King Kashpaw Character Analysis

June and Gordie’s son, Lynette’s husband, Howard’s father, and Lipsha’s half-brother. After June’s death is deemed of natural causes, her life insurance pays out to King, who uses the money to buy a brand new Firebird. The Firebird is symbolic of King’s connection to June—he sees the car as his birthright, so to speak—and he is exceedingly protective of it. King is a cruel and abusive man who repeatedly beats his wife (he even tries to drown her in a sink full of dishwater), and when she takes the keys to the Firebird and locks herself inside to evade King’s abuse, he threatens to kill her. King is Lipsha’s half-brother, and while Lipsha doesn’t know the truth about his identity, King does, and he spends much of their childhood torturing Lipsha and calling him an “orphant.” King lives in Minneapolis with his family in a dark and depressing apartment, and he even spent some time in prison with Gerry Nanapush. King betrayed Gerry in prison when he snitched on one of Gerry’s many escape attempts. Near the end of the novel, as Lipsha is coming to terms with his identity, he goes to visit King in Minneapolis, during which time Gerry again breaks out of prison and pays King a visit as well. Gerry claims that King is “an apple”—“red on the outside, white on the inside”—by which Gerry means that King is a traitor to his fellow Native American and is no better than a white man. Gerry forces King into a game of five-card stud to pay for his transgression, and Lipsha suggests they play for the Firebird. King refuses, but Gerry threatens to kill him, and Lipsha takes the car with a royal flush. King’s character sheds light on the tragedy of domestic violence, and it is through King that Erdrich suggests domestic violence is a problem handed down from generation to generation. King watched his father, Gordie, abuse his mother when he was young, and he ultimately grew up to repeat the same violent behavior.