A Foot in Both: Juxtaposition

"She had gone walking alone in those mountains over there to the North, had fallen down a steep place and hurt her head. ('Go on, go on,' said Bernard excitedly.) Some hunters from Malpais had found her and brought her to  the pueblo. As for the man who was his father, Linda had never seen him again. His name was Tomakin." - pg 118

The passage above explains the way Linda came to the Savage Reservation of Malpais. From this point on in the novel, there is about a whole chapter of strikingly juxtaposed characters and scenarios. Linda and her born son John live on the Savage Reservation. Linda is constantly at odds with the lifestyle on the Reservation. Her casual sexual exploits cause the women not only to loathe her, but to whip her. Her inability to mend clothing causes her son to have to wear tatters constantly. All these clashes of lifestyle and ideas living the same space is the most clear and defined way to demonstrate how different and discordant the old and new worlds are.

However, John defies the juxtaposition of his mother and the Indians by having a foot in both worlds but a life in neither. John wants to participate in the life of the Indians. His mother is unable to to fully and accurately explain the life she used to live. The savages will not let him participate in the only lifestyle he has ever known. Eventually he finds a piece of life that belongs to neither society: Shakespeare. His mother did succeed in teaching him to read, enabling him to enjoy in the the literary works that make him unique in both worlds. On top of the clashing of the Linda and the savages, John succeeds in creating a new possibility of cultural renewal and conscious. John's example opens up a third gateway between the juxtaposition that could someday lead people out of the new world and rise above the old world.