Dorothy M. Johnson’s Short Fiction: The Pastoral and the Uses of History

Abstract

University of Idaho B A R B A R A H O W A R D M E L D R U M Dorothy M. Johnson’s Short Fiction: The Pastoral and the Uses of History Leo Marx concludes his study of American pastoral with the gen­ eralization that modern American writers typically reveal a hero who is “either dead or totally alienated from society, alone and powerless, like the evicted shepherd of Virgil’s eclogue. And if, at the same time, he pays a tribute to the image of a green landscape, it is likely to be ironic and bitter.”1 Marx’s description does not fit most modem western writers; the pastoral seems to be alive and well in the West. This is not to say, however, that western writers are superficial, naive, or hiding their heads in the sands of the Great American Desert. Their pastoral vision is what Marx would call “complex” in that they “acknowledge the reality of history . . . the fantasy of pleasure is checked by the facts of history.”2 Dorothy Johnson’s short stories exemplify some of the ways western writers use pastoral motifs and affirm pastoral values through a fictional recreation of the Old West. Johnson’s pastoral realm is not “soft” (i.e, idyllic, escapist, hedonis­ tic) ; it is “hard,” set as it is in a wild nature — the frontier or wilderness — and represented not by a shepherd or rustic swain, but by an Indian This essay is part of a larger work in progress on western American pastoral fiction. Research has been supported by a fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities. 1Leo Marx, The Machine in the Garden: Technology and the Pastoral Ideal in America (New York: Oxford Univ. Press, 1964), p. 364. 2Ibid. 214 Western American Literature savage or an outlaw.3 Her province is the rugged realm John Seelye has dubbed the Farther Landscape of “wild pastoral.”4 True to the mode is the contrast between rural and urban (in space, usually West vs. East; in time, usually past vs. present). Moreover, one cannot remain perma­ nently in the pastoral realm (if one does, we have primitivism, not pastoralism ). The movement is toward some form of reconciliation which unites in some way the two contrasting worlds. Let’s look first at a story which suggests ccrtain pastoral values even though the central character fails to achieve a resolution. “The Unbe­ liever” tells of Mahlon Mitchell, an aging white man who tries to return to the Crow tribe with whom he had once lived some thirty years earlier. That time so long ago could itself be termed a pastoral sojourn, for then in his youth he had a wife and a position of honor. But he returned after five years to the white world where a steady decline plagued him. Now he seeks once again the exhilaration and self-esteem that come from facing danger, so he volunteers to serve as a scout through Sioux country to lead an army party seeking a bargain with the Crows. He has the dual perspective of a pastoral character: he knows both worlds, so he can perceive the advantages of the Indians’ natural world from the per­ spective of white civilization. The Crow leads a comparatively simple life with clearcut goals, whereas “the life of a white man was infinitely more complicated. There were too many things a man could want, and too many ways to fail in trying to get them.”5 Mitchell envies the Indian who lives “with valor and without doubts, fitting the environment to which he was destined and never needing to search for a better one.” When the Crows, “offering him paradise,” want him to stay with them, he accepts, for with them he will have “respect and honor and [the satis­ faction of] being wanted.” These prospects are far more attractive than 3For a succinct discussion of hard and soft pastoral, see Paul Alpers, “The Eclogue Tradition and the Nature of Pastoral,” College English, 34 (1972), 352-53. 4John Seelye, “Some Green Thoughts on a Green Theme,” in Literature in Revolution, ed. George Abbott White and Charles Newman (New York: Holt, Rine­ hart & Winston...