Hybridity Vs Essentialism:A Comparative Study Of James Welch’s Winter In The Blood And The Death Of Jim Loney

American Indian literature is a worthy part of American literature,reflecting authentic and indigenous customs and beliefs,tribal history and current situation of Native Americans.James Welch(1940-2003)is one of the most significant writers in Indian Literature Renaissance.His works mainly depict conflicts between Indian traditions and modern lifestyle.In Winter in the Blood(1974),the protagonist,a nameless narrator alienated from Indian tradition,wanders between white towns and Indian reservation and finally constructs a hybridized cultural identity.In The Death of Jim Loney(1979),the protagonist Jim Loney,who is also detached from his Indian tradition,opts to stay on the reservation to seek for a pure and essential Indian identity,but eventually commits suicide.With assistance of two opposing cultural theories:hybridity and essentialism,this thesis analyzes the different choices and opposing fates of the two protagonists who share similar identity bewilderment.It attempts to argue that the nameless narrator’s choices conform to the ideas and tactics of hybridity.In active contact with the people in towns,he stays alert to the surroundings and keeps pondering over his own life.After breaking down the binary divisions between self and other,present and past,whites and Indians,he manages to construct a hybrid identity.On the contrary,Jim Loney is inclined to essentialism.He turns down his sister and girlfriend who encourage him to leave Indian reservations for the white city.He finally commits suicide after killing his former high-school classmate accidentally.A conclusion is reached that the sense of alienation of the two protagonists epitomizes a general spiritual crisis of American Indians,while Welch’s concern about the cultural identity of Native Americans is revealed in juxtaposition of the renewal of the nameless narrator and the suicide of Jim Loney.Marginalized in the dominant white culture,Native Americans,instead of seeking for a pure and essential identity,should take initiative to get into contact with white culture,deconstruct absolute binary divisions and reconstruct a hybrid identity before they find a proper position in multicultural America.