Essay on “A Thief of Time”

Thesis Statement

The novel of Hillerman's describes various themes that motivate every individual as a changing time.

A Thief of Time

The Thief of Time is the second novel that combines the two cops Navajo Tribal Police, the “skeptical” Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn and “romantic” Sergeant Jim Chee. “Thief of Time” is the name used by the Navajo to describe the grave robbers, as the plot revolves around the first people who inhabited North America, the Anasazi, and the remains of their civilization, located on the Reserve.

Again, Tony Hillerman, indirectly, presents a critical look at the white man and his culture, and once again they will be the cause of the crimes committed on the Indian reservation. These white men or those converted to Christianity Navajo loot remains banned sites, flying past a people they have almost exterminated for their simple profits (money, love, fame) which ultimately futile to look good seen crimes. It is thus opposed these practices with the Navajo philosophy or religion which has no concept of possession and a visceral fear of the dead and their remains.

After the death of his wife Emma, ??Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, police tribal Navajo, is tired and no longer interested in anything. He decides to retire. Before it becomes effective, his friend Thatcher asked for help on a case of looting of archaeological sites. The two men learned that the suspect has been missing for several weeks, quite unexplained. This is Eleanor Friedman-Bernal, an anthropologist known specialist ceramics and pottery. According to his colleagues, in recent times, the young woman is interested in a very specific type of pottery, she thinks to attribute to a single artist Anasazi. The work could allow the researcher to provide crucial information about the disappearance of the Anasazi civilization almost a millennium ago. Sudden disappearance, for which anthropologists have not yet satisfactorily explained. It does not take long to awaken the curiosity and interest of Leaphorn.

At the same time, Jim Chee investigate the theft of a flatbed semi-trailer and a shovel in the park of the Navajo Tribal Police. Who may need such equipment, if not grave robbers, Thieves of time? Chee thieves find, too late, shot dead on their last place of plundering, an Anasazi site. With the expectation that the two cases are related, the two officers will work. Joe Leaphorn is a personal matter to find Eleanor Friedman. The young Jim Chee, meanwhile, wants to prove his abilities to the legendary lieutenant.

The First Ten Lines

The moon had risen behind her just above the top of the cliff. And before it, the packed sand from the bottom of the wash, the shadow of the walker was a strange shape while length: it was sometimes reminiscent of a heron, sometimes one of these silhouettes-sticks pictograms Anasazi. An animated icon whose arms moved rhythmically while the shadow of the moon walked on the sand. Sometimes, when describing a goat track to turn and placed the walker profile screen in front of the moon, ...