Out of all the names possible, for Wing Foot's loyal Navajo friend and for the Pueblo that wants to marry an unwilling Corn Blossom, I found it very peculiar that the picture decided to call them both Jim. First of all, by not naming them a "traditional native american name" we are licensed to make some assumptions. First of which is that they must have been raised in similar boarding schools as Wing Foot and given "American" names. Or, at the very least they have had repeated contact with whites. We know the latter to be true, because Navajo Jim sports jeans and a denim jacket with a floppy mountain man hat, and totes a revolver that he routinely plays with. He also speaks in an odder dialect than the other cast members, perhaps indicating that his learning of English was not as successful as Wing Foot's -- so its noticeably "weaker." Pueblo Jim, on the other hand, is a big fan of the "white man's gin" as Corn Blossom so aptly points out, as well as some casual flannel shirts and, again, jeans. So, obviously, both have been deeply influenced by white culture.
In noticing the influence, it is easy to spot the differences between them and their significance. Because they share the same name, I think we are supposed to look at them under a bit more scrutiny than we would have otherwise. They are really two sides of the same coin, if you will. The "coin" being white education and culture, and the sides being the progressive or positive aspects versus the detrimental or negative aspects. If we take Wing Foot into the equation, we find a three sided coin. Where Pueblo Jim is clearly the wrong parts of white culture, Navajo Jim is some of the good parts of white culture (knowledge of the language and advanced technology), and Wing Foot is the pinnacle of white education. And because he has embraced education fully, he is able to realize the flaws with both cultures and winds up pulling himself into this area of limbo -- where he is only a Redskin.
Interestingly enough, in getting some of the facts straight for this blog, I noticed that Pueblo Jim was played by a man named Noble Johnson -- an African American. Now I can only wonder if Johnson was type cast into the role of the "bad Indian" by Paramount because of his skin color. How ironic that would be, a movie preaching tolerance while having quite a bit of intolerance behind the scenes.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
It's actually really interesting to note that both of the Jims clearly had been influenced by white people (via the gin and the revolver). They're both relatively significant characters so it can't simply be coincidence that they are named as such. As for casting the 'darker' Jim as the 'bad Indian', I wouldn't put it past the film studios of the 1920s. They had a long way to go.
ReplyDeleteInteresting post, Walter. These characters are two sides of the same coin, as you say. Noble Johnson was often cast as a heavy, but here his menacing ways are a little more subtly portrayed--although Corn Blossom is at first unintimidated by him.
ReplyDelete