Laughing Boy is a story about the title character, a Navajo Indian trying to build his family in the southwest. He falls in love with Slim Girl, a young woman who was raised in a white mission school. Laughing Boy is idealistic and artistic, loving Slim Girl no matter what and immediately marries her.
Most of her life, Slim Girl has seen how whites have taken advantage of Indians. Full of bitterness and fueled by the desire for revenge, she becomes the mistress of a white farmer, taking his money and saving it up for herself. When she marries Laughing Boy, an artist who deeply values his Native American roots, she continues in her affair, saving her money so she and Laughing Boy can have the life they want.
They do find happiness, but eventually Slim Girl’s secret comes out. Laughing Boy decides to stay with her, and together they begin to move north, away from town, with their money to be free from Slim Girl’s past. However, on their way, another man (who loved and hated Slim Girl) shoots at them and Slim Girl is killed. Laughing Boy continues on his journey north, mourning her and seeking his family where he hopes to find peace.
This was another short book but very interesting. It was perhaps one of the first stories from a Native American’s perspective and unique in the way it treated Americans, sympathizing with the minority group over the whites. It was a great story overall. What I found also interesting was that it won the Pulitzer Prize the year after Scarlet Sister Mary did, indicating that the prizes were being awarded to books with non-white characters and books that didn’t show their protagonists in the best light. I’m looking forward to seeing how the trends continue as the prizes are awarded.
