Two Roads

A primary aspect of Cal’s personality is his ability to let his rational mind, rather than his emotions, dictate his actions—even when he harbors strong emotions about his own situation and about the visions he sees. The vision that bothers him the most is the one that foreshadows the dangers that lie in his father’s future visit to Washington, and thus the author uses this scene both to increase the novel’s narrative tension and to further emphasize Cal’s clairvoyant abilities. Additionally, the discovery that other Creek people have this ability also allows him to forge a closer bond with his newfound heritage, for this information makes him realize that he is not alone in his unusual experiences and they might in fact have a positive origin. Despite this development, however, his primary loyalty is to his father, not to his fellow students or to Challagi. He does not want to go to the school, leave his father, or change his lifestyle. Despite this, Cal does not bring his vision to the attention of his father because he does not want to stop his father from doing what he needs to do. This is similar to the way in which Cal handles other emotions such as his own resistance to the idea of attending this new school in his father’s absence. He knows what his father is doing is important to him, however, and as such, he does not complain. These instances illustrate Cal’s ability to overcome the pull of emotion and act instead as he believes is right. Thus, even as he works on Evaluating and Assimilating New Identities, his primary identity as his father’s son continues to have a profound impact on his moment-to-moment behavior.

When the superintendent makes a speech declaring that Challagi’s students will be different from “their savage forebears” (139), he immediately reveals himself to be a representative of the Government-Sanctioned Abuse of Marginalized Populations that permeates many scenes of the novel. The condescension and contempt for Indigenous people that is inherent in his careless wording further emphasizes just how little regard he has for the students he is charged to teach and protect, for by referring to their ancestors as “savage,” he effectively dehumanizes the students themselves and implies that their own rich cultures have no value. As Pops himself previously stated, some of the tribes, including the Creek, were deemed by white populations to be “civilized” according to arbitrary white standards, but even this dubious sign of marginal regard did not prevent white people from robbing Indigenous people of their land and forcing them to walk the Trail of Tears. Thus, it is made abundantly clear to Cal and his fellow students that to be “civilized” simply means to conform to white culture and deny one’s own. While the purpose of the school is to educate these Indigenous cultures out of the students, this forced banishment via the Trail of Tears shows that even Indigenous people who conformed to white culture still were not considered to be equal.

Cal’s nickname of Jay Bird is meant as an ironic jab at the boys’ taciturn ways, but it also symbolizes a key value of Cal’s: freedom. Cal loves his life with his father on the road, and although Pop often talks about getting a farm, Cal does not have a strong desire to change their freewheeling lifestyle. Going to Challagi robs Cal of much of his freedom, but by bestowing this nickname upon him, Possum grants him a new sense of Indigenous identity even as the very image in the name of “Jay Bird” comes to symbolize freedom in Cal’s mind. Likewise, the boys all try to maintain as much freedom as they can, escaping at night to pursue their own little adventures. Thus, the desire for and benefits of freedom are demonstrated in multiple ways throughout the novel, and they are closely associated with Cal himself through his new nickname.

While Cal has just recently learned that he is Creek, the people he encounters at Challagi all emphasize in different ways just how profoundly he deserves to belong to this group that honors his own culture and background. The other boys even comment on how Cal’s physical attributes reflect his Creek heritage, a reality that he was previously unable to acknowledge due to his preconceived notions of being white. In fact, he looks so Creek to Possum that the boy assumes right away that Pop must have taught him the Creek language. Similarly, he looks so Creek to Mrs. Wilting that she does not even question his mother’s heritage and assumes that both of his parents were Creek. These people are able to see something in Cal that he was never able to perceive in himself. While in the outside world, looking very Creek is associated with being treated in a prejudicial manner, at Challagi, it will prove to be beneficial because students who look more Indigenous are treated better by their classmates than those who appear more white.

In mainstream white culture at this time, Indigenous people are seen negatively by many white people; accordingly, the Indigenous boys recognize that many of the white teachers at Challagi simply cannot be trusted. This dynamic is first demonstrated when Possum tells Cal to hide his medal from the adults, who may very well try to steal it just as they stole the valuable silver and turquoise jewelry from the Navajo children. The pilfering of these items by white elders demonstrates just how unscrupulous the officials of such schools could be and further demonstrates a more insidious version of Government-Sanctioned Abuse of Marginalized Populations, for although the school’s policy would not officially condone such acts, the adults’ thefts were never prevented, either. Thus, the incident becomes yet another example of how willing white Americans were to steal from and exploit Indigenous people for their own benefit. The students are painfully aware of this ongoing injustice, and this smaller example of pilfering can easily be interpreted as a microcosm of the much larger thefts and injustices that take place on a broader cultural level, even to this day.

In this section of the novel, the dominant theme of The Influence of Friendship on Identity takes a central role for the very first time, for in Possum, Cal discovers a loyal friend and a strong positive role model who helps him with the process of Evaluating and Assimilating Identities, particularly his newfound identity as a member of the Creek Nation. Likewise, by telling Cal about his own valuable friendships during his school days, Pop attempts to encourage his son to embrace this new lifestyle, and the author also uses this interaction to foreshadow the many valuable connections that Cal will make at school despite the social injustices he will also be forced to endure. Thus, Cal and Possum develop a valuable friendship from the very beginning. In a way, this is friendship at first sight, for Cal is interested in Possum from the moment he sees him during the parade, and Possum lives up to Cal’s positive impressions by teaching him how things work at Challagi and safeguarding his possessions during their first hours together. Possum never proves unworthy of this early trust, and it is through Cal’s relationship with Possum as well as with the other boys from the Creek gang that he learns to incorporate his Creek heritage into his own sense of identity.