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Post colonial Indian literature
Zitkala-sa introduction
Zitkala-sa introduction
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Recommended: Post colonial Indian literature
In “From the School Days of an Indian Girl.” Zitkala-Sa, the author tells her experience as a young Indian girl taken away from her family to be assimilated in to the white culture. The author and her friends, Judewin and Thowin, alone with other children got excited about an adventure in to a new land. Their excitement was short because of their painful experiences from the white’s ignorance of the Indian culture. When a white women saw her arrived the school, she tossed her up in the air several times. It was insulting for her because of against the Indian culture. Her stay at the school was other painful experience. One day, the white women lined up all the Indian children to cut their hair. The author and her friend was sad for their
Zitkala-Sa was extremely passionate with her native background, and she was adamant on preserving her heritage. When Zitkala was a young girl, she attended White’s Manual Labor Institute, where she was immersed in a different way of life that was completely foreign and unjust to her. And this new way of life that the white settlers imposed on their home land made it extremely difficult for Native Americans to thrive and continue with their own culture. In Zitkala’s book American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings, she uses traditional and personal Native stories to help shape her activism towards equality amongst these new settlers. Zitkala’s main life goal was to liberate her people and help
She asked Alexie to apologize, he asked: “Sorry for what?” For being an “Indian.” to what teacher replied “Everything.” She punished him by standing straight for fifteen minutes and eagle-arm with books in each hand. Betty Towle made him eat the paper for reading the words wrong way when he read them right. She used the word “Indian” consecutively with a capitalization, to what Alexie answered “Yes, I am, I am Indian. Indian, I am.” This is significant because he is expressing his pride for his Indian background. He is not ashamed to stand up for himself. She sent a letter to his parents telling him to cut off his braids otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to enter her
Symbolism is displayed in this short story to strengthen the theme. When talking to his daughter about her departure for college, the father repeatedly mentions seeing Indians. When he is asked by his daughter what he was doing, he responded, "Looking for some Indians." He is beginning to worry here, by the indication that he is seeing Indians. (98) Later on he said, "Look... Indians on the warpath." (100) which is displaying how he further felt his fear of his daughter leaving. At the end of the story, he concludes by thinking, "I went
In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling Christianity.
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
Zitkala Sa’s autobiography “Impressions of an Indian childhood” Should remain a part of the American Literary canon because her writing is full of rich history. Within the history that she depicts, she shows a different perspective. A lot of times, people do not realize the perspective of the Indians when looking back at this time. Her writing shows what begins out as a happy childhood.
The reading “The School Days of an Indian Girl,” by Zitkala-Sa, discusses two main ideas throughout the passage: the infliction of new culture and the segregation of races. These main ideas are addressed in the context of a missionary school for Native American children, in which they are forced to follow the ways of American culture and are segregated against for being of a different race. By encouraging the worship of Jesus and, “...the white man’s Bible,”(40), Quaker missionary school is teaching Native American children to worship Christianity and realize the importance of white culture, but at the same time, the same teachers and nurses will, “...neglect of our physical ills,”(40), and will only choose to care after the white children. Speaking directly to the motive of these missionary schools (to impose white religion and discriminate against Native
Primary sources are important because they give the reader first person accounts of people’s direct experiences as they were experienced by the person, and witness accounts of what someone directly observed of a situation or event. Primary sources are used in history to give accounts of what was happening at the time from someone who lived that event, and can recount what happened as they experienced it instead of things written on the subject that have to rely on outside information to write the story because they were not there.
There are stories within the stories depicted in numerous vignettes. Set in 1980s, the novel gives a graphic account of a cross section of Indian society in characters like Jemubhai Patel, a former judge, his teenaged granddaughter Sai and their cook, Panna Lal who live in a house in the north East Indian town Kalimpong, Biju, the cook's son, Gyan, Saeed, Haresh- Harvy and the two sisters, Lolita and Nonita. All these figures are the inheritors of loss, in terms of dislocation of place, wealth and progress. They are all transformed from their 'native' identity into something quite different, a " Westernized native". Rather, they are negotiating with a state of non-identity. Caught between two worlds, the characters negotiate a new social space; caught between two cultures and often languages the writer also negotiates a new literary space. They are all haunted by questions often asked by an immigrant: Who am I? Where do I
Through the telling of stories, this film is able to emphasize the individuality that exists in non-Western cultures. In addition, through certain elements, it is effective at acknowledging the audience’s awareness of witnessing a story, and raises the question of whether stories can ever truly be an accurate representation of reality. Through a criticism of British perceptions of the people of India, Midnight’s Children addresses the confusion in regards to an accurate sense of personal and national identity, and related issues experienced by previously colonized people. Things Fall Apart; Green Grass, Running Water; and Fronteras Americanas all show examples of this through different contexts. Through all of these works, we, the audience, are reminded that everything ever written is a story that that can be told differently by different people. All raise the same question: if we had started out with different stories, would we have a different
The quest for identity and the plight of immigrant’s life is a fascinating subject for the immigrant writers. The immigrants’ movement which begins as a journey of adventure marked by the hope of bright future gradually turns less and less adventurous because what they see in reality is an entirely different situation.Uma Parameswaran enables the readers to understand the agony and trauma they are subject to and bring home to the readers the feeling of emptiness and exclusion felt by the characters. She emphasizes that settling down requires surrender, change and assimilation on the part of the immigrants.
I lived in India for 15 years, since birth. I am not surprised that I was brought up in a rigid country. I was born in Patiala, a city of Punjab which is usually known for its antiqueness. Though I was born in Patiala, my upbringing was done in another town close to my birth city. My town was small but had a miscellany of people. One could find every kind of person in there. The first few years were not that hard; I used to go to school and then come back home. I enjoyed my life’s first few years but as it known that a coin has two sides my life was not totally a “Party all night”. I always had a bad gall bladder; it remained filled with urine all the time. My being shy always serves a great disadvantage for me. I had a hard time asking my teachers to use restrooms in case of urination. A teacher is not an omniscient who would know when I have to go to loosen myself. It would not be a surprise if I say I did it in my skirt all the time. Yes, I used to do that often and usually become a trouble maker for my teacher and the child care ladies who had to clean me. “She is a kid.” That us...
Ruth Prawer Jhabvala was born in Germany but she moved to England at the age of 12. She then moved to India in the fifties, where she married and settle for the better part of her life.
Growing up during a time of violent political upheaval in Sri Lanka, Arjie travels an especially bittersweet journey into maturation in Shyam Selvadurai’s Funny Boy. The adults in Arjie’s extended family mostly belong to an older, more conservative generation that attempts to fit Arjie into society’s norms. The adults that Arjie meets in the community through his family are individuals who prompt him to see past the confines of his childhood, and it is Arjie’s peers who give him the extra push to understanding himself. With guidance from his extended family, his adult friends, and his peers, Arjie is able to discover his identity through understanding the impact of race and gender on his life.