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Heidi Travis

Dr. Calcaterra

Postcolonial Lit.

December 2, 2014

Holed Up: A Case of Closed History

In Thomas King's The Truth About Stories, King states that the truth about stories is that that's

all we are(2). We see history as a story bound between covers: a closed narrative. But is it really?

Blake Hausman's Riding the Trail of Tears cleverly weaves history and fiction together to challenge and

expose the fallacy of reading history as a closed narrative rather than a continuing, evolving story. By

drawing parallels between events in the virtual Trail of Tears and his protagonist Tallulah Wilson's

personal expereinces, Hausman links the two to show the consequences of becoming holed up in a

closed narrative and to show how confronting false resolution and embracing the uncertainty of change

can effectively break the cycle.

History, as we know it, follows the Western tradition of linear chronology: we read it a as a

story with a beginning, middle and end. The past is the past. Reading history this way produces a false

sense of resolution. The events in history may cease but the consequences of those events are still felt

today; therefore, the story continues to be written. According to Hausman, the Trail of Tears was a

defining moment in Cherokee consciousness (Hausman). There can be no question of the

significance of this event in Cherokee history, however, the danger of reading it as the defining

moment is that it presents the Cherokee Nation in a reductive manner. It locks Cherokee culture into a

specific time and place and does not allow that culture to thrive or evolve beyond that defining

moment in time. Their story, related through the Trail of Tears, is one of tragedy and it is told over and

over and over again as if in an endless loop. Hausman uses this particular moment in Cherokee history

to tell the story another way.

 In Hausman's novel, the Tsalagi Removal Exodus Point Park, known in short hand as the

T.R.E.P.P., is a virtual reality simulation of the Trail of Tears. It is a tourist trap with brochures that

boast A Modern Adventure in the World's Oldest Mountains or An Extraordinary Immersion in the

Roots Of History, Only Two Hours from Downtown. (13, 14). The narrator states that Riding the

Trail of Tears is not supposed to be easy. It is very competitive and riddled with virtual violence. But it

also is meant to be fun for the whole family (59). This commercialization of the Trail of Tears further

diminishes the ongoing impacts of the event by presenting them as a form of entertainment similar to

the Medieval Times restaurant chain.

Tallulah Wilson's grandfather, an East Band Cherokee, originated and developed the T.R.E.P.P.

prototype, Surround Vision and was a rather primitive design: a Jeep Cherokee with television

windows. Upon his death, the Museum of Cherokee Indian inherited the intellectual property rights and

prototype for Surround Vision. Years later, the rights were sold off to a developer and thus the

T.R.E.P.P. came into fruition. Tallulah Wilson was instrumental in the development of the T.R.E.P.P.'s

scripts and programming. Tallulah was intimately involved with the compound creation; she was the

sole cultural consultant involved in the process (14). As a result, she and the T.R.E.P.P. are irrevocably

linked and this brings about some unexpected consequences.

At the beginning of the novel, we learn that certain customers have become holed up, which

is to say unresponsive, after riding the T.R.E.P.P.. It is a phenomenon no one can really explain.

Hausman uses the phenomenon as a metaphor for a closed narrative. The T.R.E.P.P. is a virtual reality

simulation and, like any computer program, runs on cyclical programming loops with the same

simulations multiple times in a day and has so for several years. In other words, The Trail of Tears

happens thousands of times a year. Those who become holed up become stuck in replay and caught

in the looping patterns of the simulation. It is not made explicitly clear why certain people become
holed up while others do not but it can be argued that Tallulah Wilson most certainly is.

From the very first line, Tallulah Wilson never dies in her dreams, Hausman presents the

reader with images of repeating, cyclical patterns (2). Tallulah never dies and is therefore stuck in a

loop. She is a popular guide at the virtual reality simulation, The Trail of Tears, and has led over eleven

hundred tours. Tallulah is quite literally the T.R.E.P.P.'s poster-child, appearing in various promotional

materials. She is the face of the Trail of Tears. It is rather ironic that someone so integral to the

development and promotion of the virtual reality simulation is otherwise quite emotionally

disconnected from it. She goes through the motions. The narrator states that Tallulah is supposed to be

providing inspirational disclaimers while exempting herself and the company from guarantees (85).

This is just a job and Tallulah is just a company woman. Tallulah lives comfortably on her wages and

the T.R.E.P.P. even partially paid for her college. Yet she feels no deep connection to the T.R.E.P.P.

itself. Working there is just another routine for her.

Tallulah is disconnected from her present world in many ways. Her life is a simulation. She

lives in a kind of limbo, in between things. Quite literally, she lives somewhere in between Homer and

Athens Georgia. Tallulah is also plagued with recurring dreams and leads a life riddled with habits and

rituals that repeat daily. She smokes at a certain time and drinks a particular kind of milk. Hausman

says Tallulah continually sees 'a logic' in the patterns and numbers, the sequences of things

(Hausman). Socially, she is closed off and comes across as somewhat distant and jaded. She is one

quarter Cherokee and three quarters mixed immigrant. When she was a child, Tallulah's father kept his

Indian heritage from her, claiming his parents were long dead. When Tallulah's father died in a drunk

driving accident, her mother revealed the truth and henceforth worked to establish a relationship with

his parents. As a result, Tallulah harbors a great deal of resentment towards her father but she represses

it, as she does most troubling emotions.

Tallulah is not actively engaged in her own narrative. She has been riding the Trail of Tears for

so long that she has fallen in synch with its patterns, however, the predisposition has always been there.
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In one particularly telling passage the narrator relates that, [w]hen Tallulah turned twenty-seven last

winter, she half expected to die. Perhaps she wanted to die, as if dying at twenty-seven would have

confirmed the fact that she had actually done something important. As she approaches twenty-eight,

she's learned to think differently (27). From the start, Tallulah refuses to engage with the present, and

instead, locks herself into the recycling patterns in her past. She cannot seem to conceive of a

continuous story even for her own life. Tallulah is living a closed narrative as much out of the

T.R.E.P.P. as she is in it.

Hausman's novel is rife with Tallulah's memories and she seems to be quite mired in them at the

expense of the present moment. She is always looking backwards, rather than forward. The narrator

observes that Tallulah's memories are quite strong and that she hears them everywhere and that

[t]hey speak to her, all the time. [...] For example, words from a conversation seven years earlier will

reverberate across her mind if an object evokes the memory (25). Throughout the novel, Tallulah's

memories are paralleled to items or events within the T.R.E.P.P.. For example, Tallulah and her beau

Bushyhead share a love of music and many of her memories about her time with him involve music or

conversations surrounding music. In the T.R.E.P.P. she is surprised to hear modern musical instruments

intermingled with the traditional native ones. This echo of Tallulah's memory links her to the T.R.E.P.P.

in a subtle way. Later when she notes the smell of chicken marsala, a dish not traditionally associated

with the Cherokee people, she recalls her own harrowing experience with the dish in a Mediterranean

cafe where she worked years ago. Again, the T.R.E.P.P.'s anachronistic imagery comes from Tallulah's

own memories which overtake her thought processes regularly. The line between Tallulah's memories

and the T.R.E.P.P.'s programming begin to blur. Like the cycling program loops of the T.R.E.P.P.,

Tallulah is stuck on replay. She is holed up. Only when the ride's programming changes and history

begins to be rewritten, does Tallulah break from her own established patterns and faces the new

emerging narrative.
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From the moment the first tourist is holed-up, there is evidence of something amiss. The

T.R.E.P.P.'s programming begins to break down little by little and as it does, the shape of the narrative

begins to change as well. When Tallulah enters the T.R.E.P.P. with tour group 5709, she does not expect

anything out of the ordinary. T.R.E.P.P. packages come in varying levels of difficulty. Level one is the

easiest, most family friendly and the levels increase in difficulty and brutality with each numerical

increment. Tour 5709 is a level one yet there is confusion about this among the tourists. Some

requested higher difficulty packages or thought they did. As they enter the T.R.E.P.P. the signs of

damage around them seem a bit more intense than what is strictly level one. Tallulah notes these

discrepancies and reports them but all else seems above the board. Things do not really change

dramatically until Tallulah herself breaks protocol and deviates from her script. Protocol requires that

she, the tour guide, be the last to exit the cabin that serves as the starting point in the T.R.E.P.P., but

Tallulah gives into the pressure from the tourists and steps out first instead. The results are immediate;

one of her tourists disappears. Tallulah is dumbstruck. She hasn't any idea how to take control of the

situation. It is her job to lead and to provide insight but she is lost and she mentally berates herself for

it. Tallulah has fumbled her lines. Her words are escaping from her. This is unprecedented (83).

Without a script for this sort of event, Tallulah finds herself feeling grossly under qualified to face the

shifts in this new emerging narrative as it unfolds. At this point, anything can happen and it does.

What proceeds in the T.R.E.P.P. is nothing short of a revolution. At the climax of the novel, a

faction of NPC's take up arms against the U.S. Cavalry and overtake them on the Trail effectively

emancipating the captive Cherokees. History begins to change and new chapters in the narrative

suddenly open up to them. Not all are prepared to embrace this change, however. Some NPCs are

unable to break from their original programming and cower despite being freed. These stock

Cherokees are all scared and visibly trembling. They are professional victims, remember, and they are

unaccustomed to sudden emancipation (270). Tallulah's reaction to the shifts in narrative are not so
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unlike these NPC's. She becomes nervous and is unable to conceal her stutter. She grapples for her

familiar rituals to ground herself and gnaws upon familiar places in her cheeks (272). Nothing is

scripted anymore and Tallulah is forced to break from her usual patterns and improvise but she hates

improvising, especially when she isn't planning on it (317). Tallulah's established programming starts

to break down as the new, open narrative emerges. She cannot rely on past ritual as history is no longer

reliable either. Tallulah's only option is to join the present, evolving narrative.

As cracks in the foundation of the T.R.E.P.P.'s programming begin to show, the same is true for

Tallulah. Each new challenge breaks down another wall and forces her to become an active participant

in the events taking place. Nowhere is this more apparent than in the pivotal scene in which Talluah is

swept away by flood waters and awakens to find herself in a cave with a bear she believes to be the

embodiment of her father. She begins by addressing the bear much in the way protocol would demand

she address her tourists saying, Osiyo (322). Indeed, she tries nearly all the Cherokee phrases she

knew, but the language barrier wasn't the problem (322). The problem comes from the fact that

Tallulah is still attempting to stick to a script. She demands answers of the bear but, of course, the bear

is unresponsive. He seems not to take much notice of her at all as if he were programmed simply to

behave as a bear would, scratching and grunting. The more Tallulah speaks, though, the more her

tongue is loosed and the tightly bound young woman begins to unravel. She begins to question

everything. She asks:

Am I the cause of my own worst problems? Do I give myself nightmares? [] Well I

pretty much suck, don't I? Is that what you've come to tell me? That I suck!! That I'm a

poseur and a hack, a tourist bullshit artist who sold her fucking soul to Coca-Cola for my

air-conditioning, who's so fucked up she can't even have a real vision? I can't even have

a fucking vision in a computer game filled with big fucking visions. Oh, God (325).

This passage marks the first honest, unscripted dialogue that Tallulah utters in the novel. This marks the
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beginning of Tallulah breaking free of being holed up. Tallulah continues, berating herself and

berating her father saying You've got absolutely nothing to fucking say to me now? [] Great. What

is this place capable of, anyway? I mean, what other fantasies could I live out?[...] maybe I'll get

Shakespearean and drown myself. Or maybe I'll just drink until I drive off a stupid fucking mountain

road like you? Fucking asshole (325). At last, Tallulah acknowledges her deep rooted feelings of

resentment towards her father. Tallulah finally questions the part she plays in the T.R.E.P.P. and

everything it represents and for the first time in years, Tallulah crie[s] inside the Trail of Tears (326).

Tallulah reconciles with her father, the bear, and makes peace with her past. From this moment, the

Tallulah that emerges is a changed woman. She is no longer bound to her past, but faces the future

with determination. When tour 5709 is completed, her coworkers are surprised to see her warm

interactions with some of its members. One coworker notes, Tallulah Wilson, hugging customers and

exchanging addresses? [] Now I've seen everything (341). Tallulah's response is a telling one: No,

you haven't(341). Tallulah's behavior can no longer be predicted because she is no longer bound to a

closed narrative. Her programming has been disrupted and she is free to take part in an evolving story

that she crafts as she sees fit. By the end of the novel, it is uncertain where Tallulah's path will take her.

In an impulsive gesture, she cuts off all of her hair and resigns from the T.R.E.P.P.. Whether or not she

follows through with the resignation or what she plans to do hereafter is left open to the readers. In this

way, the narrative is left unresolved.

When questioned about the ending to his novel, Hausman replied that he wanted to challenge

readers to question how we assume things are resolved and that he wanted the questions to be left to

linger. A burning echo (Hausman). Interestingly, Hausman employs a Western narrative style, the

novel, to show his audience the flaws in that very style. His method calls to mind Native leaders from

the past, such as Alexander McGillivray or G.W. Grayson who recognized that they could employ

European-style historylinear narratives with source citations and calendrical dates, for example--to
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defend their nations at a time when their sovereignty and land titles were coming under increasing

pressure from the United States (Saunt 675). Hausman uses the historical Trail of Tears as the central

focus of his novel but his message stretches beyond that particular time in history. Today the Cherokee

Nation is a thriving, robust culture. Both Eastern and Western bands celebrate their rich heritage,

despite their tragic past. In her autobiography, Mankiller: A Chief and Her People, former chief of

Cherokee Nation Wilma Mankiller reflects, saying:

I have come to accept that for the Cherokee Nation, for me, and for all people, change is

a critical and inevitable part of the cycle of life. Change proceeds uninterrupted like the

passing shadow of a hawk in flight. Sometimes life's transitions are terrible to face, and

even more difficult to endure. Yet change can bring opportunity and can offer hope and

joy. Change can also mean renewal (259).

This sentiment is echoed in Hausman's novel in the line, Destruction creates. Changes search for

reasons(155). In order for any peoples to evolve, they must cease to think of their history as a holed

up narrative. Instead, consider that history is but a single chapter in an ongoing novel that continues to

be written today by those who have inherited the story. Like the T.R.E.P.P. and Tallulah Wilson, it is

easy to relegate history to the past and to become locked into a recycling pattern. Entire cultures, such

as the Cherokee nation, are reduced to bloody stain upon the pages of a book; but this is a fallacy. The

story of the Trail of Tears continues to be written today. Blake Hausman's open ended conclusion to

his novel parallels his message throughout. Though the events in the Trail of Tears may have come to a

close, be it the historical Trail of Tears or the T.R.E.P.P., we have not reached the end of the narrative.

Like Tallulah who is free to compose the story of her life as she now wishes, we the readers are free to

take Hausman's narrative to our own conclusions. As Thomas King says at the end of his stories in The

Truth About Stories, Take it. It's yours. Do with it what you will. (King)
 Works Cited

Hausman, Blake. Riding the Trail of Tears. Board of Regents of the University of Nebraska. 2011.

Print.

King, Thomas. The Truth about Stories. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. 2005. Print.

Mankiller, Wilma. Mankiller: A Chief and her People. New York: St. Martin's Press.1993.p. 259. Print

Perdue, Theda. Cherokee Women. University of Nebraska Press. 1998. Print.