The starting point for any Kroetsch novel is the recognition of the importance of the "old dualities" -- chaos/order, life/death, freedom (movement)/stasis, beginnings/endings, youth/age. Gone Indian abounds in binary distinctions; indeed, these paired opposites are also played off against each other. Moreover, one dual polarity (the difference between the real and the imagined Professor R. Mark Madham, the similarity between Jeremy Sadness and his very different professor) is so playfully presented that it may not be present at all -- which is simply another dichotomy.
