Halfbreed, A Literary Analysis

Personal narratives serve as an important tool to documenting the history of peoples and cultures. Through letters, spoken word, or autobiographies, traditions and cultures are preserved through stories. Everyone has a story worth telling, and in the three works: Halfbreed, To Marry an Indian: The Marriage of Harriet Gold and Elias Boudinot in Letters, 1823-1839, and Pocahontas: The Hostage Who Became Famous, the stories of three brave and strong women in history are told. All three of these stories illuminate the histories of women who struggled with self-identity, societal views, and a changing cultural climate in North America. In Halfbreed, Maria Campbell presents her story in her own words as a novel-like autobiography. By writing her

There, in England, she must assimilate herself to English standards and way of living. She marries John Rolfe, who Rountree describes as a “deeply religious man whose interest in converting a ‘heathen’ woman for the salvation of her soul was undoubtedly sincere”. Pocahontas was literally stripped away from her indigenous peoples, lands, and culture. Even her husband had in his interests to strip all indigeneity from Pocahontas to convert her into a Christian. To be alone in a foreign country surrounded by foreign people who wanted to change the very identity of Pocahontas, she must have experienced deep feelings of isolation and

Maria Campbell, Harriet Gold, and Pocahontas all displayed adaptability and wisdom in their life experiences. Their stories are significant in telling the history of encounters between white and indigenous culture. In addition, the themes of isolation, white superiority, and willpower present in all three narratives are still relatable to current audiences. In this way, the importance of personal narratives is held in the history they tell and the emotions they convey. The ability to express and record one’s life story is a vital tool to retaining the true history of peoples. If Campbell or Gold had not recorded the events of their life, their stories would have gone untold and been left to speculation, much like Pocahontas’s story was. The feelings and emotions they felt could only be explained by them, and as such, personal narratives serve as an important method of understanding human