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Features of post colonial theory in literature
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Features of post colonial theory in literature
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Phillip Frenau’s poem, “The Indiana Burying Ground,” juxtaposes the burial techniques of Christian religion with that of the Native American religion. While reading through this poem, the imagery stood out to me. I found myself walking though two ancient burial grounds. One was like the cemeteries I know. I felt a sense of sadness fall over me as I walked around the headstones. The other one was a much different experience. I was able to see into graves. I saw skeletons positioned in a manner unique to themselves. Some had bows drawn, some had their most prized possessions arranged around them, signifying who they were during their life. I found it strange that instead of the normal, mournful feeling I get in the pit of my stomach when thinking about grave yards, I felt a sense of joy and lightheartedness. Through this poem, and themes of death and nature, Frenau attempts to enlighten the reader of the diversity of people and their cultures. …show more content…
I think this truly speaks to the way that the Native American Indians viewed death and the soul, joyful instead of mournful. In stanza one, Frenau writes, “The posture, that we give the dead, Points out the soul’s eternal sleep,” to highlight the Christian idea that once a person dies, he is laid to rest for all of eternity. The Native American tradition is featured in stanza two, where the author describes the departed as being sat upright with his friends. This differentiation between the two postures of the deceased symbolizes the differences in cultures and beliefs. The Christian faith recognizes death as the end to your human life, whereas the Indians viewed death as the soul’s release into the world. The author compares both views to highlight the significance of diversity of
My initial response to the poem was a deep sense of empathy. This indicated to me the way the man’s body was treated after he had passed. I felt sorry for him as the poet created the strong feeling that he had a lonely life. It told us how his body became a part of the land and how he added something to the land around him after he died.
For historians, the colonial period holds many mysteries. In Written in Bone, Sally Walker tells the story of America's earliest settlers in an interesting way, by studying human remains and bones. Sally walker works alongside historians as they uncover the secrets of colonial era gravesites. Written in Bone covers the entire process, from excavating human remains to studying the burial methods and how scientists, historians and archeologists go about this. Readers will be amazed by how much detail these processes uncover, such as gender, race, diets and the lifestyles of many different people. The reader will began to see the colonial era in a new way.
“Skeletons in the Closet”, written by Clara Spotted Elk, is a well-built argument, but it can be enhanced to become immensely effective. Firstly, Elk’s position is effective in obtaining her purpose and connecting her audience to it, because she includes a broad scope and background of the problem in the first few paragraphs. She describes the amount of Indian skeletons preserved and contained by American museums, through the use of data and statistics. For instance, Elk states: “we found that 18,500 Indian remains…are unceremoniously stored in the Smithsonian’s nooks and crannies” (13-15). By using this data, the background of the argument is illustrated to assist the audience in understanding her argument. Now, by knowing this statistic, readers can connect with Elk and her assertion, since we realize that there are plenty of skeletons that
In the poem “Unveiling” by Linda Pastan, the speaker's point of view is from an older woman who is walking through a cemetery and admiring her deceased family members. Pastan uses allusion, enjambment and imagery to display to the reader what the speaker is feeling and thinking, as she explores her family members’ graves.
Olds’ use of nature-related similes allows the reader a greater understanding of man’s worst invention—war. In describing the unburied bodies of the dead, Olds writes “they lay on the soil / some of them wrapped in dark cloth / bound with rope like the tree’s ball of roots / when it waits to be planted.” Uprooted from life but not yet planted in the ground for their eternal rest, the bodies resemble the gnarled nest of exposed tree roots. Tied up and brought under the dominion of man, the otherwise sprawling roots form a crown of thorns, just as the men die in a conflict
The theme to this story is that people will always be different and you cannot force your ideas into them. In this story the priest is ignorant to the fact that these Indians do not want to have a Catholic burial and that they only want to use the holy water to bring rain. All the priest is interested in is gaining parishioners, while the Indians just want to pay their respects to the old man by staying true to their heritage.
I repose in this quiet and secluded spot, not from any natural preference for solitude; but finding other cemeteries limited as to race, by charter rules, I have chosen this that I might illustrate in my death the principles which I advocated through a long life, equality of man before the Creator.
Deaths were a form of social event, when families and loved ones would gather around the bed of the dying, offering emotional support and comfort. Myth, religion, and tradition would combine to give the event deeper meaning and ease the transition for all involved. The one who was dying was confident in knowing what lay behind the veil of death, thanks to religious faith or tradition. His or her community held fast to the sense of community, drawing strength from social ties and beliefs. (“Taboos and Social Stigma - Rituals, Body, Life, History, Time, Person, Human, Traditional Views of Death Give Way to New Perceptions" 1)
Tensions between science and religion have recurred throughout history. The issues of what to do with the remains of our ancestors are viewed differently by people. Some people believe that the burial site should be left untouched. Among this group of people fall the Native Americans. Archaeologists, on the other hand, think we should uncover the burial site to be able to discover more about the history of the land from which the grave lies.
The Deads exemplify the patriarchal, nuclear family that has traditionally been a stable and critical feature not only of American society but of Western civilization in general. The primary institution for the reproduction and maintenance of children, ideally it provides individuals with the means for understanding their place in the world. The degeneration of the Dead family and the destructiveness of Macon's rugged individualism symbolize the invalidity of American, indeed Western, values. Morrison's depiction of this ...
Suter, Keith. “Roadside Memorials: Sacred Places in a Secular Era.” Contemporary Review 292.1692 (Spring 2010): 51+. Psychology Collection. EBSCO: Academic Onefile. Web. 24 Mar. 2011.
...at significance but more importantly, they see death as a way of escaping the sin and pain that manifests itself on earth. The body is considered a shipping crate when it comes to the soul. It is something for the soul to reside in until it has fulfilled its purpose on earth. Then it leaves, to start a new life in another shipping crate. With a clean conscious each of the characters in these poems are able to die guilt-free and both believe they will ascend to heaven. They acknowledge the fact that their souls will carry on after their bodies have died and seem to rest assure in the fact that there is more to life than the experiences they had on earth. Similar to the way souls are regarded by today's standards, it is something that departs from person upon death and carries the memory of an individual forever. I think John Donne would have agreed with this idea.
In Natasha Trethewey’s poetry collection “Native Guard”, the reader is exposed to the story of Trethewey’s growing up in the southern United States and the tragedy which she encountered during her younger years, in addition to her experiences with prejudice. Throughout this work, Trethewey often refers to graves and provides compelling imagery regarding the burial of the dead. Within Trethewey’s work, the recurring imagery surrounding graves evolves from the graves simply serving as a personal reminder of the past to a statement on the collective memory of society and comments on what society chooses to remember and that which it chooses to let go of.
In the first instance, death is portrayed as a “bear” (2) that reaches out seasonally. This is then followed by a man whom “ comes and takes all the bright coins from his purse / / to buy me…” This ever-changing persona that encapsulates death brings forth a curiosity about death and its presence in the living world. In the second stanza, “measles-pox” (6) is an illness used to portray death’s existence in a distinctive embodiment. This uncertainty creates the illusion of warmth and welcomenesss and is further demonstrated through the reproduction of death as an eminent figure. Further inspection allows the reader to understand death as a swift encounter. The quick imagery brought forth by words such as “snaps” and “shut” provoke a sense of startle in which the audience may dispel any idea of expectedness in death’s coming. This essential idea of apparent arrival transitions to a slower, foreseeable fate where one can imagine the enduring pain experienced “an iceberg between shoulder blades” (line 8). This shift characterizes the constant adaptation in appearance that death acquires. Moreover, the idea of warmth radiating from death’s presence reemerges with the introduction to a “cottage of darkness” (line 10), which to some may bring about a feeling of pleasantry and comfort. It is important to note that line 10 was the sole occurrence of a rhetorical question that the speaker
Native Indian beliefs. The poem now sees a shift of the clouds which warns of