Mainstream Canadian Writers: a Literary Review of Stolen Life by Rudy Wiebe and the Rüsslander by Sandra Birdsell

Home , Armin Wiebe, Sandra Birdsell

MAINSTREAM CANADIAN WRITERS: A LITERARY REVIEW OF STOLEN LIFE BY RUDY WIEBE AND THE RÜSSLANDER BY SANDRA BIRDSELL

MARIO BIGRAS

Integrated Studies Project

submitted to Dr. Jolene Armstrong

in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts – Integrated Studies

Athabasca, Alberta

March, 2016

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction...... 1

Nesting dolls...... 2

Mental abuse...... 5

Physical abuse...... 7

Sex education...... 11

Landlessness...... 13

Justice...... 17

Spirituality-forgiveness...... 21

Conclusion...... 23

Bibliography...... 25

INTRODUCTION

In Canadian literary history, authors belonging to the two solitudes (English and French) have been considered representatives of Canadian literature; however, since World War I, men and women from other ethnic groups have immigrated to Canada, and children of these ethnic groups have produced literary works. Not belonging to the two solitudes, they have been labeled

‘minority writers’, even when they write in one of the two official languages of Canada.

Accordingly, minority ethnic writers are often read and critiqued as separate and distinct from mainstream Canadian Literature. They are often ranked as being outside of the major canon yet judged according to the values assigned to majority literature. This would include authors like

Roy Miki (Japanese-Canadian), Andrew Suknaski (Ukrainian and Polish ancestry), Patrick

Friesen and Di Brandt (both Mennonite). However, I believe that the literary works by Canadian

Mennonite writers should be examined or read according to the literature’s own values and its contribution to the new composite of Canadian literary history. It is important to distinguish and celebrate diversity but not at the cost of considering their literary works as being of lesser value simply because the authors do not belong to the established majority originally conceptualized by the notion of two solitudes. By judging the works of different ethnic writers and simply comparing them to the conservative literary stronghold equates to a misunderstanding of their imaginary literary talent. I think it is better to consider them as Canadian authors and include their literature as part and parcel of the Canadian literature as a whole. This way, criticism would be rightly based on their own creativity not on arbitrary ethnic divisions.

In this paper, I will argue that two Canadian born Mennonite writers, Sandra Birdsell and

Rudi Wiebe, should be considered part of the Canadian national literature. This consideration is

1 based on the fact that the contemporary production of Canadian national literature has changed.

What primarily consisted of texts specifically addressing the dominant English and French culture, now includes literary texts directly pertaining to other ethnic and marginalized groups.

The Mennonites and the indigenous people are included in these groups. The voices of these people are coming to the forefront because of authors like Birdsell and Wiebe. The quality of their literary productions is comparable to literary texts addressing matters pertaining to only the two solitudes and provides literature truly representative of the Canadian pluralistic society. In her novel The Rüsslander, Birdsell writes about the atrocities the Russian Mennonites suffered under the communist regime leading to their exodus from that country. Rudy Wiebe co-wrote

Stolen Life along with Yvonne Johnson (a Cree woman), revealing the oppression and injustice an aboriginal woman has experienced living in the USA and in Canada. By focusing in such a manner, they diverge from other Mennonite works such as Armin Wiebe’s The Salvation

Canada of Yasch Siemens or Di Brandt’s Watermelon Syrup which is written about Mennonites’ life experiences in the USA or Canada. Birdsell writes about the Mennonite communities in

Russia and about the struggles of Katya Vogt until she immigrates to Canada. Wiebe, on the other hand, reaches farther afield by writing about an aboriginal woman, a topic that is totally outside the Mennonite community. Both authors raise issues that are dear to Canadians. This essay will illuminate the complex issues, such as mental and physical abuse, sex education, landlessness, justice/injustice, and spirituality that are present in these two novels.

NESTING DOLLS

I believe the worlds described in both of these novels consist of different levels of reality, just like nesting dolls, existing one within the other. According to Paula Geyh:

[t]he collapse of the grand narratives has left us with no hope of a single

conceptual system or discourse through which we might attempt to understand the

totality of the world. Instead we have a plurality of frequently incommensurable

worlds and often mutually incompatible systems of language and thought through

which to comprehend them. (3)

Therefore, it is a multitude or a 'plurality' of different worldviews or a series of small narratives that enables people to comprehend their world. The modernist writer is concerned with "[h]istory with a capital H" yet as Geyh points out, the postmodernist writer is preoccupied with history with a "small h" (3). Small 'h' history for Yvonne Johnson and Katya Vogt means looking at their personal and intimate life stories which have been influenced by a variety of social factors. Geyh makes it clear when she states that "the single most crucial conceptual determinate of the postmodern era and of postmodernism . . . is an uncontainable and irreducibly de-centered multiplicity of coexisting cognitive and cultural paradigms, without any one of them being uniquely dominant or central"(2). Although these two novels display postmodern traits, they include other 'cognitive and cultural paradigms' found in theories such as postcolonialism and feminism.

To begin the comparison of these two novels, it is important to understand postcolonialism and how Yvonne Johnson was capable of co-writing her book. According to Robert

J.C. Young, to understand post-colonialism, one only needs to look "at the world not from above, but from below" (20). In Stolen Life, Yvonne Johnson's worldview is depicted as a world seen from 'below'. In the video Postcolonial Theory, G.C. Spivak explains that any woman living in a world from ‘below’ is often unable to reach a broad and receptive audience without having some

3 kind of infrastructure. This is precisely Yvonne Johnson's case, as she so rightly points out that

“[i]f no one ever speaks the words that should be spoken, the silence destroys you” (329). How does a woman like her break the silence? At the end of her article entitled "Can the Subaltern

Speak?", Spivak states that "[t]he subaltern cannot speak. There is no virtue in global laundry lists with "woman" as a pious item. Representation has not withered away. The female intellectual as intellectual has a circumscribed task which she must not disown with a flourish"

(Spivak 308). In other words, given the disadvantaged position of a marginalized speaker, a scholar must help Yvonne to speak. Prior to the engagement of a scholar, Spivak also mentions that the first step in speaking out, is that the subaltern must develop a political consciousness

(Postcolonial Theory). During her jail time in P4W, Yvonne did a lot of soul searching and read books by Carl Jung. She says that Jung "...has the White words...but to me he thinks like an

Indian... [h]e writes this which is me. I wish I could speak to him" (425). Equipped with some philosophical inspiration from Jung, she developed her own political consciousness and wrote a series of notebooks about her personal life struggles. At that moment, she was ready to reach out to an intellectual to complete her 'speech act'. Knellwolf proclaims that "[t]he project of looking at subaltern actions and histories needs to go on, but it is now the task of the intellectual to stand in and speak on behalf of this irrecoverable voice of the subaltern (241). Beck is impressed with

Rudy Wiebe's guidance in enabling her voice to be heard. He even qualifies Wiebe's intellectual assistance as "brilliantly demonstrat[ing]s how it is indeed possible for an author to enable a

"subaltern" to "speak" (9).

Birdsell becomes the intellectual that completes the 'speech act' depicting the violence endured by Katya and other Russian Mennonites. Although the novel The Rüsslander is fictional, it tells the story of the Vogt's family which is similar to what Sandra Birdsell's mother's

4 people experienced in Russia. In an interview with Joan Thomas, Birdsell mentions that "[n]ot many of the characters in the novel are actual people, although certain events mentioned - such as various atrocities that occurred at the height of the upheaval-are factual" (Birdsell 2). Her research also includes the journal of her grandfather's brother, Gerhard Schroeder that made mention of such atrocities. Therefore, in her mind "it's difficult to explain where the fiction and fact begin and end" (Birdsell 2). Despite living on different continents, at different times,

Yvonne Johnson and Katya Vogt endure similar oppressions. Canada's population is a mosaic of various cultures including marginalized groups like the Indigenous people and the Mennonites.

To listen to their 'speech act' is dear to Canadians as it fosters intercultural understanding and may encourage other speakers to speak.

MENTAL ABUSE

The term post-colonialism should mean that colonialism has ended and a new age has begun. Unfortunately some of the attitudes towards indigenous people stemming from colonial times have prevailed within this new era. In the novel Stolen Life, one such persistent attitude is the systemic racist mind-set towards Yvonne and her family. Growing up in Butte, Montana meant continually being harassed by white people. Yvonne witnessed it firsthand "when one night a cross was burned in the Johnson's White House yard, with yells of "Prairie niggers!""

(82). This disgraceful demonstration is representative of the long lasting feeling of oppression and violence by Caucasian settlers towards marginalized groups. Not only is the name calling directed at indigenous people but it includes anyone not Caucasian. Another affront occurs when

Yvonne and her family are marching through town on their way to the cemetery to bury her brother Earl. The onlookers yell "Indians on the warpath! Redskins coming!" (83). Hence, to refer to the bereaved family as a group of indigenous people on the 'warpath' is an unrelenting

5 reminder of the settlers’ perception that any gathering of indigenous people is menacing.

Although the onlookers know that the procession is not a wagon burning mission, their words are meant to offend the bereavers. The march is, rather, a symbol of indigenous people on a path of defeat in the face of white injustice towards her brother Earl who is believed to have been killed by the local police. Such postcolonial bigotry makes Yvonne’s kohkum (great-grand-mother) very uncomfortable, as she "feared the White supremacy movement, which was always powerful in Butte . . .where individual violence was easily accepted" (90). Children in Butte appear to have been copying adult behaviour, and they practice racism overtly as well. They call the indigenous children "savages" and say things like "[y]our ancestors killed my grandparents and

Custer!" and in so doing fail to mention that their ancestors killed many of Chief Sitting Bull's people (82). The taunting performed by these children confirms her kohkum's assessment that violence towards indigenous people is easily accepted in this community. To harass Yvonne even more, the Butte's school children ridicule her by referring to her physical deformity. A boy tells her that she got her cleft by "sucking [her] brother's cock" (83). Rude and pervasive language is also present in The Rüsslander where similar sexual pestering is expressed by

Russian children. Katya's younger brother is verbally abused by Kolya, a Russian boy, who refers to him as "little shit-puddle" and "little chicken fuckers, piss-pot lickers" (18). Katya herself is subject to insults from Vera, an adolescent Russian girl, hired to work on the estate.

Vera challenges Katya to cut a chicken's head to prove that she is not like the rich and stuck-up estate owner's family; she categorically refuses to do so. Upon her refusal, Vera calls Katya a

"shit-hole of a pig" (102). Both Yvonne and Katya experience sexual and racist insults. It is important at this time to distinguish between the perpetrators of such vulgar language in both novels. Yvonne experiences insults coming from the top down which confirms Young's

6 postcolonial theory. In Katya's case, the insults are generated from the peasants/proletariats or from the bottom up. The mental abuse detected in these novels, either postcolonial in nature or not, are postmodern as they describe very specific and personal experiences and point to something systemic as well. Another aspect of postmodernism is the reference to the vernacular language. This is worthy of its own discussion as it is a very important feature of both works of literature. Its use makes a direct connection between the protagonists and their social worlds.

PHYSICAL ABUSE

The use of rape by colonial powers as a tool of systematic oppression has been present in the Americas since the arrival of Christopher Columbus who sanctioned rape of indigenous women (Indian Country). Deer states that "[r]ape is more than a metaphor for colonization - it is part and parcel of colonization (150)." Furthermore, according to Amnesty International:

Historically, Indigenous women were raped by settlers and soldiers, including

during the Trail of Tears and the Long Walk. Such attacks were not random or

individual; they were tools of conquest and colonization. The attitudes towards

Indigenous peoples that underpin such human rights abuses continue to be present

in the USA today. (Maze of Injustice)

While rape as a tool of systematic oppression towards indigenous women never ceased,

Jean Franco provides ample evidence that rape is also used as a tool of war. She documented sexual atrocities endured by women in countries such as Peru and Guatemala and former

Yugoslavia. She states that "the melancholy truth is that ethnic cleansing, massacre, and rape go on elsewhere"(34). In both novels, the 'elsewhere' is located in North America and Russia.

Systematic oppression is predominant in Stolen Life. Yvonne is raped at least fourteen times yet

7 the one rape in particular is most significant from the perspective of systematic oppression. It is viewed as an act of postcolonial violence, as well as sexual violence. In Butte’s local jail,

Yvonne is raped by the police officers who arrested her. She finds herself “curled naked in the corner of the padded cell, and they gave me a coffee. When I wake up groggy, I’m all wet. . . my hair seem glued to the floor” (123). The difference between this rape and all the others she suffered is that it is racially motivated and meant to be an act of racial oppression. Such sexual abuse is not simply disrespecting women; it is meant to show how meaningless an indigenous woman is in the eyes of these white men, supposed keepers of the law. Although the novel The

Rüsslander is not set within the context of postcolonialism, the rapes are racially oriented as well and used as a tactic of war and oppression of one ethnicity by another. Simeon Pravda and his followers brutally coerced Mennonite women on Abram Sudermann's estate. The men knew very well that their profound religious beliefs would prevent the women from retaliating. It made them easy prey. Greta, Katya's sister, is the chosen victim as "someone come[s] up behind her and force[s] her back down" (236). These anarchists, although not legally representing the local authority, were nonetheless making their own law. This power struggle is very similar to the policemen in Butte who were making their own law. Birdsell's approach in exposing the rape of Greta and possibly of her mother and Lydya Sudermann, is more discreet than in the case of

Yvonne Johnson’s jail rape. Yet it expresses a racially driven motive against German women by

Russian men in position of power/authority. Another man in authority does commit rape but this time on a Russian female employee. Abram Sudermann "had followed Manya into the forest and come upon her sitting on the steps of the mausoleum, her skirts up about her thighs to cool herself, and had taken it to be an invitation" hence raping her (48). It is evident that women in both novels are physically (sexually) abused by men in positions of power.

From a feminist point of view, both novels express concerns of how women are perceived and treated by men. In The Rüsslander, Birdsell uses the voice of Dr. Warkentine to express how a woman’s genitelia influences men’s cruel behaviour towards women. He says that “[t]he uterus, yes, there it is. . . [t]he cause of most of the world’s problems” (240). Any woman, especially a feminist, would argue that most of the world’s problems are linked to the phallus rather than the uterus. Respecting the era in which the novel takes place, Birdsell expresses the rapes using concealed descriptive words. She uses the term ‘laid down’ when referring to Greta’s rape (228) and of “the women in the towns of Rosenthal and Chortitza” thereby, effectively stating a horrific event with a touch of disguise (305). Katya was never raped but the thoughts of her sister and mother having been raped haunts her throughout the novel. The subject of rape in Stolen Life is more bold and direct. Yvonne’s multiple rapes have a deep psychological effect on her, as she expresses her disgust and her innermost feeling when she says:

What’s so special about my ugly body, men forcing themselves into every

opening in it – why don’t they slash open my belly and wash their face in my guts

as I die in one piece. At least I’d know it was final. But no, they ram themselves

into me and defile my life for ever. (174)

This quote is important since it reveals that Yvonne is conscious of the rape as a tool of oppression as opposed to being about unchecked desire. What Yvonne's close relatives have done to her is unchecked desire. She had forced sexual intercourse with her grandfather Louie, her own father and her brother Leon. Louie, a pedophile, sexually assaults "four years old"

Yvonne (136). Her father whose wife had left him and who considers his daughter as a whore

"...[shoved her] back onto the couch, opens his pants, pushes himself on [her]" (124). Finally,

Leon's motive in raping Yvonne is similar to her father's since "[a] sister was less to him than a whore because he wouldn't have to pay for her" (208). Is it incest or rape? Incest consist of sexual intercourse with someone linked by blood, but it has to be consensual. In all cases,

Yvonne never consents to having sex hence; these are acts of rape. Notably incest is present in

The Rüsslander, but it is arranged and socially approved. When Dietrich must marry Barbara, his cousin and the daughter of the well-to-do Jakob instead of Greta Vogt, whose father is less affluent, it becomes apparent that such arranged marriage happens purely for economic reasons

(212). Decision-making occurred during 'faith conferences' since such gatherings offered:

opportunities for the offspring of people with the same size purses to meet for

marriages to be hatched, for cousins to marry cousins, half-sisters to marry half-

brothers, in order to combine family fortunes. A Mennonite aristocracy, complete

with albino offspring, children with bleeding and sight problems, those who were

sickly and sometimes not altogether too bright. (124)

The fact remains that sexual relationships occurs amongst men and women who are closely linked by blood and affinity and such association could be regarded as unlawful. It appears to be detrimental to the community as it produces weak and sickly children. This indicates that for economic reasons, women can be used as sexual commodities. For her grandfather, father and brother, Yvonne is a money saver. Within rich Mennonite families, marriage among cousins ensures monetary gains. In both cases, women have little domain over their bodies, and more often than not are victims of male power agendas.

Was Barbara and Dietrich's match-making marriage consensual? May be Dietrich and

Barbara's financial well-being was more important to them than a marriage based on a love

10 relationship. Yet such pre-arranged marriages, explains Naïma Bendriss, are usually not consensual. She writes that "individuals who are unable to avoid a forced marriage endure non- consensual sexual relations. They experience this as a violation of their privacy, of their body and of their identity as women. They become depressed and live with feelings of rage" (2008

Report on the Practice of Forced Marriage in Canada: Interviews with Frontline Workers 23).

The novel shows no evidence of depression nor rage yet Marlene Epp who wrote about

Mennonite women in Canada, points out that "[m]any women resigned themselves to what was presented to them as a God-ordained relationship of authority and submission within marriage"

(114). What Abram Sudermann presented to Dietrich and Barbara possibly was non-negotiable and consent was not an option. Barbara, like other women forced into marriage, simply resigned herself to the will of her father, the patriarch. Did Barbara consent or resign herself to the will of her father? We will never know as the novel omits such an assertion.

SEX EDUCATION

Every child at one point or another in their life will discover sex. For Yvonne and Katya, the discovery is experienced differently. Katya's only sex education lesson occurs in her teen years. To explain sexual relations between a woman and a man can be an uncomfortable experience for any adult. Irma's explanation is direct but presented figuratively. She never mentions the sex organs of either gender with their proper name, thereby ensuring that the description does not degenerate into inappropriate anatomical details. Irma makes:

a fist of her large hand and set it on her knee. Then she spread open two fingers.

"These are the woman's legs". . .then she extend the index finger on her other

hand. "This is what a man has between his legs," she said, and wiggled it . . . then

Irma slid her index finger between the spread fingers. "He moves it around inside

the woman, and by and by, honey comes out of it. The honey stays inside the

woman. The honey mixes with seeds you carry, here," she said, and poked Katya

in the abdomen . . . [s]ometimes he groans and moans, and sometimes he says, 'I

love you.' But usually he's too busy to think" (311).

The sex lesson respects the modest spirit of the nineteenth century, an era which required avoidance of direct naming of sexual body parts. To have managed to create such a passage and keeping with the Victorian era of the secrecy of such delicate subject is remarkable in itself.

Many other things are remarkable as well. Firstly, the lesson occurs in a secluded room providing the appropriate confidentiality to discuss a topic that needed to remain among women.

Secondly, the word choices used in the explanation are figurative and humoristic. The sperm described as honey is something Katya can relate to as it signifies something good, healthy and innocent. Irma uses the words 'groans and moans' to explain a man's sexual pleasure during sex yet no mention is made of how the woman reacts to the intercourse. The fact that the woman's feelings during sexual intercourse are not expressed conveys the message that she is to be submissive and incapable of sexual pleasure. The explanation also ends with subtle mockery at the man's egocentric attitude during sex as Irma says that the man is 'usually...too busy to think'.

What is amazing and shows Birdsell's writing creativity is that the sex lesson carries hidden meanings. She cleverly juxtaposes this seemingly innocent passage with rape that is widespread among the Mennonite colonies at the time. This peaceful discussion about consensual sex between a man and a woman offers a total contrast to what is physically happening outside the confines of that room.

Yvonne never received such a gentle explanation on lovemaking. Pedophiles brutally introduce her to sex. She says that she "was never taught what it meant to be a woman - except what [she] understood to be the shame of it" (168). As a matter of fact, when she was first raped at the age of four, she did not even know it was sex. Her understanding of sex is "do as you're told or lie like a log; take it, perform" (170). Yvonne's sex education defies the modernist views of the ideal family based on a model middle-class family. It portrays a dysfunctional family with distorted sexual aspirations. In Katya's case, the motherly and figurative sex lesson can be considered postmodernist as well since the lesson occurs during a time when many young girls like Katya find out about sex once raped or when they are to be forced into marriage.

LANDLESSNESS

Going back time immemorial, Jews and Palestinians have waged war over territory they both claim as their homeland, resulting not only in destruction and death but also in depriving one side or the other of property. Among many reasons for the recent invasion of Crimea

(Ukraine) by Russia is the appropriation of more land -- in this instance access to land and sea ports. Ironically, Chortitza Island, renamed Zaporizhzhya, is the same parcel of land where the

Mennonite settlements mentioned in The Rüsslander once were. Ukrainian troops are now defending this land from further Russian invasion. Almost a century after the ordeal with

Mennonites, the Ukrainians are now in danger of being displaced by the Russians. Many groups of people across the globe have experienced similar invasions and have been forced to relocate, thereby, becoming landless. Both novels address the loss of land by both indigenous people and

Mennonites. The indigenous people of North and South America and Australia/Oceania have seen their ancestral land taken over by European settlers. To adhere to their capitalistic belief of private property ownership, the European settlers resorted to sequestering the indigenous people

13 onto reserves. The indigenous peoples' beliefs about land ownership is totally different than the

Europeans'. They consider land to be shared among all humans. What has been the significance of becoming landless to the indigenous people and the Mennonites in these novels? In all cases, land acquisition means resources and resources equate to power. According to Young "[t]he experience of dispossession and landlessness [...] the struggle for 'native title' has also been a major concern for native Americans in North America (49). Yvonne makes reference to the effect of relocating indigenous people onto reserves, thereby, physically stopping them from roaming the land. She refers to her Grandma who "said we had no concept of "poor" before

Whites came; the Whites created poverty" (199). Arguably it is the disappearance of the buffalo that heavily contributed to forcing indigenous people into signing treaties. It was the only way to stop starvation. Grandma's statement is indisputable, as the Cree people would have lived in abundance had the Europeans never set foot on the prairies. It is not only the economic aspect that affects Yvonne and her people, it is the lack of the spiritual respect given by her family to her ancestors. In the introduction of The Post-colonial Studies Reader it mentions that "...at the end of the twentieth century, debates about the sacred have become more urgent as issues such as land rights and rights to sacred beliefs and practices begin to grow in importance" (Ashcroft,

Griffiths, and Tiffin, 7). In signing treaties, indigenous people gave large areas of land to

European settlers including sacred burial grounds. Such a debate (more like a quarrel) occurs in

Stolen Life. Yvonne's family, camping at the burial site of her Cree ancestors, deemed Crown land, are confronted by a farmer who has no tolerance for indigenous people on the leased land and seeks the help of the RCMP to chase them away. It is the rancher's bellowing "I'm gonna dig up your goddam burial ground and crush every bone I find into bonemeal to feed my cattle!" which enrages her family (203). This event is racist but more importantly, it portrays the settler's

14 lack of recognition and respect of indigenous people and confirms his belief in land ownership as being a right even if the land is only leased. Such attitude continues to haunt aboriginals and this is likely why the authors have introduced it in this passage. It is contesting the colonial approach of private property imposed upon the First Nations effectively making them landless.

Land possession is problematic in the novel The Rüsslander as well. Russian Mennonites never signed treaties like the indigenous people did. It was not the disappearance of the buffalo that caused them to become landless but religious persecution. When Katya looks at the pictures of her ancestors in her grandparents' house, the narrator provides a brief history of Katya's family. It reveals that their property had been taken away from them on many occasions. Her ancestors, successful land owners in the Netherlands and Germany were persecuted because of their religious beliefs and had to relocate to Russia to start anew. Coming to Russia appeared to be a sanctuary. However, harassment lead some Mennonites to relocate out of Russia some thirty years prior to the rise of communism. In the "1870s, when most of the people in Bergtal, fearing their rights were about to be taken away by the tsar, packed up and went to Canada" (69-

70). During political upheaval in the reign of the Tsar more fear was endured. Katya's father knew that trouble was underway when "Stolypin [was assassinated, meaning] . . . the end to land reforms" basically halting the purchase of land by Mennonites (63). With the advent of communism and the fall of the monarchy, private ownership was abolished and, in principle, land belonged to all. This lead to the confiscation of Mennonite estates like Privol'noye where the Sudermann and the Vogt families resided. The modernist's dream of a better world collapsed. Privol'noye, once a beautiful refuge or oasis became an inferno. This inferno appears to have been created by some Mennonites who took predilection for wealth. Katya heard that

"[t]here once was a time when a man would be ashamed to admit that he was anything but a

15 farmer . . . now many had become other than God intended", and Abram Sudermann was such a man (16). He was not satisfied with a basic refuge and the sustenance his oasis provided. He went against God's intention and became greedy. The more wealth he acquired the more he neglected his Russian workers. They only "had the right to some produce of their labour, what wheat there might be lying on a field, scraps of fat from the fall killing, the feet of butchered chickens"(56). Abram was not the only one who went against God's intention. Katya's mother recalls seeing "a mansion owned by a Mennonite, a man whom people weren't ashamed to call

Millionaire Toews, that occupied a full city block" (131). For the modern thinker, progress always is in the forefront but Birdsell has successfully written a text that demonstrates a postmodernist way of thinking. The plundering and killing of Russian Mennonites in many of these oases by the Russian proletariats represents her thinking. For her the dismantling of the accumulation of wealth is "reactionary, especially towards the ideas and ideals in the modernist movement" which views "humanity as an entity that is perpetually improving and progressing . .

. yet, at best, cause chaos and disorder" (Matos 3). Moreover, she mentions that when she wrote about the Mennonites' plight, she was influenced by what she saw "every week . . . on television people running for some border or other, fleeing countries they'd known as their homeland for hundreds of years" (Birdsell 3).

The fact remains that in becoming landless, the indigenous people have lost a way of life that provided the abundance of material and spiritual resources necessary for their survival.

Mennonites have lost their land because of religious persecution and to some degree due to greed. Furthermore, in present day Ukraine, people are fighting to preserve their land from

Russian invasion. Why should these two novels be prized by Canadians? The answer is simple.

A great number of Canadians have come from war torn countries and experienced the feeling of landlessness. The present Syrian refugee crisis is but one present day example.

JUSTICE

Justice is explored in many forms in these two novels. Firstly, there is the disgraceful attitudes and comments towards women by people in authority. During questioning at the hearing for the rape of Yvonne's sister Karen by their brother Leon, the lawyer displays a shocking and condescending attitude. The crown lawyer "K.M. Migneault demands to know both inch and cup size. And then makes her repeat it. . . [which prompts Yvonne to qualify him as . . . [a] typical stupid male who has a position in the legal system to defile the victim" (357).

Such questioning has no relevance to the case, and it shows how sexist these comments were.

What is also notable is that this court session was presided by his Honour Judge D.M. Arnot, another male in a position of power, who apparently did not see anything wrong with this type of discreditable questioning since he never stopped it. Dr. Warkentine's attitude is also questionable since he puts the blame for the world's problem on the woman's uterus. To say such a statement in the presence of Katya is misogynistic and shows how inappropriate it is for a person of authority to speak in this manner. It is fitting at this time to introduce a recent event that directly pertains to the practice of justice in a rape case. In September 2014, the court transcript has Justice Robin Camp asking the rape victim some very upsetting questions. He asked "[w]hy didn't you just skink your bottom down into the basin so he couldn't penetrate you?" and "[w]hy couldn't you just keep your knees together?" (Robson 1). To focus on women's bra size or the capability of a women to stop a rapist by locking her knees together or blaming a woman's uterus as the single cause for sexual abuse, proves that within the last century, from the timeframe of the Russian revolution to the present, very little progress has been

17 made in changing the mindset of men. The battle which started with the suffragettes appears to be ongoing and will continue until men, especially men in authority, alter their ingrained sexist mindset.

Secondly, justice is not solely linked to males in position of authority, it is also measured by the fate of the antagonists. In the novel The Rüsslander, eventually Pravda and Vera had to pay for their crimes. This is Birdsell's fictional way of equalizing the sufferance. "In the end

[Pravda] was chased by the Reds; abandoned by his peers; and, unable to run away "with his cut- off legs . . . shoot himself dead" (300). Vera who "had crossed the border into the nightmare that was the present world [and] had chosen to stand with the enemy" does not die but becomes homeless (318). As the people of the village gathered to slaughter the dead horse, Vera is among them. Katya recognizes the "Haulftän . . . Grudge-Bearer" who had been abandoned by her peers and dying of starvation (346). This type of equalizer often occurs in fictional novels like

The Rüsslander but in Stolen Life, the antagonists remain unpunished. However, there is one instance in Stolen Life where some justice occurs. Shirley Anne Salmon who lied during

Yvonne's trial "may never face the consequences of her original lies, nor admit she was manipulated by the law [but she] must have so much pain . . . Shirley Anne is her own worst time, she has to put up with herself" (444). Pravda, Vera and Shirley Anne are, in some way or another, punished for their actions, serving to diminish at least some of the protagonists' pain and suffering.

Thirdly, justice is also associated with the topic of resistance. In The Rüsslander, Katya's family abiding to the Anabaptist belief that men and women should be "peace lovers, non- resisters who believed in turning the other cheek" proved to be detrimental to the community's well-being (21). During a debate, David Sudermann says; "So then, Franz, as a true pacifist you

18 wouldn't protect your mother, say, or your sisters, if the need for it arose? Because if there's war it could spill right into our laps. We'd have to decide whether or not to resist" (122). Katya's father was put to the test during the massacre and could have fought back but he only "pushed the man's gun aside, his fists tight and shaking in the air beside his head, his features swollen and contorted" (236). His contorted features are symbolic of a man questioning this non-resistant rule that he was brought up to believe in. At one point, it was suggested by members of the community that it was "time to do as the Gemeinde in the second colony...and form a self- defence unit" (162). This illustrates that there comes a time when simply turning the other cheek does not suffice. Incorporating evidence that the Mennonite pacifist viewpoint may not be infallible in all life situations, displays a reactionary attitude towards the ideal of pacifism. This evidence is very postmodernist in nature. On the other hand, Birdsell does mention that "[t]here was much debate following that as to whether these defense units had brought even more violence on the people" (Birdsell 4). It is rather difficult to toy with the idea that more violence may have caused by resisting especially when rape and murder of loved ones would have occurred without resistance anyway. This may be why Birdsell, much like her Mennonite characters, "doubts [having] the inclination to be passive" as the way to act in such situations

(Birdsell 5).

In Stolen Life, Yvonne shows some form of passive resistance to justice. "Like her ancestor Big Bear at his trial for treason-felony in 1885, she did not speak a word in her own defence" (318). It is her doubt in a fair judicial system that prevents her from speaking. In her mind, to judge an indigenous person using the "preordained order of the legal process of

Canadian justice and guilt and punishment" is detrimental to her (309). She instead believes in the native justice system which "is to restore the peace and equilibrium within the community,

19 and to reconcile the accused with his or her own conscience and with the individual or family who has been wronged"(Concept of Aboriginal Justice, 6). Yvonne does not believe in this

Canadian justice system whereby the accused faces a "dialogue of oppositions to expose the truth" yet she feels that the outcome of such a proceeding does not always reveal the truth as

"[o]ne can expect what the judge or jury, who are invariably of the majority race, will find

"believable"" (314). She highlights two important obstacles in obtaining justice. She feels that the most convincing argument without any consideration for 'peace and equilibrium' does not work. The sentenced person is simply sent to jail without any attempt to find peace and equilibrium within that person. Secondly, she fears that the majority race plays a significant negative role in her trial. The members of the jury were "mostly white men, local men" (318).

She describes local people as being "deeply conservative, and a Bible belt of Christian practice and morality" meaning that they carry deep-seated prejudice against Indigenous people and adhere strongly to patriarchal values (315). Seeing that her chances for a fair trial are improbable, she decides to remain silent which is her way of resisting this judicial system. Her

'speech act' would not have provided a different outcome as the trial's intention was to punish.

Deena Rymhs makes an important observation about Yvonne's silence when she states that "[h]er silence retains the possibility of setting the public record straight at some other point, of testifying in a different medium. Stolen Life enters where this silence leaves off, and fills in for the testimony not given in the courtroom" (90). Her silence at her own trial speaks greatly against the white justice dealing with crime. It speaks about a system, based on European values, that discards the native concept of justice affecting not only her, but also other indigenous people ever since this country has been colonized. Her book is the 'different medium'

20 that seeks to straighten out the record and to send a strong message to the official judicial system which is geared at punishing rather than seeking to restore peace and equilibrium.

SPIRITUALITY-FORGIVENESS

The University of Manitoba Centre for Spirituality and Healing states that for "many, spirituality is connected to large questions about life and identity" (Krenzman 1). To question her life and identity, Yvonne wonders if she has been able to connect spiritually. Self-reflecting on her past, she questions her attempt to seek consolation in the Christian faith. Her relationship with Fred Ferguson did not work well. We know this when she says that she was "so lonely" that "I become a born-again Christian and try to become the perfect submissive little wife" (169).

This was her first attempt at seeking a better life using the Christian faith. Her second attempt occurs at "the Edmonton Remand Centre . . .[as]. . . she begins to read the Bible again, as she did while living with Fred Ferguson," yet she could not really connect with a higher power (303).

Later in life she wrote that "Christianity fooled me so well in prison for a while. It saved me from facing a lot of my reality" (316). This was her last attempt in connecting with the Christian

God. It is at the Okimaw Ohci Healing Lodge that she discovers a "powerful Native atmosphere and natural setting, she found the support to grow stronger in understanding her spiritual longings and heritage", and that Christianity is not the answer for her (427). "I could not have remembered what I do about my life if the Creator had not come to me in the circle of the sweat lodge" she said (330). At the end of the novel, Yvonne says: "O Creator, here I am, Medicine

Bear Woman. Forgive my pitifulness. I have shared my pain because I know it is also the pain of my people" (445). To have written about her ordeal, which is similar to the sufferance experienced by many indigenous people, is her way to connect to the world around her. Ryhms also feels that "Johnson's individual experiences of trauma hold historical import by evoking a

21 larger, collective experience of colonization (91). This statement coincides with the words of wisdom the Elders told Yvonne in that "the people who live the hardest lives can have the greatest understandings and teachings to give others. So learn well, for the sake of others" (439).

Yvonne has become a great teacher, yet the most important thing she accomplishes, is that she is able to ask the Creator for forgiveness. Beck states that "[w]hat is most important about

Yvonne's story, though, is that it has a spiritual component; in fact her life story culminates in her newly discovered Cree identity and the spiritual awareness that it includes. . . a spiritual journey to wholeness" and to forgive is part of being whole (10).

Forgiveness was Yvonne's way of healing. Can forgiveness mend Katya's life as well?

When Katya went with her father to Dmitri Karpenko's home to ask for forgiveness for having been with "Lydia [who] had stolen the fruit picker's baby", a minor incident occurred that developed into catastrophic circumstances for Katya and her family (49). On account of the ground being covered with chicken manure, Katya refused to step down from the wagon to play and Vera was insulted (52). This was the beginning of a never ending grudge against Katya.

Years later in Privol'noye, Vera told Pravda that silver was hidden in the butter well. Abram

Sudermann had previously told Pravda that there was nothing in the well, but Vera knew it to be false. She had previously thrown some silver cutlery in the well while still employed on the estate. After the silver was discovered, the anger of the anarchist could not be stopped and the killing started. During the carnage, Vera took Katya's baby sibling from her mother, brought it in the Sudermann's house and abandoned it. It is only at the end of the novel that Katya guesses that Vera had taken Njuta in Abram's office (346). Vera had taken Njuta as a form of retribution against Katya. At that moment, even if "Katya's legs began to tremble", she did not let her anger erupt into aggression against Vera. She simply watched Vera, the "Grudge-bearer" walk away

(346). Birdsell does mention that there "were and still are amazing people who like Katya, find healing through forgiveness"(Birdsell 5). If, as Mahatma Gandhi once said, that "The weak can never forgive. Forgiveness is the attribute of the strong," then both Yvonne and Katya are strong human beings.

CONCLUSION

Both authors have explored a multitude of sensitive topics which are dear to all

Canadians. Can the literary work of third generation Mennonites be included in the Canadian national literature? Smaro Kamboureli states that "[i]t would be reductive to read their works

[Mennonite writers] only through the signs of Mennonite background and, as a result, ignore all the other elements that contribute to the complexity of their writing" (XXii). Although Birdsell does write about Mennonites, she does not refer to the life experiences of Mennonites once they have relocated to North America. She delves into the past and her historical research provides some answers about the oppressions suffered by these former citizens of Russia. Seen from a feminist point of view, it is especially revealing since many women survivors once in North

America, were silent about their past. Birdsell states that she "suspect[s] that often a reticence to talk about what happened had much to do with protecting those who had been violated, especially women. More than occasionally, this came out of a sense of shame, the notion that the person violated, the family, had been shamed" (Birdsell 3). Yvonne Johnson also overcomes this sense of shame, as she so rightly states that “writing this book will release long hidden fears, dreams, hurts, love, pain . . . I’m doing this also in hopes of dealing with things that I never did before" (308). I agree with Joseph Pivato that in reading Sandra Birdsell's novel The Rüsslander and Rudy Wiebe's novel Stolen Life, both written by "second and third generation writers emphasizes the continuing necessity to go beyond the "migrant experience" so that writers are

23 included in all future considerations of the national literature" (Echo 16-17). Furthermore,

Enoch Padolsky recognizes that "[i]mmigrant writers, aboriginal writers, third-generation minority writers, and so on, all see the world from different vantage points, have different attitudes toward dominant Canadian groups, and different histories within Canadian society"

(37). Both authors have creatively and honestly raised complex issues in these two novels. The two novels, like novels produced by authors deemed to belong to 'majority writers', can be examined in light of contemporary literary theories like postmodernism, postcolonialism and feminism. There is no doubt that our 'national literature' should be composed of literary text from authors belonging to the two solitudes (French and English) but there is no reason to exclude authors who are labeled 'minority writers'. I believe the term minority writers does not represent these two authors. Beck is convinced that for "Wiebe and other writers, a version of postcolonial literature has become central, not marginal, in the native English-speaking culture of

Canada that has always treasured its English origins" (18). Birdsell's novel is not postcolonial literature, but it does produce literature of the marginal similar to Wiebe's. The novel is written in English but does not refer to people belonging to the English solitude. Birdsell and Wiebe both brought to the surface the aboriginal and migrant experiences. Their creations portray the ever growing mosaic of cultures now part of the Canadian society.

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