"The Grass Dancer"

Paper Summary:

This paper examines how "The Grass Dancer" by Susan Power develops two forms of the female soul as represented by Lydia Wind Soldier and Anna "Mercury" Thunder. It looks at how this theme plays itself out through the entire novel; Anna, though powerful, uses her power to her own ends, while Lydia, less powerful, gives all of herself away for the sake of others. It shows how, regardless of the nature of their actions, both women are deeply embroiled in the playing out of time and how this dominates the role of women in the Dakota spiritual world.

From the Paper:

"Contrasting this life of earthly gratification is the character of Lydia Wind Soldier. Lydia gives nearly everything of herself for the sake of those around her to such an extent that she appears to be visibly disappearing: "He [Harley] reached out and hugged her then-something he did only rarely since turning seventeen because as he watched her, she blurred at the edges, looked to him like a person being slowly erased by some spectral finger." (Power 18). Lydia has given of herself so much that her physical body is somehow reduced, although the manner of this reduction is quite different than Anna's physical ugliness and decrepit form."

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