Power: A Novel

Ama Eaton, or Aunt Ama, as Omishto calls her, is not Omishto’s biological aunt but a woman of her mother’s age, speculated to be her mother’s second cousin. She lives a mostly traditional life, and is therefore a foil to Omishto’s mother, who has chosen a Western lifestyle and religion. Ama lives on the border between the town and Taiga traditional land, signifying her as the gatekeeper between Omishto’s Americanized life and her ancestral heritage. Ama speaks Taiga, can track animals, and knows the old stories, but she does not use traditional herbal remedies or their songs, which are part of the elder’s tribal magic. She shares Omishto’s initial position of belonging to two worlds. In town, people are afraid of Ama’s power. She is respected by the tribe’s leaders but chooses to live apart from them: “Janie Soto, who helped raise her, had wanted her to be up there, but Ama said the old ways are not enough to get through this time and she was called to something else. To living halfway between the modern world and the ancient one” (23). Ama embodies Cultural Identity as a Balance of Assimilation and Preservation.

Ama lives in a rundown house that symbolizes the state of the Taiga tribe, whose dwindling population and traditional beliefs are on the brink of collapse. Her character is conflated with that of the panther, whom she believes was present at her birth and is her sacred protector, sacrificing itself for the future of the tribe. Ama feels both compelled and justified in her killing of the panther to preserve Taiga and refuses to defend herself or explain her actions in either the Western or tribal courts.

Omishto’s changing relationship to Ama in the novel reflects Omishto’s growing trust and connection to her tribal culture. Unlike her mother, Ama respects Omishto and doesn’t try to change her. She gives Omishto time and attention, teaching her to track and hunt, telling her stories, brushing her hair, and sitting with her in stillness and silence. At first, Omishto feels ambivalent about Ama. Sometimes she loves her, and thinks she is beautiful and wise, and sometimes, influenced by her schooling, she views her as ugly or foolish. Despite their close relationship, Ama remains mysterious to Omishto. Omishto feels called to follow her but doesn’t understand her actions. It Is only after Ama’s banishment that Omishto realizes the significance of her promise to her and comes to the belief that “Ama is saving the world” (224), preserving her culture through a process of change and respecting her environment and its animals.

Omishto’s mother, a foil to Ama, has abandoned Taiga culture and spirituality and joined a fundamentalist Christian church. Abandoned by Omishto’s biological father, who left her and her two young daughters for another woman with whom he secretly had children, she remarries a harsh and abusive man, Herman. She lives in denial of the truth of her circumstances, instead seeking to console herself with the Christian God’s promise of salvation. She hence emblematizes assimilation.

She is critical of Omishto and jealous of her relationship with Ama, fearing that Ama will replace her. Her cleanliness, makeup, and consumerist way of living is juxtaposed with Ama’s dirty, vine-ridden home and imperfect teeth. Omishto judges her life at her mother’s house and church to be shallow and empty of love, believing that her mother doesn’t even love herself.

In a novel in which the protagonist decides to preserve her culture, Omishto’s mother is portrayed as an antagonist in the story. She uses Omishto as a scapegoat and blames her for her stepfather’s lude behavior, invites a reporter over to sell Omishto’s story, and pressures Omishto to assimilate. However, ultimately, Linda Hogan evokes sympathy for her as a woman who has been the survivor of abuse from a greater antagonist, the system of colonial oppression that broke down her traditional structures of support, and a religion that has taught her to view herself as sinful and savage. In her final goodbye to Omishto, she’s a woman whose “heart is full of stolen dreams. Like memory it holds vanished worlds and streets and abandoned ways” (223). Her final image is one of pathos, with empty spaces and forgotten heritage.

Herman is Omishto’s predatory stepfather who desires Omishto. He has a temper and often threatens to beat Omishto. Once he stripped Omishto and attacked her, beating her naked body with his belt. However, Omishto doesn’t accuse him formally because he, as a white man, is friends with the sheriff and other men in town. She doesn’t even speak about it directly with her mother because she believes that her mother would deny it to avoid losing him. Omishto protects her mother from the truth about Herman like Ama protects the tribe from the truth of the panther’s sickness. Only Ama is open and vocal about Herman’s nature: She describes him as “an attack waiting to happen” (18), making him embody the sense of imminent danger that Omishto feels in Chapter 1. Omishto’s ability to finally stand up to Herman and refusal to return to live with him toward the end of the novel signify her coming of age.