The Capacity for Humor
A Humorous Twist
“Patrice folded up the paper and smiled. She was drawn to Betty because she was so much like her sister in her ability to make life’s bitterness into a comedy. Broke her right finger pointing out my faults. What did that even mean? She tipped her head back, closing her eyes.”
-Louise Erdrich, The Night Watchman
This compliment, possessing “the ability to make life’s bitterness into a comedy,” is paid to Betty, one of Patrice’s friends. But the compliment touches upon a theme woven throughout the book, that the Chippewa people as a whole are marked by this same capacity for humor.
In my opinion, this is one of the most refreshing aspects of the book.
Retrieving the memory of previous forms of oppression involves recounting much that could very easily arouse bitterness. Thomas, Patrice, and everyone else are forced to endure so much. But consistently, they meet the harsh realities of life with humor, and a particular kind of humor that is unique to them and even their language.
Erdrich's light-heartedness shocked me at times.
For example, she references how the bones of many deceased Native people are kept locked away in drawers in Washington, which is true.
She then connects these stolen bones to the theme of the afterlife, something common in her writing, by telling how Indian ghosts are trapped in Washington because their bones are locked away there.
But instead of describing this scene as purely tragic and oppressive, she moves into how Washington has become a hot spot for Indian ghosts to find community. It’s a twist in which Erdrich herself exemplifies the capacity “to make life’s bitterness into a comedy.”
It’s a capacity we could all benefit from cultivating further.