Sometimes a Great Notion: Indian Jenny
Sometimes a Great Notion can be looked at in countless ways, as any novel of 600 pages with such a complex style can be. One of the most interesting characters to follow is Indian Jenny, who is the town prostitute, as well as local indian. She refuses to move the reservation, despite being constantly down on her luck, and living in a shack by the mudflats. She practices some spiritual amalgamation of all the religions she can get her hands on, which she uses to curse those that have angered her. Clearly she is an outlier; her relatives have all been integrated into either reservation life or the general life of the North West, yet she seems to grow more and more eccentric as she adopts new religions and cultures into her life.
Her entire life seems like a bit of a sad story. She is poor and poorly educated, although she can read. She lives in the mud and sells her body for money. But, despite her poor situation, her father lives well. Her father is not such a standout in the village. His favorite activity is sitting in front of his television and watching westerns. His life seems posh by comparison. Likely, Ken Kesey was trying to make a point about conformity. Indian Jenny’s father, who conformed, began living like the rest of society, likely accepted Christianity, and embraced the cowboy culture in lieu of his native one, lives well. Whereas Indian Jenny's strange combination of religions, which is inherently individual as it is a faith entirely of her own invention, seems to keep her at the edge of society, living in poverty. She is even forced to sell her body to get by. She is another example concocted by Ken Kesey to show that the American System is inhospitable for people with their own ideas. Indian Jenny is perhaps as individual as can be, and strong willed at times, but she doesn't see any success in her life. She is another rebel suppressed by the economic difficulty of her life, by the fact that nobody will pay for such a strange prostitute unless they are already poor and drunk, and by the fact that she doesn't want to live the same life as everybody else around here. So she is held in poverty; economically held back by her individualism.
But, she's not the only one who is held back by being different in Sometimes a Great Notion...
Her entire life seems like a bit of a sad story. She is poor and poorly educated, although she can read. She lives in the mud and sells her body for money. But, despite her poor situation, her father lives well. Her father is not such a standout in the village. His favorite activity is sitting in front of his television and watching westerns. His life seems posh by comparison. Likely, Ken Kesey was trying to make a point about conformity. Indian Jenny’s father, who conformed, began living like the rest of society, likely accepted Christianity, and embraced the cowboy culture in lieu of his native one, lives well. Whereas Indian Jenny's strange combination of religions, which is inherently individual as it is a faith entirely of her own invention, seems to keep her at the edge of society, living in poverty. She is even forced to sell her body to get by. She is another example concocted by Ken Kesey to show that the American System is inhospitable for people with their own ideas. Indian Jenny is perhaps as individual as can be, and strong willed at times, but she doesn't see any success in her life. She is another rebel suppressed by the economic difficulty of her life, by the fact that nobody will pay for such a strange prostitute unless they are already poor and drunk, and by the fact that she doesn't want to live the same life as everybody else around here. So she is held in poverty; economically held back by her individualism.
But, she's not the only one who is held back by being different in Sometimes a Great Notion...