Character Analysis
At the opening of the novel, Tayo's uncle Josiah is already dead. Nevertheless, he's an extremely significant character because his death is the catalyst for Tayo's mental breakdown. (We don't know anything about his real death other than the fact that Tayo feels that Josiah dies while he was fighting in the war.) When Tayo sees Josiah's face on one of the Japanese soldiers they've been ordered to execute, he becomes hysterical. This event marks Tayo's transition from health to madness—the straw that broke the camel's back.
We come to know Josiah's character through flashbacks, and it becomes clear that Josiah is the father figure who educates Tayo in matters of Laguna spirituality. Josiah teaches Tayo to respect and honor the earth and not to get mad at it when natural disasters like droughts make people suffer. Droughts happen because people make mistakes and need to ask for forgiveness, says Josiah.
Josiah also teaches Tayo to be kind to animals—even flies—and introduces him to some of the stories that occupy such a central role in Laguna mythology. Though Tayo's Laguna education may be spotty, and he might not know the songs by heart, it's enough for Tayo to develop an intuitive sense of right and wrong. Josiah is basically this story's version of Mr. Miyagi.
Josiah's family criticizes him for some of his decisions, but ultimately we come to see him as the moral authority of the novel. For Josiah, love and kindness always trumps other concerns like respectability or the preservation of racial purity. When Auntie and old Grandma give Josiah a hard time for going out with a Mexican woman, for example, it's clear that they're just being petty and prejudiced. Josiah's happiness in his newfound relationship makes the case that love is much more important than Auntie's fear of gossip.
Josiah never makes any pronouncements about race or how he feels about racial mixing, but even aside from his relationship with the Night Swan we have two other pieces of evidence that he supports it.
The constant kindness he shows towards Tayo lets us know that he's not one of those people who's "afraid of change," as the Night Swan puts it (XXI.58). And what about Josiah's project with the spotted cattle? He intends to breed the tough, rangy Mexican cows with Herefords, the kind of cattle preferred by white ranchers, to produce a new breed. There's a strength in this newness: these cattle will still provide food for the people, but they'll be able to survive the harsh conditions of the Laguna reservation.
And no, we don't think it's any coincidence that the Mexican cattle are "speckled brown" (XX.37) while the Herefords are "white-face cattle" (XX.23). Get it? Change is good!