IkkemotubbesInRL

Four generations of the family are at least mentioned in this first of Faulkner's Indian stories, which foregrounds the attempt of Issetibbeha's personal slave to escape the custom that requires his death as part of the funeral ceremonies for the Man. But the short story also recounts, briefly, how Issetibbeha's father Doom, the son of the sister of the chief and so not in the line of succession, became the chief after the "sudden" death of his uncle and his uncle's son (318). It also describes in some detail Issetibbeha's anxiety about his son, Moketubbe, who covets the "pair of slippers with red heels" that Issetibbeha brought back with him from a trip to Europe. The slipper is the one place where the story provides access inside the dynamic of the Indian family. For a while his son's behavior amuses Issetibbeha, but remembering Doom's rise to power, he grows increasingly anxious at what it portends for his future. The role Moketubbe actually plays in his father's death is not made explicit, but the evidence implies another regicide. The role that race plays in the tale is ambiguous. Moketubbe may have murdered his father, but the story leaves no doubt about his unfitness to be the Man. According to Issetibbeha, his own mother (Doom's wife) has at least some "Negro blood" (321), and while the textual evidence is not definitive, it seems likely that Issetibbeha's own first wife (Moketubbe's mother) is black. It should be noted, however, that our decision to represent her as "Black" on this graph is very much an act of interpretation. (For more discussion about this choice, see the Note on the Text for "Red Leaves.")