-ceived the Regina Medal, given by the Catholic LibraryAssociation "to an individual whose lifetime dedication tochildren's literature exemplifies the words of Walter de laMare, 'Only the rarest kind of best in anything can begood enough for the young.' "

Farjeon's novel The Glass Slipper was originally writtenas a play, which was produced in London in 1944 andagain in 1945; she rewrote it as a novel for children tenyears later. The Glass Slipper is based on the popularseventeenth-century Perrault version of "Cinderella"(Type 510A) which was based on the oral tradition butembellished by Perrault's inventions—a pumpkin trans-formed into a carriage (F861.4.3), a rat into a coachman(D315.1 Transformation: rat to person), lizards into foot-men (D397 Transformation: lizard to person), mice intohorses (D411.6.1 Transformation: mouse to horse)—anda glass slipper. Farjeon's choice of Perrault's version, withits theme of wish-fulfillment and its transformation ofcommon objects, is peculiarly suited to her frequent useof the daydream as a literary device and her philosophy ofthe oneness of dream and reality (see Greene 61-70). Inboth Perrault and Farjeon the use of realistic objectsground the wishful daydreaming.

Farjeon's Ella (Cinderella) is sixteen years old. She is agood girl—simple, unpretentious, a day-dreamer. Herstepsisters are vain and thoughtless, but not cruel.Araminta is "peevish, sly, thin and scratchy"; Arethusa is"stupid, greedy, fat, and flouncy." They are made toappear immature and silly—fancily dressed, they sucklollipops on their way to the ball. Ella's father ishenpecked. He seems to be suffering from preseniledementia—"my poor mind, my poor mind!" he laments,as he tries to remember the details of the ball to relate tohis daughter. Ella's stepmother is cruel (S31). Shethreatens to smash Ella's only picture of her mother andlocks Ella in her cupboard bed (Ella lives in the kitchenand sleeps in a narrow box bed in the wall with a shutterthat can be pulled across the bed and locked). ThoughElla is a day-dreamer and a wishful thinker, she hasspunk. She defies her stepmother, refusing to tear up herinvitation to the ball until she is coerced by herstepmother's threat to destroy the precious portrait.

Ella is sent to gather sticks for the fire (possiblyborrowed from the Russian version in which Vasilisa issent to get fire from Baba Yaga). In the woods Ella feedsher roll of bread to the hungry birds (B450 Helpful birds)while pretending that the roll is "a slice of game pie andfour peaches." An old crone, bent double beneath a fag-got of brushwood, appears and Ella carries the faggots forher. The old crone reveals she is a magical being who canchange her appearance from crone to bird at will. The oldcrone (F311.1 Fairy Godmother) disappears, leaving Ellathe faggots and among them, a game pie and four peaches.

Like Ella, the Prince is a wishful thinker. He is waitingfor his "true" bride. His constant companion is the Zany,a character Farjeon added to the folktale. The Prince'sgreat-great grandmother was a water nymph, suggestingsupernatural origins, thereby making the Prince a suitablemate for Cinderella, who is also close to supernaturalpowers. (Was Farjeon aware of the version, "The YoungCountess and the Water-Nymph"? See Cox 318-321).

After her stepmother and stepsisters leave for the ball,Ella daydreams there is a mouse ball. At ten o'clock asthe real ball begins at the palace, a fairy steps out of thegrandfather clock in Ella's kitchen. It is the old crone, thefairy godmother. The fairy summons, her spirits and turnsElla into the "Princess from Nowhere." After turning apumpkin into a coach, mice into horses, a rat into acoachman, and lizards into footmen, she leaves a pair ofglass slippers in the grandfather clock for Ella. Elladoesn't take the initiative, as Cinderella does in thePerrault version when she says, "Let me see if there isn'ta rat in the rat-trap. We could make a coachman out ofthat." (56). The metamorphoses are all accomplished withthe wave of the fairy's magic wishing-wand (D1470.1.24)and follow Perrault's text. But in Perrault the touch ofreality still exists: for example, the horses are mouse gray.In the Farjeon version, the horses are "milk-white withsilver manes and tails."

At the ball the Prince refuses to dance, because none ofthe ladies please him. Then the Princess from Nowherearrives. Ella and the Prince are enamoured of each otherat first sight. "She is here," murmurs the Prince. He kissesElla's hand and Ella, enchanted, asks him to kiss it apin.Ella dances with the Prince. Then she organizes a game of

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hide-and-seek which Farjeon uses as a device to allow Ellato escape as the clock strikes midnight, the hour when themagic ends (C761.3 Tabu: staying too long at ball). Ellaloses her glass slipper in her flight from the ball (R221)and the Zany finds it. (In Farjeon's version there is onlyone ball, in Perrault there are two.) The King's herald an-nounces that all the young ladies in the kingdom are totry on the glass slipper (H36.1 Slipper test). The kitchenthings attack the stepmother when she tries to keep Ellaout-of-sight. She defeats them and locks Ella in her boxbed so that she will not be able to try on the slipper.Ella's fairy godmother appears, restores the kitchenthings, and locks the stepmother in the box bed. Thestepsisters are caught at cheating—Araminta uses a shoe-horn and Arethusa soaps her heel in a vain attempt to fitthe slipper. But Farjeon's version is not so gruesome asthe Grimm's version in which the stepsisters cut off partof a heel and toe to try to fit the slipper (K1911.3.3.1False bride's mutilated feet).

The fairy godmother materializes Ella. The Prince putsthe slipper on her foot (H36.1), recognizes his true bride,kisses Ella's grubby hand, and commands everyone pres-ent to kiss her hand. Ella forgives her stepsisters, butthere is no mention of finding husbands for them as inthe Perrault version. There is a final touch of magic whenthe fairy godmother has the Zany show the Prince (and allpresent) the Kingdom of Nowhere. The old crone van-ishes, the Palace comes back to earth, everything returnsto normal except Ella and the Prince, for they "had left apart of themselves in Nowhere, where wishes come true."Farjeon's version is perfect wish-fulfillment: for thosewho retain the imaginative life of the child, dream andreality are one.

Colum's reworking of "Cinderella," The Girl Who Satby the Ashes, was published in 1919 and reissued with newillustrations in 1968. Colum borrows folkloristic elementsfrom various versions of "Cinderella" (Type 510) tocreate an entirely new version. Colum's Cinderella iscalled by various names. Her stepmother and stepsisterscall her "Girl-go-with-the-Goats," but she calls herself"Maid-Alone." In the opening chapter the reader is intro-duced to the Old Woman in the Cloak of Crow-Feathers(F311.1 Fairy Godmother). The Old Woman appears tothe two stepsisters, Berry-bright and Buttercup, and asksthem "to put the griddle on the fire and knead and bake acake for me." The stepsisters refuse, revealing their vanityin their refusal. They have been washing their hands innew milk to make them as white as blossoms when thePrince chooses a wife. Maid-Alone obliges the OldWoman and helps her over the stepping stones. The OldWoman places a shining star on Maid-Alone's forehead(Q, Rewards and Punishments, H71.1 Star on forehead assign of royalty).

The King's son comes along on his white jennet andasks each of the stepsisters for berries from their garden.Each sister is prevented from picking the berries by aflock of birds who attack them. Only Maid-Alone cangather berries for the King's son (Type 511 One-Eye,Two Eyes, Three Eyes, D1461 Magic tree furnishestreasures). Two starlings alight on her shoulders and singto her as she picks the berries. The starlings are equiva-lent to the doves in the Grimm version and probably are

a metamorphic form of the deceased mother (B313.1Helpful animal reincarnation of parent). Maid-Alonegathers the berries in an old shoe as she has no othervessel. (Note that Colum introduces the shoe motif earlyin the story). The King's son rudely strikes Maid-Aloneon the arm with the shoe and pushes her against thegarden ditch.

When the stepmother returns home her daughters greether with ingratiating words. Maid-Alone's greeting is "Iam more pleased to see you than if you had brought saltto the house when it was lacking it" (H592.1, Type 923Love like Salt). The stepmother is incensed by what sheconsiders an unfitting welcome, and, seeing the star onMaid-Alone's forehead, makes her cover it with ashes anddrives her out of the house to live in the goat shed. Thehelpful birds (B450) sing to her to lessen her loneliness.

The next morning the stepmother sends Maid-Alone tothe Forge in the Forest for embers to relight the fire sheand her daughters have let go out (see the Russian versionof "Cinderella," "Vasilisa the Beautiful"). At first this ex-perience is not frightening. The two dwarfs at the Forgegive Maid-Alone two pieces of glowing wood from theirfire. On the way home she comes upon the King's sontrying to make a fire in the forest. She uses her embers tobuild a fire for him, but he, in return, refuses to give hermore than one ember. When the ember goes out she triesto find her way back to the Forge in the Forest, loses herway in the dark, and meets a giant who threatens to lockher up with the other twenty-nine maidens he has caught(possibly a reference to Bluebeard?). But again the twostarlings come to her rescue (B450). They make a loudsplashing noise in the water basin, the giant thinks she iswashing herself, and she escapes. She overhears twomagpies (B216 Knowledge of animal language), talkingabout the Woman of a Thousand Years (alias the OldWoman in the Cloak of Crow-feathers) and seeks shelterwith her. There she meets Gruagach, "Trouble-the-House," a creature with horse's legs and ears but the faceof a poor-spirited man (B20 Beast-man). Gruagach isobliged to carry Maid-Alone to the King's Castle becauseshe catches him at work (C300 Looking tabu). The OldWoman gives Maid-Alone the magic Crow-feather Cloak.Following instructions from the Woman of a ThousandYears, Maid-Alone plucks a twig in each of the ThreeWoods through which they pass. Each twig broken offbecomes a splendid dress with matching veil and shoes(F811.1 Trees of extraordinary materials). The first is aglittering dress of bronze, the second, silver, the third,gold (Type 510B The Dress of Gold, of Silver, and ofStars). Gruagach tells Maid-Alone that he will be beatenon his way back through the woods for each time shebreaks off a twig (C513 Tabu: breaking twig). Maid-Alone hides her three dresses in the hollow of a treeoutside the King's Castle. She goes in "the least grandway" as she has been instructed by her fairy godmotherand asks for work. She becomes the Goose girl (K 1816.5Type 533. The Speaking Horsehead).

During all this time the stepmother and stepsisters havebeen absent. At this point, they re-enter the story. Thestepmother and stepsisters alight from their coach on thehighway and wait for the King's son to notice them as herides past. He asks each daughter to bring him a drink of

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water from a nearby well. Each returns with water incupped palms, but the water flows away before the princecan drink. Maid-Alone succeeds in bringing water to theKing's son. The King's son rudely asks Maid-Alone togive water to his hound dog. Maid-Alone is recognizedbut not acknowledged by her stepmother and stepsisters.

The King's son is to choose a wife and all the maidensin the land gather at the Castle. Maid-Alone's stepmotheris the house dame and looks afer all the young women(shades of the Miss America extravaganza!). The next dayMaid-Alone wears her dress of bronze in front of thegeese and they refuse to feed. The Muime (ancient fostermother of the King's son) overhears the geese talkingabout the beautiful maiden (H151.12, Geese tell of beautyof their mistress and bring about recognition, Type 533)and tells the King's son. He goes in search of her butfinds only the goose girl. This happens twice more—whenMaid-Alone wears the dress of silver, and again when shewears the dress of gold. Each time the geese are too ex-cited to feed. Maid-Alone is scolded by her stepmotherfor allowing the geese to get thin and is assigned the taskof keeping the hearth clear of ashes instead of feeding thegeese. The King's son refuses to search further. At theball he dances with the two stepsisters and admires theirbeauty. He is about to ask the fairest maiden at the ball todistribute citrons and pomegranates among the guests(similar to the Perrault version). Will it be Berry-brightor Buttercup?

At that moment Maid-Alone appears in her finery, andthe riddling begins (H530, Riddles). King's Son: "Wherehave you come from, bright damsel?" Maid-Alone: "FromLost-ember Moor".. ."From where a dog's tongue lappedwater from my hands." (See the Scandanavian version,"Kari Woodenskirt".) She refuses to dance with theKing's son until he recognizes her. Pitch is put on thestairs and the Matchless Maiden (Maid-Alone) is forcedto leave her gold slipper as she flees (Jl 146.1 Detectionby pitch-trap). In the slipper test (H36.1) the stepmothergives her daughters a salve to rub on their feet to shrinkthe toe and heel, but the trick doesn't work.

The King asks that the wisest woman come to theCastle—"And that he might know she was the wisest shewas to come, not naked but with no clothes on (H1054Task: coming neither naked nor clad), not fed and yet notfasting, (H 1063 Task: coming neither hungry norsatiated), in no one's company and yet not alone"(H1061 Task: coming neither with nor without acompanion) (Type 875, The Clever Peasant Girl). TheMatchless Maiden meets the bride test. The King's sonrecognizes her at last, but Maid-Alone goes away. TheKing's son searches in vain for a year. Eventually, twostarlings (B450) lead him to a "small black house deep-sunken in the ground" where he finds the Old Woman inthe Cloak of Crow-feathers. He tells her all he has donein contrition, and she takes him to her garden where hefinds Maid-Alone. All ends happily with the marriage ofthe King's son and Maid-Alone.

These two literary works are as unalike as two variantsof the folktale, for instance, the Grimm version and theChinese version. Farjeon's Cinderella is light and airy, fullof images carried over from the stage production. Suchtheatrical magic is evocative of a modern musical comedy

or Baryshnikov's ballet production of Cindereiia. Farjeon'sprose is sparkling, her wit at its best in the scenes wherethe stepmother teaches her daughters court manners andthe herald announces the guests at the ball.

Farjeon's version is delightful, amusing, pleasing, butColum's version, richer in the use of folkloristic sources,is inwardly more satisfying. Colum, one of the leaders inthe Irish Literary Renaissance of the early twentiethcentury, had a lifelong interest in folklore. He was verymuch influenced by the traditional folktales he heard inchildhood. In The Girl Who Sat in the Ashes Colum fusesfolkloristic elements from various versions of the"Cinderella" tale into a cohesive whole. His version leavesthe reader mystified and hints at a deeper meaningbeneath the surface of the plot.

Colum portrays the maturation of the heroine, Maid-Alone, as she successfully meets each test. Farjeon's Ellanever seems to acquire a sense of self. The story's endingseems mere wish-fulfillment rather than a recognition ofthe heroine's rightful rank. Though Farjeon's use of thedaydream, and her philosophy of the oneness of dreamand reality, seem to express a psychological truth in suchstories as "The Mill of Dreams" and "Elsie Piddock," theheroine's daydreaming in this tale seems nothing morethan wishful thinking. Was this "soft-heartedness" due tothe mellowing often associated with aging? Or did it haveto do with the atmosphere in which the story was written?The play was written during World War II at the requestof Robert Donat. According to Farjeon herself, Donatasked Eleanor and her younger brother Herbert (Bertie)"to rewrite a fairy tale as a really lovely show forchildren." The novel was written when Farjeon wasseventy-four. It was based on the earlier collaborationwith Bertie who died during the war and on their jointeffort to produce something magical for children during ableak period in English history. Her age, memories of herdeceased brother, and the war years may account for itssentimental ring.

This discussion shows the influence of folkloristicsources on the direction of a literary work; but it alsoimplies how an author's personal vision may influence hisor her choice, and use, of folkloristic sources in a literaryretelling.

REFERENCES

Colum, Padraic. The Girl Who Sat by the Ashes. NewYork: Macmillan, 1968.Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella. ¡45 Variants. London:David Nutt, 1893.Dundes, Alan, ed. Cinderella: A Casebook. New York:Wildman Press, 1983.Farjeon, Eleanor. The GL·ss Slipper. Oxford: OxfordUniv. Press, 1955.

"How We Came to Write The 'Glass Slipper.'"Unpublished notes for program on the BBC, broadcastApril 1, 1946.Greene, Ellin. "Eleanor Farjeon: The Shaping of aLiterary Imagination." Proceedings of the Ninth AnnuaiConference of the ChLA (March 1982), 61-70.

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Jameson, R. D. "Cinderella in China," in Dundes, 71-97.

Perrault, Charles. The Gfoss Slipper: Charles Penault'sTales of Times Past. Trans. John Bierhorst. New York:Four Winds, 1981.

Waley, Arthur. "The Chinese Cinderella Story." folklore58 (1947): 226-238.

Eiiin Greene is a freelance constatant in story-telling andchildren's literature.

Joseph Campbell on the Second Mesa: Structureand Meaning in Arrow to the Sunby Jon C. Stott

Although it may be linked to a tale type widelydistributed in North America, every native tale has itsown integrity. As a product of the culture in which it istold, it is part of that culture's holistic view of reality; andthat view of reality is rooted in the geographical locationof the specific people. As Vine Deloria, Jr. has suggestedin God is Red, his study of native religions, the beliefs ofnative peoples were closely tied to the places in whichthey lived: "Holy Places were well-known in what havebeen classified as primitive religions. The vast majority ofIndian tribal religions have a centre at a particular place,be it river, mountain, plateau, valley, or other naturalfeature" (81). This is particularly true of the Pueblopeoples; their religious beliefs and the myths that embodythem relate closely to the specific features of theSouthwest in which they have lived for centuries.

The non-native writer who wishes to adapt nativelegends for children is faced with a difficult problem. Hemust maintain the delicate balance between making hisversion faithful to the religious basis of the culture, withits close relationship to the place in which it evolved, andat the same time making it accessible to readers for whomthis culture is in all likelihood totally foreign. GeraldMcDermott's Arrow to the Sun, one of the best and best-known modern adaptations of a native legend, representsan interesting solution to this problem. AlthoughMcDermott is scrupulously accurate in his presentation ofdetails of Pueblo culture, the overall structure andmeaning of his tale have been influenced by the studies ofJoseph Campbell in The Hero With a Thousand Faces.

In Arrow to the Sun, McDermott adapts Puebloiconography to invest his story with implicit meaningswhich specifically link it to the cultural and religiousbeliefs of these people. Pueblo religion reflects the basicrelationship between the people and their environment.An agricultural people whose primary crop was corn, theydepended on the correct mixtures of sun and rain to growcrops in the arid landscape. However, like most primalpeoples, the Pueblo did not approach the physicalenvironment in a solely empirical, scientific manner.Living in a cosmos in which the human, non-human, andsupernatural were closely interrelated, they believed that asuccessful harvest depended to a great extent on theirachievement of a right relationship with those powerswho controlled the rains and the growth of the corn. TheKachina dances, which extend from winter to the time ofharvest, were major ritual observances designed to assistin the development of the corn.

Arrow to the Sun reflects this spiritual orientation inmany ways. Generally, the boy, whose logo is a stylized

cross-section of an ear of corn, lives in an arid land towhich he brings life by supplying the rainbow, symbol ofsun and rain. On nearly every page, the visual elementsreflect the cultural processes by which he succeeds. Thedesigns on the end-papers approximate the stylized rainclouds found throughout Pueblo design; the orange colorsparallel the dry land; and not only the logo, but also theboy's hair style (which develops in the story) emphasizethe centrality of corn; and finally the rainbow on whichhe dances signals the arrival of rain and therefore life forthe people.

Moreover, the manner in which the boy proves himselfworthy of bringing the power of the sun to the people isdeeply rooted in elements of Pueblo belief. McDermotthas done his research thoroughly and has implicitlyembedded it within his presentation of the tests the heroundergoes on the sun. It is appropriate that the boy enterfour kivas, for the kivas, chambers entered through a holein the roof, were sacred places where, among other things,Pueblo youths were initiated into the mysteries of thespiritual lives of the people. What happens in the story'skivas is at once important to the specific quest of the boyand generally to the religious life of the people. The boymust successively enter kivas containing lions (cougars),serpents (rattlesnakes), bees, and lightning. In terms ofthe culture, his four tests involve steps necessary to helpthe corn grow. Mountain lions symbolize war societiesand, in taming the lions of the first kiva, the boy isestablishing the peace necessary for agriculture.Rattlesnakes were not only valuable pest controllers,attacking the rats who ate stored corn, they were alsoimportant in rainmaking ceremonies. After being used inritual dances, they were released at the edges of thevillages so that they could return to the hills, there toreport to the rain spirits the reverences accorded them bythe people. In turning the snakes into a circle, symbol ofunity and harmony, the boy is extending to them thenecessary reverence. By forcing the bees to orderthemselves into a functioning hive, he is establishing theorganization that is necessary if the processes ofpollination is to occur. Finally, by submitting himself tothe power of lightning, so frequently seen above the hillsbeyond the villages, he is able to achieve new power andbring sun and rain to the people.

Analyzing the story in the light of Pueblo culture, wesee that the boy is much more than a rejected child whoachieves peer group recognition. In his quest, heestablishes his identity as the Son of God, and to do that,he has had to undergo tests that fulfill the primeresponsibility of a God, social responsibility andleadership. In the case of Pueblo culture, this involvedengaging in those spiritual activities necessary for the