The Night Wanderer

Methods of transportation, ways to acquire life necessities, and other technologies recur throughout the novel as different characters explore their environment and find ways to use these elements as signifiers for social status and human connection. For example, Keith uses duck hunting with modern weapons to connect with his friends on the reserve, while Pierre finds spearpoints and arrowheads as he claws for a connection to his old way of life. Granny Ruth desperately tries to find ways to speak in Anishinaabe to help preserve her memories of her culture and her husband, and Tiffany researches carburetors for her class but uses them as an excuse to connect with Tony. In each instance, the modern clashes with the ancient as the characters try to synthesize their own existences, as each character is strung between a long and complex history and yet placed in a modern world with modern expectations and conventions.

Importantly, the novel never presents ancient traditions or modern lifestyles as being inherently superior, but the loss of traditions and connections is treated as a tragedy. For example, the availability of redeye flights allows Pierre to return home, while modern education allows Tiffany and other girls to envision futures for themselves as lawyers or other professionals. Still, complications exist due to the racism threaded throughout the novel. The entrapment of the Europeans initially kept Pierre from returning home and ultimately led to his death and rebirth as a vampire, and the future of any Indigenous teenager on the reserve is complicated by systemic roadblocks that trap people on the reserve and punish them for their dreams. The loss of traditional ways of life—whether of the Anishinaabe language or the experience of pouring syrup on snow—also often comes from external pressures that prevent the Anishinaabe people from choosing how they want to welcome modernity. Ancient cultures are beaten out of existence and then allowed to return in acceptable, exotified ways. Thus, Anishinaabe and Indigenous traditions are commodified and are not permitted to exist organically; for example, Granny Ruth notes that people make money talking about Indigenous customs but “it was mostly those who didn’t really know that much who seemed to get all the attention” (160). These actions strip the traditions of their real use—forming and maintaining relationships with others and with the natural world—and transform them into capitalist, voyeuristic fantasies.

While no character can escape modernity or return to the past, the novel’s integration of both begs for balance and a liberated understanding of history. The narrative acknowledges the positive aspects of modern life but highlights the fact that Indigenous people are permanently marked by the centuries of colonization that brought them there. As a result, their relationships to modernity and to their own past have been damaged. The novel argues that meaning can be found in a genuine and physical understanding of one’s history, for Tiffany needs to hold a spearhead to understand the people that once held it, just as Granny Ruth needs to speak Anishinaabe and Pierre needs to reexperience the physical land he once explored as a child. These experiences cannot be objectified and commodified; they must be real and organic in order to have true meaning.