Aubrey holds a Ph.D. in English and has published many articles on twentieth century literature. In this essay, Aubrey analyzes the importance of Native American consciousness in the novel, as seen in the characters of the narrator and Yellow Calf.

Welch once commented that the reason he did not give his protagonist a name was because “he didn't do anything significant enough to give him a name” (quoted in Mary Jane Lupton's James Welch: A Critical Companion). Insignificant the narrator may in many ways be, but lying behind his ordinariness and the apparent meaninglessness of his existence are glimpses of something that is not ordinary and certainly not meaningless. As another critic, William Bevis, has pointed out, the narrator possesses “a very sophisticated consciousness ... so sensitive, so observant, so intelligent, so articulate, so verbal” (quoted in Understanding James Welch, by Ron McFarland). MacFarland might well have...