Tehano by Allen Wier Main

¶ … Tehano by Allen Wier [...] main character, Gideon Jones, personal trait of keeping a journal, and how Wier uses the journal to help develop the novel. Early in the novel, Wier calls Gideon's journal "haphazard" (Wier 3). However, Gideon's "haphazard" account of his travels around the West really pulls the novel together. This is a long book, filled with many characters and events, and they are sometimes difficult to keep track of and understand. Without Gideon's journal to keep the book tethered, it could become ponderous and difficult to follow. Gideon's journal is the glue that binds this book together - pulling the reader back into the story page after page.

Gideon is the character that binds all the other characters together in this novel. He presents each of the characters in his journal, as an introduction of sorts, and then each chapter of the novel goes into more detail about each one. Gideon's words succinctly sum up each of the others, and then the novel fleshes them out and makes them real to the reader. Without Gideon's journal, the novel would still be masterful, but the journal adds another layer to this novel. None of the characters are as eloquent as Gideon, and Wier uses him to illustrate that all the people who emigrated to the West were not ignorant farmers. They were often eloquent and thoughtful people hungering for a new life. The West was peopled with emigrants from all occupations and locations. As Gideon notes in his journal, "Out here on the edge, a marriageable woman may take as her man a wild ruffian, a gambling rakehell, a lazy scofflaw or worse" (Wier 323). On the other hand, she could get luckier and find a man like Gideon. The journal helps make it very clear to the reader - the West was full of vivid characters. Gideon is the most articulate in this novel, but he makes a point, and his journal serves a vital purpose, it makes the book a work of literature, rather than just a novel.

Gideon is an unusual character in many ways, and his journal helps prove that. He does not seem the type of man to be so eloquent on paper, but he is. His profession is grisly, most of his friends are rough around the edges, and he lives on the fringe of the frontier, but he is an educated and expressive man in his journal. He writes in words that almost seem like poetry. For example, one entry reads in part, "By the time I met him, Rudolph was at least forty, his hair as gray as sage brush, yet German fairy-tale mischief still shone in his bespeckled, blinking eyes when he told a tale" (Wier 87). Gideon paints pictures with his words, and helps the other characters come alive. The author uses the journal as another way to add depth to the characters, and he begins almost every chapter with the journal. It helps center the reader so they know what they will see in the upcoming pages. It also speaks in a language that would not be appropriate for the entire novel. Instead, it is simply little gems of wisdom scattered throughout the book that the reader looks forward to seeing like an old friend. Starting each chapter with Gideon's words helps keep the novel focused, too.

Finally, Gideon is a thoughtful man. That comes through in his dealings with the other characters, but it becomes even clearer when the reader sees the words of his journal. He has an eye for detail. For example, he writes of the emptiness and sprit-filled plains, "Even now - out on the wide Staked Plain - one can hear the parting testimonies of those who came before. That cold keening whine, the endless low moan that stirs dust is not the wind" (Wier 663). Gideon's voice is almost poetic, and much of that came from his teachings by Colonel Powell-Hughes. The journal also indicates how important Colonel Powell-Hughes was in influencing Gideon's life. Early in the book he notes, "Colonel Powell-Hughes told me the beginning words of everyone's story are the seeds containing his story's end" (Wier 121). Gideon is also a storyteller, and that becomes clear as his journal unfolds. Not only does he have an eye for detail, he understands people, and that helps the reader understand the characters and Gideon himself throughout this novel.