The Meaning of Rivers: Flow and Reflection in American Literature

3. Up the River

3 | Up the River Who goes up the river? As our idioms indicate, we might find ourselves up a certain creek without a paddle or sent up the river to prison, but we seldomgoupriverofourownvolition:itcantakeanawfullotofvolitionto paddle, swim, or even wade against the stream. The force of the water, the pull of gravity, the course of time, the call of destiny—nature itself seems to lead us down the river. Because opposing these forces requires considerable effort and energy, we seldom (if ever) go up the river accidentally or casually; we go upriver because, for some reason or another, we must. Going against the stream is a purposeful endeavor, often dependent upon an external power source (a good tailwind in the sails, at least, or steam, once upon a time, and, for the present, an ample gas tank) and almost always driven by a profound desire to obtain something reputed to reside somewhere up the river. The contemplative atmosphere to be found by theriverisleftbehindinstrivingagainstthecurrent,therebeinglittletime to pause and think about relations or anything else when the earth itself seems to be pushing against the upriver traveler. While anyone can hang outalongsideariverandleisurelypondertheflowpassingby,onlytheman of action goes against the flow and fights his way upstream. I certainly do not believe that only men can go up the river, but it is neverthelessthecasethatmenhavefiguredpredominantlyinuprivertexts. This may have something to do with the relatively small number of such texts.Whilebothbeingbyariverandcomingintocontactwithaparticular section of stream are among the most common means of experiencing streams and their flow, going against that flow is surely among the least common,afactreflectedinAmericanliterature.Butitisalsotruethatthose few narratives based on upriver movement often operate within a martial 62 | Up the River and/or colonial context. Going upstream provides a means of exploring and commanding territory, of gaining supplies or power, of surmounting natureandstakingaclaimonbehalfofaculture.EspeciallyinearlyAmericanliterature ,uprivertraveloften entailscolonialcaptainspenetratingthe “virgin wilderness,” and the sexual politics of this arrangement lies at the centerofoneofthenation’smostdurablemyths—thestoryofPocahontas andJohnSmith.Suchnarrativestellthestoryofthebravesoldier,acultural standard-bearer, battling against nature and forging his way into the savage , sylvan “darkness,” ever away from the light, the known, the certainty of civilization and customary ways of understanding the world. Anotherreasonfortherelativepaucityofuprivernarrativesisthattravelersalmostnevergoupriverandstaythere .WhenIhaveventuredupstream, walkinguptheHurricaneRivernearLakeSuperior,say,orpaddlingupthe Sudbury in Massachusetts, I have always had to walk or float back down. In Lorain, Ohio, a friend and I paddled up the Black River under a hot September sun, starting from a concrete launch, passing piles of coal and gravel, loud clangs and horns and other industrial alarms, large machines lumbering on the banks. Occasional pieces of trash drifted on the greenish brown water of the Black, a wide and deep river at its mouth with little current. As we proceeded up the river, we saw more and more great blue herons on the shores, a couple of cormorants on a rock midstream, gulls and geese, kingfishers and turkey vultures, turtles, an osprey, a red-tailed hawk,silversparksoftinyfishleapingaheadofus.Butwehadnocommission , and we had other things to do, so we circumnavigated an island and headed home. In keeping with the categories I have constructed for this study, such a journey is not, strictly speaking, upriver but rather up and down the river. There is a subtle but significant difference between the two categories. In uprivertextsthewriteremphasizesuprivermovementandeventsthatoccur upstream,givinglittleornoattentiontothereturn;thoughthe voyagemay gobothways,thestoryisprimarilyunidirectional.Up-and-down-the-river stories, on the other hand, give more or less equal attention to the going forthandthecomingback,makingaspecialpointofthetwo-sidedtrip.For Lewis and Clark, ascending the Missouri River was an important achievement ,aswasdescendingtheColumbiatothesea;buttheirsuccessfulreturn backuptheColumbiaanddowntheMissourimadethemissioncomplete Up the River | 63 andthestorycompelling.ThetalesIconsiderinthischapterfeatureacommissioned voyage and have three main sections: a prelude, providing the reasons for going upriver (the terms of the commission); a description of the movement against the stream; and an account of what occurs at the end of the upriver journey, dwelling mostly on the action at the top of the river and sometimes adding brief mention of the return trip. Becausestreamsprovidedtheprimarywayintothecontinent,someofthe earliest writings about North America tell the story of upriver adventures. Jacques Cartier left a vivid record of his exploration of the St. Lawrence River, including the first upriver voyage to Hochelaga (now Montreal) in 1535.TheSt.Lawrence,whichtookitsnamefromamisreadingofthemanuscriptofCartier ’saccount,flowsfromLakeOntariototheAtlanticOcean; the French explorer described it as “without comparison the largest river that is known to have ever been seen.” In a series of voyages to that area, Cartier and his men reconnoitered what he believed was “the land God gave to Cain,” seeing unfamiliar life-forms (walruses, for example—“fish in appearance like horses”) and sampling strange plants, such as tobacco, which the Native peoples puffed to stay...