“Walk on, little Charlie Walk on through the snow. Heading down the railway line, Trying to make it home. Well, he’s made it 40 miles, Six hundred left to go”(Dunn, 1972).The inspiration for the novella Wenjack (2016) by Joseph Boyden was ‘little Charlie”, whose real name was Chanie, a young Ojibwe (Anishinaabe) boy who froze to death by the railway tracks after his desperate attempt to escape the Cecilia Jeffrey Indian Residential School in Kenora. His tragic death in 1966 sparked an inquest into the Canadian residential school system (Adams, 1967) .What is striking about this novella is that it is written from an alternating perspective of Chanie and Anishinaabe spirits called Manitous, which followed Chanie on his lonely journey. The author …show more content…
By telling the story from the Manitous’ omniscient point of view, Boyden (2016) allows the reader to share Chanie’s perception while explaining factually significant events beyond his personal tragedy. This omniscient view by the Manitous is essential for the reader to understand things about the residential school system that Chanie cannot. Chanie’s escape with two other orphaned boys is a tragic one, and it evokes empathy for him by experiencing fear and pain through his eyes. When he is afraid that the authorities, who he calls “Fishbelly”, catch him and beat “a lot of red marks” (Boyden, 2016, p.1-3) into him or when he tries to desperately catch up with his friends and “his chest burns and [he] spit some red-and white spit on the ground...” (Boyden, 2016, p.12), the reader is instantly emotionally involved with Chanie’s struggle. While the reader is invited to share Chanie’s perceptions and emotions, the reader learns through the Manitous that Chanie is not the only one dealing with his situation rather that he is one of many indigenous students who attempted to escape the residential school (Boyden, 2016, p. 6) which is the same institution that also subjected many students to tuberculosis (Boyden, 2016, p.7). This dual perspective allows the reader to learn about how Chanie’s problems are …show more content…
However, the novella may also present the limits of fiction as it reflects the reader’s ability to keep a distance from the sociological significance of Chanie’s story. Chanie’s disturbing personal account won’t leave the reader long after the last page is turned yet the novella lacks depth and fails to provide understanding of the colonial history and ongoing legacy of the residential schools. Boyden’s (2016) fictional account of the Manitous simply does not offer any knowledge of the past and present of the residential school system and the reader does not receive insight about Chanie outside of his state of victimhood. In fact, it seems that Boyden (2016) intended to merely provoke an emotional response from the reader rather than encourage the reader to reflect on the sociological aspect of the novella. This can lead the reader to be too occupied with the emotional resonance of Chanie’s ‘sad’ story. Furthermore, the overwhelming focus on Chanie’s victimhood of abuse renders the perpetrators invisible. Throughout the novella there is no tangible identity of the “Fishbelly” besides the “pale teacher” (Boyden, 2016, p.1) which obscures race relations and why residential schools existed.
Canadians are just recently beginning to realize the detrimental aftermath of the years of trauma experienced by Indigenous peoples of Canada, such as the survivors of the residential school system. It is often difficult for these people to overcome the impact that follows. Undoubtedly, it requires help and support from others, but these people must make their personal healing journey themselves. The passages “Rock Bottom” by Steven Keewatin Sanderson and the “Legend of the Sugar Girl” by Joseph Boyden prove that although trauma can significantly undermine groups of people, they can overcome their difficulties. Both authors illustrate how trauma negatively affects characters, causes them to fall victim
Trauma, abuse, displacement, and feelings of alienation have, and is still plaguing the Aboriginal community. Author Eden Robinson and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner address the displacement, mistreatment, and abuse the indigenous population has faced, and still faces, in Monkey Beach and Birthright. Both Eden Robinson's novel Monkey Beach, and playwright Constance Lindsay Skinner's Birthright deals with characters who are struggling with trauma and haunted with scars from the past. The authors detail these events and bring the reader into the “shoes” of the characters through characterization, imagery, dialogue, and through revealing intimate memories of the characters. These literary techniques enable the reader to see the parallel between the cyclical, ambiguous state of nature, and the ambiguity in humans and how there is a perpetuating, intergenerational cycle of violence caused by abuse and the mistreatment of the Aboriginal.
Kookum’s Red shoes by Peter Eyvindson, is the fourth resource that relates to the main topic of Aboriginal injustice in Canada. The narrator Kookum, an elder reflects on her childhood and experience with residential school. Kookum compares her childhood to the movie The Wizard of Oz, as she is swept away from her home to attend the residential school. When attending the residential school Kookum had to leave behind her brand new red shoes just like Dorothy had in The Wizard of Oz. When Kookum returns home form the residential school she learns that her beautiful shoes no longer fit. The title and the comparison to a popular movie, gives the resource and the readers a different approach to the delicate topic.
“To kill the Indian in the child,” was the prime objective of residential schools (“About the Commission”). With the establishment of residential schools in the 1880s, attending these educational facilities used to be an option (Miller, “Residential Schools”). However, it was not until the government’s time consuming attempts of annihilating the Aboriginal Canadians that, in 1920, residential schools became the new solution to the “Indian problem.” (PMC) From 1920 to 1996, around one hundred fifty thousand Aboriginal Canadians were forcibly removed from their homes to attend residential schools (CBC News). Aboriginal children were isolated from their parents and their communities to rid them of any cultural influence (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Parents who refrained from sending their children to these educational facilities faced the consequence of being arrested (Miller, “Residential Schools”). Upon the Aboriginal children’s arrival into the residential schools, they were stripped of their culture in the government’s attempt to assimilate these children into the predominately white religion, Christianity, and to transition them into the moderating society (Miller, “Residential Schools”). With the closing of residential schools in 1996, these educational facilities left Aboriginal Canadians with lasting negative intergenerational impacts (Miller, “Residential Schools”). The Aboriginals lost their identity, are affected economically, and suffer socially from their experiences.
Justice has began to commence for many of Canada’s Indigenous people now that considerably one of our Nation’s darkest secrets has been spilled. The Residential School system was a collection of 132 church-run, government-funded boarding schools that was legally required for all Indigenous Canadian children. Canadian Residential Schools ran up until 1996 and, for decades, the secrets from within the walls of the institutions have been hidden. But now, the truth has finally come to light.
These illustrations, along with many others, are the types of images Harriet Jacobs instills upon her readers in her personal narrative Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. With basic knowledge of what comprises a slave narrative, one might assume Jacobs' attempt at a personal creation has the same goals as many others, to teach her audience of the personal hardships of slaves and to inspire a form of hope that an end of slavery is near. Upon the reading and analysis of this narrative, however, it is easy to see how Jacobs' narrative differs from her colleagues. Jacobs' intentions are laid out when she states, "Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women"(825). It becomes evident that Jacobs is writing for all female slaves and wants her audience to understand that being a woman in slavery was the most difficult situation a human being could endure. Although a very large endeavor, Jacobs' succeeds in her task by creating a narrative that speaks out to one particular audience, free white women of the north. By creating a narrative that is truly feminist, bo...
Thomas King uses an oral story-telling style of writing mingled with western narrative in his article “You’re Not the Indian I Had in Mind” to explain that Indians are not on the brink of extinction. Through this article in the Racism, Colonialism, and Indigeneity in Canada textbook, King also brings some focus to the topic of what it means to be “Indian” through the eyes of an actual Aboriginal versus how Aboriginals are viewed by other races of people. With his unique style of writing, King is able to bring the reader into the situations he describes because he writes about it like a story he is telling.
In Sherman Alexie’s The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, the main character Arnold, also known as Junior, has many health issues, and notably stands out in the crowd. It does not help that he is a poor Indian boy that lives on a reservation, and that he decides to go to an all-white high school. Many of his experiences at school, and on the Reservation, impact his identity. Experience is the most influential factor in shaping a person’s identity because it helps gain confidence, it teaches new things, and it changes one’s outlook on the world.
As this poem characterizes the view of a native woman expressing feelings of passion relating to her culture, it also criticizes society, in particular Christianity, as the speaker is experiencing feelings of discontent with the outcome of residential schools. It does not directly criticize the faith, but through the use of a heavy native dialect and implications to the Christian faith it becomes simple to read the speakers emotions.
Native American children were physically and sexually abused at a school they were forced to attend after being stripped from their homes in America’s attempt to eliminate Native peoples culture. Many children were caught running away, and many children never understood what home really meant. Poet Louise Erdich is part Native American and wrote the poem “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” to uncover the issues of self-identity and home by letting a student who suffered in these schools speak. The poem follows Native American kids that were forced to attend Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. By using imagery, allusion, and symbolism in “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways”, Louise Erdrich displays how repulsive Indian
Though the stories may seem “out of place” at first transitioning to the present and past, the style shows how the narrator has learned from his experiences. When the narrator mentions the founder of his school, Mr. Norton, a wealthy and intelligent man, the author praises him as if he were a god. He explains how Mr. Norton’s opening the school affected the entire Negro race in a positive way. Giving them opportunities to better themselves and show they are just as capable as any other.
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.
Bambara gives the readers insight on the poverty and struggle minorities endured while living in the ghetto slums of New York. The goal of the author was coherent and exemplified throughout the story; Bambara had plenty of goals when writing this story. Although the fight for racial equalities were apparent in “The Lesson,” this was not the only aspect being fought for. Social and economic equalities were also fought for in this story. Bambara’s goal was set loud and clear throughout this story: the fight for racial and socioeconomic equalities is never
One is struck by the extreme cruelty and hardship he faced while only an emotionally vulnerable child and adolescent. As Wright generalizes his own experiences to show how the society functioned at the time, one may wonder how many individuals were crushed by similar circumstances.
The poem “I Lost My Talk” by Rita Joe was written by a Mi'kmaq woman who was forced into a residential school by the name of Shubenacadie Indian Residential School as a young girl. While she was there she was changed and it lead to her having an inspiration to write poems and stories. Residential schools are known for the damage that the attendees suffered such as physical and mental abuse some schools also sexually assaulted their students. Due to Rita Joe’s work with poetry and writing she was given a membership position in the Queen’s Privy Council for Canada. Some of the other honours she received were a few honorary doctorates . This poem is about what was lost and taken from her. She uses this to express her feelings. She releases her