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Jonathan Schaffer
Dr. Lori Burlingame
Literature 361
27 March 2010
Critical Summary and Analysis of Musher’s “Showdown at Sorry Cave”
Andrea Musher’s essay tells of the literal and symbolic journeys of the characters that
join forces for the Sorrow Cave incident in Linda Hogan’s novel Mean Spirit. Musher
thoroughly details also the significance of the cave itself and the events that transpire as an axis
of major themes throughout the novel and an allegory to the journey of native peoples at the time
of the novel and beyond.
Musher begins her essay with a short theological quote from Mean Spirit and an
expanded passage from Paula Gunn Allen’s book Spiderwoman’s Granddaughters. Both
quotations remark the sacredness of all living things and the kinship with the earth experienced
and professed by Native Americans. She then prefaces her forthcoming analysis by suggesting
we, readers of Hogan’s Mean Spirit, have been “converted and inducted into the tribal spiritual
community” and participate in the penetration of Sorrow’s depths (23).
The author uses the powerful statement of Father Dunne to surmise the literal and
symbolic implications of this section of the novel she choose to examine: “Sorrow runs deeper
than we ever knew or could have guessed” (284). She offers that the journey through the cave is
equally symbolic to the characters’ progress through the novel and the native peoples’ history
collectively. She insists that although the title of her essay suggests a battle, the Sorrow Cave
incident is neither a climax of the novel nor a bloody “shootout” as western values would expect.
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For the bulk of the essay Musher provides character summaries and respective analyses
of each character’s development in relation to the Cave incident. She begins with the first
character to the scene, Belle, and moves through characters as they arrive to her aid. The Hill
Indians are described as a collective character, representing the “untouched” peoples still
practicing the old ways. In this similar vein she describes Michael Horse as “a keeper of the
sacred fire in both a literal and metaphorical sense”, a reclusive guardian of the old traditions
(29). Musher also details in this section the symbolic connotation of Sorrow Cave’s location
almost directly between the town of Watona/Talbert and the Hill settlement; she believes the
cave “marks a boundary between the modern world and the traditional Indian world and is used
as a sanctuary by those who travel between these two worlds”.
The author believes the killing of the bats for various reasons is synonymous with the
killings of the natives themselves by whites. She relates the apparent legitimacy of the killings
with the presence of Sheriff Gold, an embodiment of law, denoting that in both cases, corruptly
justified murder is sanctioned by the government. Musher also adds the earlier scene of the eagle
killings and Lionel Tall’s description of the Wounded Knee Massacre are also exemplified in the
death of the cave bats.
Belle, Moses, Joe Billy, Stace Redhawk, Michael Horse, Father Dunne and Jim Josh are
all given appropriate description and analysis. Belle’s traditional matriarchal role is called into
focus to protect the bats while western value systems of husband and male domination are
subverted in Moses as he takes to her side in aide. Stace Redhawk distances himself from the
federal government and grows backward to his roots in taking the side opposite of the law in this
event. Joe Billy and Father Dunne are both described in separate ways as characters transitioning
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between two spiritual worlds, the Christian and the Native, Father Dunne’s transition to Native
living is noted in this essay to be solidified by his arrival to the caves alongside the Hill people.
Musher goes on to expand on the gravity of the situation at Sorrow Cave and the
metaphorical implications the actions suggest. She argues that the bats, believed to have the
strongest medicine, lead the people into the secret chambers to escape the mob and police
waiting outside. This vindicates the novel’s insistence on the power of bat medicine, in that it
allowed the people to slip by undetected by the blockade. The author also points out that the first
characters through the narrow chamber exit are the spiritual leaders Michael Horse, Joe Billy,
Father Dunne and Stace Redhawk; this act of leadership echoes the native paradigm refers to
spiritual leaders as “road men”, finding the right spiritual path for the people to journey.
In the concluding arguments of the essay Musher parallels the journey into the depths of
Sorrow Cave with the stages of grief experienced by the native generations. She believes this
event in the novel serves as a humbling passage through the emotional trauma recently visited
upon the town of Watona, but also the trauma of their bloodline, visited upon their ancestry. The
connecting chambers are discovered to contain artifacts from their ancient ancestors, evidence of
a simpler, holier way of life. The passage through these tombs reveals “the efficacy of the
paradoxical proposition that Indian survival depends on journeying forward into the past” (24).
The essay closes by reminding the reader that no one character made the journey alone, hinting
to a subversion of the western value of the lone hero and reaffirming the native value of
community-based endeavors. She argues that this incident challenges the “Kill the Indian, save
the man” motto of subjugation and assimilation, and offers instead the hope that individuals may
be killed, yet the tribe will live on.
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Andrea Musher summarized her essay perfectly when she wrote, “close examination of
[the Sorrow Cave] incident functions like a prism through which various themes of the novel are
gathered and laid out in clear band of color” (24). What Musher has done is gathered all of the
critical elements of the scene—the characters, the history, the location—and separated them like
swatches of color, each element examined individually for it’s significance and role, then
collapses the spectrum back together to reveal the big picture and the impact of the scene.
Essentially Musher’s argument is two-fold: she suggests Sorrow Cave is a literal
manifestation of the emotional and spiritual journey undertaken by the characters of the novel,
and that the path to survival taken by the characters is metaphorical for the path to survival for all
native peoples. The author is very effective in supporting her argument, and it is my opinion that
her argument compliments the nature of the novel. These two ideas seem in concert with themes
presented throughout the work, as if borrowed from an unwritten introduction by Hogan herself.
I believe Musher’s portrayal of Sorrow Cave as metaphor is an accurate one and her
evidence is substantial. She picks a good quote from Father Dunne, “Sorrow runs deeper than we
ever knew or could have known” to show what I believe is Hogan hinting toward the same
metaphor. Hogan makes use of the name Sorrow throughout the novel to play upon concept of
grief. When Michael Horse first meets Stace Redhawk at the foot of the cave, he says, “Well, I
used to live over at the Coffee River. Right now, though, I live here in Sorrow”(232). To which
Stace replies, “I’m sorry. I’m real sorry” (233). It seems evident, as Musher proposes, Hogan
wishes us to ponder the dual literal/metaphorical nature of the cave.
If we are to see the cave in this sense, the events that transpire are harmonious to what we
understand about the stages of grief. Sorrow is not an emotion one visits for an afternoon, nor is
it an emotion one escapes as quickly at they enter. Similarly, Sorrow Cave is a place where
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people come to dwell in. Michael Horse stays in Sorrow for months on end, eventually joined by
Father Dunne. When Stace arrives he stays for several days. When the community finds
themselves trapped in Sorrow by the white antagonists they must crawl see the place through, to
its absolute end, before they can find freedom once more. If in the morning the community had
staged a sneak attack on the encroaching whites the symbolism established by Hogan earlier in
the novel would have been destroyed. One cannot fight one’s way out of Sorrow. As an emotion
sorrow must be seen through, it must be fully explored—that is, accepted—before one trapped in
it can be released.
Musher’s second assertion is that the journey through the cave represents a roadmap for
native peoples to preserving their identity. In the novel, Belle and company stand up against the
killing of the sacred bats, drawing a line in the sand to preserve their culture. Had the protesters
climbed down from the cave and surrendered they would’ve have been arrested under white law
and the message would have been one of submission and subjugation. Had the protesters used
guns to fight off the whites the message would’ve been one of violent resistance. Instead,
following the sacred bats, the people become invisible and travel backward through the unseen
chambers of Sorrow, through passages painted with images of the past and scattered with relics
of their ancestors.
In several of the character analyses the author points out that all of the characters who at
the novel’s opening had accepted the white Christian faith begin to transition toward the native
spirituality following periods of crisis. Although Musher does not include this in her argument,
several characters escape the chaos and danger of Watona by retreating into the secret enclave of
the Hill settlement, a village that preserves and thrives on the old ways. In the novel the past is
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the only reprieve for the present people. Musher insists this is Hogan’s directive, and I believe it
is a well-founded assertion.
In summary, I believe the article was respectful of the themes of Mean Spirit,
knowledgeable of the context and intent and provided conclusive examples to support presented
claims. I do not believe there is much to disagree or discredit in this short work, only that there is
a great wealth of evidence from other sections of the novel that could be called be additionally
called upon to support assertions made for the Sorrow Cave incident. I do not know of much
scholarly analysis of this one novel, but I assume Musher’s case is an original one. I feel I come
to consider the events of the novel with greater appreciation for subtle symbolism than I had at
first glance, due in course of reading and evaluating this essay.
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Works Cited
Hogan, Linda. Mean Spirit. New York: Antheneum, 1990.
Musher, Andrea. “Showdown at Sorrow Cave: Bat Medicine and the Spirit of Resistance
in Mean Spirit.” Studies in American Indian Literatures (SAIL) 6.3 (Fall 1994):
23-36