39 pages • 1 hour read
Michelle GoodFive Little Indians
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2020A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapters 4-8Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Kenny”
The story returns to Kenny, who is now a migrant worker at an apple orchard in Washington State. He arrives late for work one day because of a hangover, and the foreman threatens to dock his pay. Out in the orchard, Kenny runs into someone he knew at the Mission as a child. His name is Wilfred. The two childhood friends catch up on the years they spent apart. They also recall their raids on the Mission kitchen to steal some of the rich foods that the staff hoarded while the children were fed meager rations. Kenny thinks, “He was happy to share their tricky survival memories; it was the other ones, the ones that slipped in through the silences, that he was relieved to lose in his usual solitude” (89). Secretly, Kenny remembers the beatings they all received from Father Levesque and the sexual abuse from a staff member called Brother.
Wilfred suggests that they pick two extra bins of apples to offset the shortage in Kenny’s pay. However, at the end of the day, the foreman refuses to give them their bonus even though Kenny’s work record has been exemplary up until that point. Kenny becomes enraged and attacks the boss. Money starts flying all around the shack, and the migrants waiting to be paid all scramble to collect the cash.
Wilfred manages to get Kenny away before the foreman calls the police. The two friends hide in the woods near the river and try to decide what to do next. Wilfred retrieved several hundred dollars during the scuffle so he and Kenny could survive for some time. Wilfred is planning to head south, but he gives Kenny a lead on a logging job in Canada. Because Wilfred is also Lucy’s big brother, and he knows Kenny always had a crush on his sister, he gives his friend Lucy’s address in Vancouver.
Chapter 5 Summary: “Lucy”
The story now shifts to Lucy’s life. It has been two years since Maisie’s suicide, and Lucy is still working as a maid at the Manitou. She has become friendly with two other Mission girls named Liz and Clara, who also work at the motel. During this period, Lucy has been studying to take a high school equivalency exam because she wants to go to nursing school and better her life.
Because Maisie’s apartment holds such bad memories, Lucy is now renting a flat above a Chinese restaurant across the street from the Manitou. Her life has become peaceful and orderly. As she settles down to study for her test, she thinks, “Sometimes [she] had to remind herself that no one was watching her, waiting to pounce. A turbulent river of exhilaration ran beneath her quiet demeanour with the realization that her choices were now her own” (96).
The following afternoon, Lucy arrives at work to show her friends her exam with a grade of B+. They’re all happy about her success and plan to celebrate when Harlan, the motel owner, makes disparaging remarks about Lucy’s achievement. Clara is furious and attacks Harlan. He then fires all three girls. They defiantly go out to celebrate anyway.
Later that night, when Lucy arrives home, she finds Kenny waiting by her door. She asks him to return for coffee the following morning. When he shows up, the two catch up on the years since their time at the Mission, also recalling the sexual abuse that Kenny and the other boys suffered at the hands of a staff member called Brother. As they talk, Lucy notices that Kenny pours rum into his coffee. That day, Kenny goes off in search of work. In the weeks that follow, he and Lucy spend more time together and eventually become lovers before Kenny disappears again. Despite this seeming act of abandonment, Lucy assumes that Kenny will return someday.
Chapter 6 Summary: “Clara”
The story now shifts to Clara’s life shortly after she is fired from the Manitou. Clara has a short temper and a rebellious streak. While drinking in a bar one night, she is accosted by a white man for sex. When he doesn’t take no for an answer, Clara attacks him, and she is bounced out of the bar. A patrolling cop warns her not to cause trouble in the neighborhood.
Failing to heed the warning, Clara goes to the Manitou and contemplates throwing a rock through the window. As she weighs the decision, she thinks back to her last happy day at home, when she thought she heard a musical, tinkling sound in the trees. Her mother assured her that the spirits of the wood were making music just for her.
That same night, she was ripped out of her safe world and sent to the Mission: “She remembered the first time she saw Sister Mary. It was long past dark […] when the Sister’s black robes were invisible in the night as she stood on the steps looking like a disembodied head in her blazing white cornette” (119).
Clara also recalls her childhood friend Lily, who was frail and weak. One morning, as a punishment for coughing during prayers, Lily is sent outdoors in the cold to perform chores. Clara witnesses her coughing up blood and is upset by Sister Mary’s indifference to her friend’s serious illness. When Lily finally collapses, she is taken to the infirmary, where she dies that night.
The memory of these past injustices stirs Clara’s anger in the present, and she pitches the rock through the Manitou Motel window before running away. She is caught by the patrolman who gave her a warning, and he sends her to jail for the night. In her cell, she finds an old Indian woman who tells her to look at the birch tree outside the prison window. The elder reminds Clara that the power of creation is in everything, even in her. Clara then falls asleep. When the girl is released the next morning, the old woman is gone, and the guard tells Clara that no such person was arrested the night before.
Chapter 7 Summary: “Lucy”
A year later, the story shifts to Lucy once again. She has just given birth to a daughter who was fathered by Kenny. She names the girl Kendra. Lucy is dismissed from the nursing program because she is unmarried but will be reinstated after the baby is born.
This creates temporary financial struggles, but Clara gives Lucy a place to stay and finds a way for both of them to collect welfare using fake IDs. Clara also develops some side businesses that aren’t entirely legal, but the bills get paid. The two girls even manage to rent a house and make a proper home for baby Kendra. Over time, Lucy notices Clara spending more time away from home. She seems restless. A year after Kendra’s birth, Clara is nowhere to be found, and a note explains that she will be away for a few weeks.
Chapter 8 Summary: “Clara”
The story now picks up from Clara’s point of view shortly after Kendra’s birth. Clara has become involved in the American Indian Movement (AIM) as it tries to help tribes on either side of the American Canadian border. Her local Friendship Centre sponsors speakers who raise her awareness about the wrongs done to her people. When Clara hears a speaker named George, she realizes for the first time that Native Americans can fight for their rights. After George finds her weeping because of his speech, he tells her, “The teachings show us that we learn and become strong through suffering. I can see that you are very strong. There is no shame in sadness” (143).
As Clara becomes more involved in AIM, she acquires a Falcon car and a large dog named John Lennon. She takes off on a mission to help George and his wife Vera smuggle guns into the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota, where protestors are planning to seize and occupy the town of Wounded Knee. They want to draw attention to the violations of Native American rights.
While trying to deliver the guns, Clara flees from the National Guard and wrecks her car in a ditch, severely injuring her left shoulder. Before the FBI can question her about the incident, George smuggles her out of the hospital and arranges to get her across the border to a reservation in Canada.
All goes well until the Canadian border patrol sees Clara. She flees for shelter at the reservation, where tribe members run interference with the authorities. Someone spirits Clara and her dog to safety in the countryside at Old Mariah’s cabin. This turns out to be the same elder that Clara envisioned in her jail cell.
Chapters 4-8 Analysis
Although the novel is vague in its chronology, the events in this sequence presumably occur from the mid-1960s to approximately 1972. During this time, we see Kenny, Lucy, and Clara struggling to adapt to life in the outer world. All three of the former Mission children exhibit episodes of rage in these chapters as a reaction to the discriminatory white world. Their rage is also an echo of the anger each one felt as a helpless child in the hands of abusive authorities. While abusive authorities persist in their present lives, they are now adults and can lash out at their oppressors.
The chapters begin with Kenny’s experience as a migrant worker. This rootless existence allows him to keep running as an unconscious attempt to outrun the miseries of his past that still actively haunt him in the present. Another strategy for numbing his pain is alcohol. In this respect, Kenny has followed in his mother’s footsteps. He manages to go on living, if not surviving, by using these methods to keep his demons at bay until he encounters yet another abusive authority figure in the form of his foreman. The man unfairly docks Kenny’s pay, and this becomes the proverbial straw. Kenny attacks the foreman and is forced to flee yet again. However, this time, he flees in the direction of Lucy.
During this same period, Lucy makes some constructive advances by passing an exam and applying to nursing school. She experiences a brief episode of rage when her boss at the Manitou tells her she will never succeed. His contempt mirrors the negative opinion of the authority figures at the Mission, and Lucy angrily quits. Her rage is mild compared to Clara’s reaction. She attacks Harlan and beats him.
Clara’s short-fuse is quite apparent in these chapters as she also beats up a white man who accosts her in a bar. Her new friend George finds a more constructive channel for her rage by getting her involved in the AIM movement. While running guns for a protest might not seem like an improvement, Clara’s participation in this activity will eventually lead her to Mariah and the healing that she so desperately needs.
