John’s outsider status in Malpais

John’s outsider status in Malpais arises from his position between the Reservation and the world Linda calls the Other Place: he was born in the pueblo to a mother who came from elsewhere, and neither his background nor his appearance allows him to belong securely. Rejection follows him from childhood into adulthood, making exclusion a defining part of his experience rather than a single encounter.

Origins and Exclusion

John explains that Linda arrived in the Reservation long before his birth, after falling and injuring herself in the mountains. Hunters brought her to Malpais, where she remained; the man she identified as John’s father, Tomakin, left without her. John was therefore born in Malpais but grew up as the child of a woman regarded as a stranger.

The separation was visible in daily life. John recalls other children pointing at him and repeating a song about Linda, whom they condemned with words he did not understand. He answered by throwing stones, and the exchange left him bleeding. Their treatment of Linda became a means of marking John as different too: the insult was directed at his family, but he had to live with its consequences.

Exclusion from Pueblo Life

John’s outsider position also denied him a place in a public ritual. After witnessing the ceremony, he says he had wanted to take the place of Palowhtiwa, who had endured seven rounds of the whip. John believed that his participation could have served the pueblo, bringing rain and a good corn harvest, and pleased Pookong and Jesus. He also wanted to prove that he could bear pain without crying out and thereby demonstrate that he was a man.

The people conducting the rite would not let him participate. John attributes their refusal to his complexion and says that people have always disliked him for it. The rejection turns a communal act of sacrifice into another boundary he cannot cross: he wants to act for the pueblo, but the pueblo treats him as someone who does not belong.

Reading as Refuge and Resource

Linda taught John to read by drawing pictures and letters on a wall with charcoal. Once he had learned the words she wrote, she gave him a small book from her wooden box: a technical manual about the conditioning of embryos and instructions for workers. John initially found it repellent, but the ridicule of the other children helped propel him back to reading. When they mocked his ragged clothes, he reminded himself that he could read and they could not.

His effort offered both a private refuge and a source of pride, but it did not give him easy access to understanding. John read increasingly difficult words and asked Linda what they meant; her answers often failed to clarify them, and sometimes she could not answer. His literacy thus sets him apart from the children around him without resolving the cultural and personal distance that structures his life in Malpais.

Significance

John’s exclusion is produced through several connected circumstances: his mother’s status as an outsider, the children’s public mockery, his appearance, and his exclusion from a ritual in which he wished to participate. In response, he seeks recognition through reading and through the endurance he hoped to prove in the ceremony. These efforts reveal the tension at the center of his place in Malpais: he is born and raised there, yet repeatedly treated as alien to its community.