The Crying for a Vision

Introduction

In all of Walter Wangerin Jr’s books he practices a very particular writing method. Authors can only write what they know, and, not wanting to do a disservice or misrepresent what he writes about, Wangerin always immerses himself as much as he can in the culture he writes about. This is especially true when, in order to write about the myths of the North American Lokatan tribe, he spent a week experiencing and participating in their festivals. Wangerin is also a Christian: to write from a Lakota perspective with internal consistency Wangerin must in his own words write about “that common people in whom all peoples might see themselves...I have found in the Lakota vision a rich analogue for the relationship any people of genuine faith experiences with creation and Creator” (The Crying for a Vision, A Dedication and Thanksgiving). This book then uses a Lakota worldview and mindset as a catalyst to reveal the relationship between creature and Creator, therefore revealing how creatures should worship their Creator, and how those creatures are Crying for a Vision of the Divine.

Section 1: Waskn Mani

Waskn Mani is the hero of the story, and his mother disappeared and his father is unknown. This means he does not know who he is, but more specifically it means he does not know what he is for. Is he a hunter? A town crier? Why is he here? Apart from his grandmother he has no relations, “he showed nothing remarkably good or bad about himself” (The Crying for a Vision, 3), and he is separated from other people by his peculiar experiences and mindset. Eventually the town crier adopts him as his grandson, and tries to graft a purpose onto the boy: hunting. Waskn Mani “seemed incapable of missing” (47) any target no matter how small or far away. He only misses a shot “when aiming at some bird or some living thing” (48). No matter how many thunderings his adopted grandfather fires at him, Waskn Mani cannot kill living things, and thus cannot hunt and therefore cannot be a hunter. Even when shown the holy way to hunt by his friend Shunkmanitu Tanka, Waskn Mani still fails. Even when he performed the acceptable rite, and fired his arrow at an eagle, the eagle descended from the sky, “held the arrow out until the boy accepted it...then leaped into the wind again and on huge flaps rose to heaven and vanished” (169). Despite the understandable reaction from the crowd, Waskn Mani later that day “began to weep and to whisper “O Mother, I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I was not worthy of the eagle’s life” (169). Despite having all the ability one could need to hunt, Waskn Mani is still not a hunter, and still has no purpose. Yet it is clear he must have some purpose: when his adopted Grandfather finally admits he is not a hunter his Grandfather tells him “I think you are a good boy. So if God has a job for you to do you better do it and dont ask questions” (149). And near the end, when all people are starved near death and the four footed have disappeared because of Fire Thunder’s sin (more about this later), his grandmother tells Waskn Mani plainly “...if you choose a willing sacrifice, if one person should die in the place of the people, then they all might have the benefit. The people might live...to the extent that [love] is true, it truly suffers...one might make a gift of his life for them he loves. Pray Grandson. Waskn Mani, pray” (238). Waskn Mani prays, finally meets his mother and embodies his purpose: to be sacrificed on a mountain for his people, to redeem Fire Thunder, to give his people the four footed, and to start the Red and Blue days again.

But Waskn Mani is not the only creature whose purpose is to give his life for the other creatures. Shunkmanitu Tanka fails to save her cubs from Fire Thunder, and is at her lowest when Waskn Mani finds her literally giving up her life to her own greediness for salt and blood. Shunkmanitu Tanka is redeemed when she gives her life saving Waskn Mani from Fire Thunder. Fire Thunder himself was meant to protect his helpless sister, but instead becomes greatest at slaughtering whole mountains of animals, razing villages and murdering a lokotan woman. While he slaughters, his sister is raped and dies from the resulting childbirth. Yet Fire Thunder is redeemed in the end, and must care for his sister's baby, and Waskn Mani’s grandmother: Fire Thunder learns to give his life for his people too. But still it is not just these characters alone that are to give their lives for others: self sacrifice is baked into the fabric of the universe.

Section 2: Lakota and Fire Thunder

Waskn Mani’s purpose raises another question: what are Lakota for? Are they to be like Fire Thunder? He follows no spirit, and has no law other than his own. When Waskn Mani calls the stars down to visit and bless the people, Fire Thunder silences him until the stars fade. Fire Thunder becomes enraged not necessarily because the woman he courted laughed at him, but because of the part of him she laughed at: Fire Thunder’s emotions escape him in a pathetic infantile voice. And so the part of him he does not control is the part he despises, that he will exterminate by taking revenge on the universe for being the way that it is. Fire Thunder rages against God, and how God made him, and takes his revenge on God by burning the world and remaking it in his own image: a starving, desolate, empty world. The Lakota warriors who follow him catch the desire for control, and desire to remake the world with the Lakota as rulers over “west and north and east and south: greater than all other peoples together” (172). In other words, the Lakota in the same spirit as Fire Thunder shall remake the world with themselves as its gods. Of course their attempt to glorify the Lakota, had it not been for Waskn Mani’s sacrifice, would have resulted in the annihilation of the Lakota. Lakota are not meant for control of their own life, or of the world. Waskn Mani’s cry for a vision from God of what he should be also reveals the Lakota's purpose: It is not only Waskn Mani, Shunkmanitu Tanka, and Fire Thunder who should give their lives for others. Rather, the whole world functions on sacrifice. Waskn Mani, and our own purpose is one and the same: to love our neighbor as ourselves, and “greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends” (John 15:13, NKJV).

Section 3: Problems

I have a few quibbles with the story that should be mentioned. Whether these are pieces from Lakota myth or part of Wangerin’s concepts I do not know. One thing to note is the acceptance of death. Shunkmanitu Tanka reframes her hunting and killing as holy and good, and as a natural function of a healthy world. Now Shunkmanitu Tanka’s argument for death does not necessarily mean death is natural and good: she could simply be dealing with the brokeness of the world in a holy way (like using the death penalty: its not ultimately desirable, but it is certainly just in a broken world). However, coupling her concept of death with Fire Thunder’s redemption adds up into a sentiment that death is a good part of a whole and healthy world. Fire Thunder is redeemed at the end of the story, but he is redeemed by killing an innocent boy: of course he killed him in an act of humility and submission, and of course a sacrifice had to be made to save the world, but he still murdered an innocent boy: listen to what Jesus says of offenders: “then said he unto the disciples, It is impossible but that offences will come: but woe unto him, through whom they come! It were better for him that a millstone were hanged about his neck, and he cast into the sea, than that he should offend one of these little ones” (Luke 17:1-2). Just because the sacrifice was necessary does not take the blame away from the sacrificer: Fire Thunder is still guilty of Waskn Mani’s death, just as the Jews were still guilty of Jesus' death. So yes Waskn Mani is a glorious Jesus figure, and yes the redemption of Fire Thunder after all his sin is a glorious gospel figure, but death is not treated as ultimately unnatural, and as a result Fire Thunder’s means of redemption runs awry of its intent.

Conclusion

Through Waskn Mani’s character, Wangerin addresses directly the prevalent postmodern sentiment of not belonging: that feeling of meaninglessness, of purposelessness, of not knowing what you're for or why you're here. Titling the book the Crying for a Vision, the desire for both purpose and divine revelation are intertwined. Waskn Mani longs for revelation from God to know what he’s for, Fire Thunder rages to extinguish all divine revelation because he loathes his own repulsive qualities and must try and conform the world and himself to his own desires. However after crying out for an answer to prayer Waskn Mani receives a solution: Waskn Mani is shown that his purpose, like every human’s purpose, is to die. You can die in agony like the White Wolf from trying to recreate the world how you want, or you can die by submitting to God by giving your life for your loved ones. Both ways lead to a death, but while one death begets more death and destruction, the other death brings forth life: “most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain” (John 12:24). Worship results in action, and that action is our sacrifice for others: but we do not just worship because we’re told to and God is bigger than us: we worship because it is what we are made for, and when we do, we not only have purpose and become fulfilled, but like the Lakota we see the universe “in a great circle as in a dance” (266), the individual parts becoming more and more harmonized with each other: by self sacrifice the world becomes more sanctified and grows a little less broken and a little more redeemed.