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Essays on native american sports
Introduction to native american literature
Introduction to native american literature
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In all of Sherman Alexie’s work, there are many recurring symbols. These symbols represent ideas that Alexie thinks are important to Native American life on a reservation. One of these symbols is basketball. Alexie uses basketball as a substitute for war. In Native American culture, war is a way to win glory and respect. In Shadow of a Nation, by Gary Smith, it states that intertribal warfare was banned. This meant that the Native Americans no longer had a way to win glory or status anymore by rule of their culture. As stated in the article, “something had to take war’s place, some way had to be found to count coups.” The article goes on to mention how pre-battle rituals were used before big basketball games. It also compares how “the same drum cadence and honor songs used 200 years ago to celebrate the seizing of a dozen horses of the killing of three Sioux now reverberated through gymnasiums and community halls at the capture of a basketball trophy.” This explains why Alexie uses basketball as a way to gain glory, or lose it in his short stories. …show more content…
This is seen when the Victor thinks to himself “I’d only seen Julius play a few times, but he had that gift, that grace, those fingers like a *** medicine man.” This is an example of how Alexie uses basketball as a form of war. Another point in the text that basketball is treated as a way to earn glory is when Victor compares actual heroes that have saved lives to basketball players. He says “and to be honest, I don't remember none of those names (referring to “actual heroes”) either, but a reservation hero (referring to good basketball players) is remembered. A reservation hero is remembered
Atkinson, Rick. An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943, Volume 1 of the "Liberation Trilogy." New York: Henry Holt, 2002.
A Nation Under Our Feet is about the black political struggles in the rural south from the final decades of slavery to the Great Migration. The purpose of this book is to show how African Americans from their earliest days in the South attempted to assert control over their own lives, shape and protect their communities, and gain political power.
I felt like the author could clearly show the true contributing factors of the civil war. As an admirer of history, I could use utilize his book for references later on in my academic studies. The book is 127 pages chronicling the events that led to the civil war. Holt gives novices history readers a wonder firsthand look into the world of young America pre-civil war. His book brought out new ways to approach the study of pre-civil war events. The question whether the Civil War was inevitable or could have been derailed was answered in The Fate of Their Country. Holt places the spotlight on the behaviors Politicians and the many congressional compromises that unintendedly involved the actions of the residents of American. These factors at hand placed the Civil war as inevitable. Most of the politician’s views in The Fate of Their Country were egotistical and shortsighted which left gaps in American’s social future. To consider the subject of why, first we need to understand the contributing causes, America’s great expansion project, the Manifest Destiny the driving factor behind the loss of virtue and political discord.
In Warrior Nations: The United States and Indian Peoples, Roger L. Nichols aims to provide readers a unique account on various wars, by focusing on the reasons behind each one and by detailing how each conflict effected other, farther away conflicts. . Nichols also provides six main attributes that were the main instigators of war. These attributes are:
Many people question if Guy Sajer, author of The Forgotten Soldier, is an actual person or only a fictitious character. In fact, Guy Sajer in not a nom de plume. He was born as Guy Monminoux in Paris on 13 January 1927. At the ripe young age of 16, while living in Alsace, he joined the German army. Hoping to conceal his French descent, Guy enlisted under his mother's maiden name-Sajer. After the war Guy returned to France where he became a well known cartoonist, publishing comic books on World War II under the pen name Dimitri.
The Fort Shaw girls basketball team and the novel, Full Court Quest, is very inspirational to Native American history. These girls went out on to the court, forgot all their worries, and put their heart in soul to every game they played despite cultural issues and personal issues. Basketball was being newly introduced into the public, which was mainly made up of whites. This was very brave of the the basketball girls and also all who were included associated with the Fort Shaw boarding school because they were the minority. Native Americans were suppose to forget their own culture and evolve into white culture. However, Native Americans took basketball and taught it to the whites. This made some whites contradict their previous feelings and start to believe that Native American culture isn’t completely inferior to white culture.
To conclude, the poem “Ex-Basketball play,” is a poem that shows the reality of life. It reflects the nature of life in the real world and it helps people who have a dream and want to pursue their goals to go for it. The poem was formally organized and provides a number of figurative languages that helps to bring out tone of the poem.
A persona is a mask shown to the outside world developed in relation to consciousness, to hide the darkest aspects of a psyche, known as a shadow, behind it. Shadows contrast personas by holding undesirable and unwanted memories and behaviors, but the dark side of an individual must be accepted for the individual to fully understand oneself. In the coming of age novel, A Separate Peace, by John Knowles, narrator Gene Forrester returns to New Hampshire to visit Devon School, where he studied fifteen years ago just as World War II had begun to unfold. The narrative shifts back fifteen years ago to Gene’s days at Devon School with his best friend, Phineas, also known as Finny, as he recalls memorable events from his past. Gene’s persona and shadow
Basketball has been around for 118 years. It has evolved so much. I bet Naismith never thought that something so simple would change the world. Basketball has even changed lives, by reaching out to other countries, and all kinds of charities. For some people basketball is life, and it has even saved lives. A lot of players in the NBA have come from nothing, but since they excelled in basketball all their biggest dreams have come true. Basketball can even help you escape from all your troubles and worries. You can ask any player what it is like to step on a basketball court and I bet they will tell you it’s the best feeling in the world. Basketball really is more than a game, it’s a way of life.
In conclusion, Sherman Alexie created a story to demonstrate the stereotypes people have created for Native Americans. The author is able to do this by creating characters that present both the negative and positive stereotypes that have been given to Native Americans. Alexie has a Native American background. By writing a short story that depicts the life of an Indian, the reader also gets a glimpse of the stereotypes encountered by Alexie. From this short story readers are able to learn the importance of having an identity while also seeing how stereotypes are used by many people. In the end of the story, both Victor and Thomas are able to have an understanding of each other as the can finally relate with each other through Victor's father.
In “War and Massacre” by Thomas Nagel, Nagel argues that there are limits on what can be done to an enemy even its for the sake of overall good. He believes that such an idea is grounded on the principles of Absolutism, where morality is determined by the action itself (deontology). This is contrary to the view of Utilitarianism, which relies on the premise that Morality is determined by its consequences (Consequentialism). Although could one in fact generate such a moral structure around war? Do the ends justify the means in War? Through identifying with a real-life example, I will look to expand on Nagel’s account where an action taken by a country in war would be prohibited even if it were for the overall good.
The game of basketball is a highly recognized and widely known sport. Basketball was first heard of in the winter of 1891 when a man by the name of James Naismith was told to instruct a physical education class at the Young Men’s Christian Association in Springfield, Massachusetts. Naismith was instructed to put together a game for young men to enjoy while they were at the YMCA. While trying to come up with a brilliant and fun game for these young men, Naismith reminisced back on his childhood in Canada. He remembered a game his friends and him had played all the time: “Duck on a Rock”, which involved trying to knock a large rock off a boulder by throwing smaller rocks at it. Naismith also remembered watching a game of rugby going on in the gymnasium. The game of Rugby involved tossing a ball into a box. After a very short time of trying to make up a game for these young men, Naismith came up with a brilliant idea. Little did he know the game that he came up with just so happened to be one of he most renowned sports in American history. Naismith’s idea pertained to nailing up raised boxes so that players could attempt to throw a ball in the basket. When there were no boxes too be found, he used peach baskets. Supposedly, Naismith came up with all the rules for this game in no more than “about an hour”, according to Alexander Wolff. Shortly after Naismith had invented the game of basketball, graduates of the YMCA traveled internationally which is the main reason as to why this sport is so widely known. The impact basketball has made on the lives of many Americans is incredible in the sense that it has given people the ability to ...
Basketball is a sport that has changed in various ways since its invention in 1891. It has evolved and expanded across the United States and across the world. Although it has had its ups and downs basketball is still a sport that is enjoyed by over 250 million people in this world. Today it is one of the biggest sports known and it continues to grow every year with new players bringing new styles and competition. The changes throughout the history of basketball can be shown through its origin, how it developed into a competitive sport, and its evolution into present day leagues.
Why do nations fail? This is a topic of popular debate with many economists and a question many scholars have struggled to find an answer to. Global poverty is an issue that economists Daron Acemoglu and James A. Robinson investigate and provide an alternative insight for in their book: ‘Why Nations Fail’. Acemoglu and Robinson investigate inequalities that exist across countries and why nations are an epitome of success and others, failure. They come up with an alternative explanation for why standards of living differ across countries, and why a gap exists between the rich and poor. The book introduces an example of two cities that are separated by a border: Nogales, Arizona and Nogales, Sonora. On the American side of the border, the income of the average household is $30,000, the population is relatively healthy, and the citizens live prosperously (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). On the opposite side of the border in Mexico, majority of the population do not own a high school degree, poor health conditions exist, poor infrastructure and unfortunately, high infant mortality rates (Acemoglu & Robinson 2012). How can situations on opposite borders be so different? The basis for Acemoglu and Robison’ s thesis for this phenomenon is that of institutions. They propose that that there is a strong correlation between economic and political institutions. That is, inclusive political institutions support inclusive economic institutions, and extractive political institutions support extractive economic institutions (Acemoglu & Robinson, 2012). Democratic institutions generally allow opportunities for the majority, leading to positive economic growth. Political institutions that look after a narrow elite is reinforced with stag...
Ironically, Ike’s observations of these boys shed insight on his own life: “Ike suspected that they were not moved by the spectacle of nimble men slicing, gliding, feinting, flying. They hardly cared for the dunks, the pump fakes, the cross-over dribbles, the fade-away jump shots dropped from impossible angles. It was not the grunts and hard fouls or the fluidity of movement that astonished them.