Eye Killers and Navajo Myth: An Analysis of a Modern Native American Novel Anonymous College

Vampire tales, Navajo mythology, and contemporary life in New Mexico, come together in Aaron Carr’s multifaceted, novel, Eye Killers, juxtaposing contemporary elements with the traditional. This juxtaposition of traditional and contemporary is played out among the two protagonists, Michael Roanhorse and Diana Hogan, who live in different cultural worlds. The younger Diana, lives in urban Albuquerque, works with youths as an English teacher, and is from the Euro-American tradition. Michael Roanhorse is an old Navajo Indian living in an isolated home among the mountains outside of Albuquerque. Although they come from different worlds, the characters share a sense of loneliness and loss.

Carr writes of Diana’s first impression of Michael at his home, “everything indicated the most loneliest existence she could imagine” (Carr, 67). Carr depicts Diana at home with a heart that “…remained frozen; an ice cube or a fish steak. The walls of her apartment offered enough protection from hurt” (Carr, 40). Diana laments the divorce of her husband who has since started a new family, and Michael mourns the loss of his wife, Margaret. Michael also laments the distance between himself and his daughter and granddaughter. The fusion of Michael...