For a novel filled with references that are often tricky for non-native readers to understand, the narrative discord created within Tracks between Pauline and Nanapush only further complicates the reading. Variations in distance between narrators and characters, between narrators and the reader, and the narrators themselves work to create a dynamic that encourages the reader to favor one narrator's tale over the other. Both narrators exemplify narrative distance or closeness in terms of intellect, emotion, and temporality in relation to the other characters, and this in turn affects the reader's relationship with each narrator. When analyzing this narrative distance, Nanapush can be considered the most reliable and sympathetic narrator, despite his trickster nature and his discord with Pauline. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an original essay Pauline's existence as a dual narrator evokes an emotional and intellectual distance between her and the other characters. Her self-imposed martyrdom for the Catholic Church allows Pauline to overcome the problems encountered in her Ojibwa community and escape its emotional consequences. Although she provides the reader with a fascinating psychological break from the government-imposed conflict that destroys the lives of the other characters, Pauline becomes intellectually and emotionally distanced from others. He also recognizes his distance from the Matchimanto community: “I had told the Superior that this would be my last visit… They wouldn't miss me. I was engaged in a task, and once accomplished I would have no further use, or quarter, for this lost tribe of Israel” (Erdrich 196). Here he explicitly acknowledges the extent to which he has severed his relationships with others, making it clear that this is his last visit and that he knows he will not be missed. She continually takes her Christian identity to the extreme and, in doing so, makes it very clear that the other characters are incapable of understanding or dedicating themselves to God as she has been called to do. This is why they will not complain about each other's absence. She is so willing to separate herself from her former Ojibwa identity that it makes her frustration with the other characters for not being as devout even more apparent. His intellectual distance, then, exists because of religious dissonance, and his emotional distance exists because he is able to distinguish himself with a separate and seemingly white Christian identity. When put together, he becomes so distanced from the reality of the other characters that his account of their lives becomes even more tinged with unreliability. Pauline's movement back and forth between her journey to the convent and her time in her homeland creates temporal fractures. in his account. When this is combined with unclear moments of retrospection, such as "In the years to come, I learned it in every detail" (92) of chapter four, and the span of years that each chapter supposedly covers, it becomes even more difficult to accept . count as an accurate reflection of the plight of the other characters. For the reader, it evokes confusion as it is difficult to grasp a clear timeline on when they receive what information and, in turn, when they choose to reveal it to the reader. In her chapters, the reader still inherently relies on Pauline's account of what is happening to the larger community, and when she chooses to distance herself by joining the convent, the reader loses the sense of temporality that Nanapush best provides. It is for this reason that Nanapush becomes temporally closer to the reader while Pauline.