The Last Report On The Miracles At Little No Horse Gender Roles

Gender constructs are virtually everywhere. No matter what society, time period, or seemingly progressiveness of a people, gender continues to shape and limit ideologies. In Louise Erdrich’s novel The Last Report on the Miracles at Little No Horse, the main character experiences the limitations of gender constructs firsthand as she finds herself transformed to a male to achieve her goals of becoming a priest. It is after this transformation takes place that Father Damien is able have control over his life which he did not previously have living as Agnes. In this novel, Agnes crosses gender borderlands to gain agency which she didn’t have previously when living as a woman. However, even though Agnes lives out the rest of her life as Father

While Father Damien had devoted himself to performing the role of a convincing male and priest, still some Ojibwa people had their doubts. When Nanapush asks Father Damien about his gender, Damien replies simply that “I am a priest” (Erdrich 231). Again, Father Damien resorts to defining himself as a priest rather than identifying with a particular pronoun. In fact, his confession only of being a priest serves as a representation for a safe ground between gender borders. While gender is an abstract concept which Damien can float between and not have to adhere to, being a priest is the one thing that keeps him grounded in the reality of the situation. During this defining moment, Agnes realizes that even though she has been figured out – her greatest fear – “this moment, so shattering to her, wasn’t of like importance to Nanapush” (Erdrich 232). In American society, so much importance is placed on identifying a person’s gender, it clouds all other aspects of a person’s identity. Here, in the Ojibwa culture, less importance is placed on the necessity of identity as a defining feature of self-construction. Without the gender roles and ideologies that are prevalent in American society, there is room for a person to truly develop into their own individual identity. Father Damien can be a woman and a priest and it the Ojibwa people do not mind. They do not rely on gender roles for reassurance. It is only in the case of people who have been exposed to American gender constructions that gender borderlands are formed and identity is limited to socially accepted norms. For Father Damien with his border dweller’s consciousness, he was terrified of being discovered and then not having any where to fit in. However, Nanapush’s dismissal of