Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

Motorcycles and Sweetgrass

• Genre: Fiction; literary/comedy
• Originally Published: 2010
• Reading Level/Interest: College/Adult
• Structure/Length: 26 chapters; prologue and epilogue; approx. 348 pages; approx. 10 hours, 21 minutes on audio
• Protagonist and Central Conflict: The author, a member of the Ojibway from the Curve Lake First Nations, incorporates myth, history, and magic into this comedic look at a trickster newly arrived in a small town and a young man’s mission to drive the stranger away.

Drew Hayden Taylor, Author

• Bio: Born in 1962 in Ontario; playwright, journalist, author of fiction and nonfiction, and comedian; known for using comedy, myth, and storytelling to convey ideas about the heritage of First Nations (Canadian Indigenous) people; writes and produces plays he calls representative of a “Native Literary Renascence”; also produces documentaries on topics of Indigenous culture; has won many awards, including the Chalmers Award (1992) for Toronto at Dreamer’s Rock, Canadian Authors Association Literary Award (1992) for The Bootlegger Blues, Dora Mavor Moore Award (1996) for Only Drunks and Children Tell the Truth, Independent Publisher Book Award (2008) for The Night Wanderer, Canada Council Victor Martyn Lynch-Staunton Award (2009), and Queen Elizabeth Diamond Jubilee Award (2012)
• Other Works: Funny, You Don't Look Like One (1998); In a World Created by a Drunken God (2004); Me Funny (2006); The Night Wanderer: A Native Gothic Novel (2007); The Berlin Blues (2007); Three Tricksters (2009); Dead White Writer on the Floor (2010); God and the Indian (2013); Cerulean Blue (2014); Spirit Horse (2016); Take Us to Your Chief and Other Stories (2016); Cottagers and Indians (2018); Chasing Painted Horses (2019)
• Awards: Governor General’s Award (shortlisted; 2010)

CENTRAL THEMES connected and noted throughout this Teaching Unit:

• The Trickster God
• The Continued Subjugation of Indigenous Societies
• Theological Equivalence

STUDY OBJECTIVES: In accomplishing the components of this Unit, students will:

• Explore background information on trickster figures and the Anishinaabek to increase their engagement with and comprehension of Motorcycles and Sweetgrass’s setting, characters, and central conflict.
• Read/study paired texts and other brief resources to deepen their understanding of themes related to The Trickster God, The Continued Subjugation of Indigenous Societies, and Theological Equivalence.
• Demonstrate understanding of plot, characterization, and symbolism by using inferences drawn from text to write the omitted deathbed dialogue between Lillian and Nanabush.
• Analyze textual elements such as motif, characterization, foils, plot detail, and conflict, and construct essay responses tying these elements to the novel’s meaning.