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of Running

A. Running in NativeAmerican Literature
Running is closely related with Native American culture and traditions. In the past,people often walked and ran from place to place because of no developed vehicles asnow. When humans lived in the natural environment, especially wilderness, theyattempted to make a living and overcome different dangers from nature. They might runto hunt animals or escape from cruel beasts or other natural disasters or man-madedangers. Thus, running played a significant role in their daily life and culture. ThePueblo tribal men are traditional runners and the impulse of running has melted in theirblood like genes. Momaday once described the typical native life of Pueblosnostalgically that “everyone went abroad in wagons and on horseback, or else theywalked; and frequently the boys and men, even the very young and the very old, ranabout on their feet. The pueblo men have always been very good long-distance runners”(NM 123). Except for walking and running, the Indians are also fond of horse-riding.Momaday says:The Plains Indian culture—sometimes called “The Horse Culture” or “The CentaurCulture”—had been realized to the fullest extent. An ancient nomadism—as old as man inNorth America, older— had at last been given consummate expression. The acquisition ofthe horse had brought about a revolution, the flowering of a great warrior society asformal, as highly developed in its art and ceremony, and as closely predicated upon a codeof honor as was the society of KingArthur’s Court. (AV 371)And “in the course of their long journey they had acquired horses, the sun dancereligion, and a certain love and possession of the prairies. They had become centaurs intheir spirit” (NM 28). Like the knights in King Arthur’s Court, these nomadic Indiansgot used to riding horses. When the nomadic Indians rode quickly on the horses, theyseemed to integrate into a whole entity. They owned human’s wisdom and horses’swiftness. The Indians’ passion for free horse-riding just like a gene passed from onegeneration to the next generation. Horse-riding is also a kind of running which liberatesNative Americans’spirit and plays an important role in Native Americans’daily life andtraditional culture.
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B. Running in Non-NativeAmerican Literature
Roger Robinson makes a comparatively comprehensive study of running literature.In his article, Robinson explores “the saintliness, the sexiness, the freedom, and theengagement with life running represents in the literature” especially the westernliterature from Homer to contemporary writers, marathon runners and scholars.Robinson holds that “the first footrace in western literature comes at the end of TheIliad, at the funeral games for Patroclus” (24), in which Homers describes a close racewith “fleet Ajax” narrowly leading “cunning Odysseus”. Homer illustrates how it feelsin a race to run close behind another runner, yet unable to move past when it mattersand how it feels to be the leader while the rivals threaten so close that they seem to“intrude on your personal space and impose the rhythm of their breathing over yours”(24), as well as the thrill of the crowd. Since then, there are also some famous running scenes appearing in the western literature, such as Ernest Pontifex’s masculine “run(ning) across the rough farmland to carry a gift to the housemaid who has been unjustlydismissed by his domineering father” (25) in Samuel But