“Any married couple, no matter how perfect the match, will undergo a critical period of strain, and these two were no exception.” (La Farge, pg 137) In the book Laughing Boy by Oliver La Farge, Laughing Boy and Slim Girl struggle to stay together as they encounter many barriers. The main issue that they must overcome is the fact that although they are both Navajo Indians, society doesn’t see Slim Girl as one because she was raised by a preacher. The preacher placed her in public schools and tried to raise her as an American rather than Indian. Slim Girl also has a secret past that isn’t all that secret since the Navajo society knows about it, but Laughing boy doesn’t. This secret past makes Slim girl have another issue with American men.
She must have revenge against them. Slim Girl’s issue with the Navajos began when she was a young child sent off to an American school. It was named Wide Water. She was sent there because her parents saw that she had learned a lot at Zhi l Tsechiel, the Indian school, and so they wanted her to learn more. There she began to forget about the Gods and instead began to follow the trail of Jesus. All she wanted to do was act like an American, live as an American, and be an American.
Slim Girl saw no reason for her to return to “The People.” She was not like them anymore. Slim Girl wanted to work as an American but she couldn’t yet, so she was sent to work for a preacher and his wife. They treated her well. There she learned many things, specially the things that the preacher spoke about against. When “The People” started to find out that she was being brought up as an American, they wanted to do nothing with her or her family. It was a double-sided sword because the Navajo people saw her as a traitor, and they didn’t see her as one of them, and the Americans didn’t see her as an American since her descend ence was that of a Navajo.
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As time went by, she met an American and fell in love with him. All this man did was take advantage of her and her innocence. He persuaded her to be intimate with him and this resulted into an unwanted pregnancy for him. She didn’t know how to tell the preacher and his wife. So one day she just walked towards them and told them that she was pregnant. They were very disillusioned with her, since they had always told her about the problems that other girls were facing because of their mistakes, and now she was one of them.
They wanted nothing to do with her. The man that had gotten her pregnant did not want to marry her, so now she was on her own. The people that took her in were the ones that the preacher always spoke against, “the bad women.” They fed her, they clothed her, and they took care of her. They were kind. As time went by, she gave birth to a dead baby and she was glad. Slim Girl became one of “the bad women.” She became a “bad woman” because she wanted to get revenge with all American men because of what she had suffered with “that man.” She thought that “An American should pay for what an American had done.” (La Farge, pg 167) As every man came along, all she thought about was which man was going to be “the man” that would pay for everything.
Then, one day he came along and for the three nights that he was in town he went to her. Days later, Slim Girl bought a house in a nearby town and there she continued her plan. She invited him to go to her house and although he paid her for her services, he felt ashamed. She gave him his money back and continued to act like a good woman. He believed her and then one day she told him everything.
How she did this just to get back at “the man.” He felt bad. She said she did everything because she had to. He convinced her to stay, but this was also part of her plan to make him suffer. She continued this until she met Laughing Boy and fell in love with him.
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She didn’t tell him about her past yet everyone else knew about it. Laughing Boy, after hearing all of this, kissed her. She had never been happier and he had never seen her happier. They remained together for some time until “the man,” actually named “Red Man” found them one day riding on horses.
All that he could think of was how he had treated kindly and with respect. How he loved her and how wrong she had treated him. How he gave her his all and expected her to do the same, yet all she did was betray him. “Red Man fired three bullets. Two of those almost hit Laughing Boy but one penetrated Slim Girl’s body.
She died in Laughing Boy’s arms. Although the Navajo society saw Slim Girl as a “bad woman” and as a traitor who wanted to be an American, Laughing Boy didn’t. He loved her until the day she died knowing very well who she was.
