Joy Harjo has been my favorite author that we have studied this year. She brought a level of insight and understanding that many of the other authors did not. Her love of life and her theme of continuing on despite challenges puts a spin on Native Americans that is not always addressed in Native American literature. Harjo’s works do not ignore the difficulties of life, but encompass them as well as the things that make life worth living. It is important to understand when discussing Harjo that she does not ignore the issues and difficulties in life and pretend they do not exist. In many of her works she acknowledges them and the toll they have taken on her. In her poem “Deer Dancer”, she writes, “This is the bar of broken survivors, …show more content…
She writes in her poem “Remember”, “Remember that you are all people and all people are you”. This line emphasizes how much she believes each person is individually so important to the world, and brings so much to the table. She writes in “Metamorphosis” how each student in her school had a different talent that made them each unique and valuable, and she expresses this value again in “The Woman Hanging from the Thirteenth Floor Window” (Harjo 681-682). In this poem, the woman in the poem is not expressed only as …show more content…
Instead, she embraces it and is proud where she came from. In her poem, “The Myth of Blackbirds”, she addresses her admiration for her ancestors and what they stood for. She writes, “I embrace these spirits of relatives who always return to the place of beauty, whatever the outcome in the spiral of power” (Harjo). Her pride in her past expresses a different sort of emotion towards this than some other Native American authors possess. As some of the other works we have read this semester show, a Native American history can be the root of a great deal of pain, especially for those whose ancestors come from multiple backgrounds. While many Native American authors do not look negatively towards their pasts, there is sometimes a removal from it that Harjo does not have. She accepts it as a part of herself; the good, the bad, and the ugly. This to me is an admirable quality about Harjo’s writing. She also writes in “The Myth of Blackbirds”: And I am thankful to the brutal city for the space which outlines your limber beauty. To the man from Ghana who also loves the poetry of the stars. To the ancestors who do not forget us in the concrete and paper illusion. To the blackbirds who are exactly blackbirds. And to you sweetheart as we make our incredible
In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
The construction of identity in Native American literature tends to be contingent on the trope of alienation. Protagonists then must come to terms with their exile/alienated condition, and disengage from the world in order to regain a sense of their pre-colonial life. In utilizing the plight of the American Indian, authors expose the effects decolonization and how individuals must undergo a process of recovery. Under these circumstances, characters are able reclaim knowledge of a tribal self that had been distorted by years of oppression. Through Welch’s Winter in the Blood and The Heartsong of Charging Elk, and Alexie’s Flight, we can see how the protagonists suffer from the tensions of living on the margins of conflicting societies, and that they must overcome their alienations in order to reconnect with a native identity.
“Ask him, before he comes into the presence of the Lord, if he is willing to conform to the laws of the country in which he lives, the country that guarantees his idle existence.” This is the general belief shared among the missionaries, in order for the Native Americans to enter the “utopia” which the evangelists have created, the Indians must throw away their way of life and adapt completely to the white man’s culture. Mrs.Rowell’s claim and Miss Evans acceptance of this ideology reveals that the American missionary society believes that they are above these Native American “heaths”. Furthermore, in Gretchen Ronnow’s, “Native American Writers of the United States”, Ronnow declares, “He [John M. Oskison] often juxtaposes issues without indicating his own opinion about them: traditional values versus mainstream values, formal education versus the teachings of Native American elders, intermarriage versus separatism… (254).” The relation between American settlers (in this case, the missionaries) and Native Americans is enlightened since Oskison has been exposed to both cultures as a Cherokee American by birth. Therefore, Oskison works are based upon his observations growing up. Overall, from the perspective of Oskison and history, it is easy to prove that Americans believed their ways to be better. With this understanding, it is not surprising that Mrs.Rowell and Miss Evans would treat Harjo with contempt and believe themselves to be
Vizenor, Gerald. "Measuring My Blood." Native American Literature: A Brief Introduction and Anthology. Ed. Gerald Vizenor. New York: Harper Collins, 1996. 69-74.
The influential roles of women in the story also have important effects on the whole poem. It is them that press the senses of love, family care, devotion, and other ethical attitudes on the progression of the story. In this poem the Poet has created a sort of “catalogue of women” in which he accurately creates and disting...
Prior to encountering the works Indian Pride: Myths and Truths, Indian Pride: Treaties and Sovereignty, and The Sundance Ceremony, I had speculated that Fools Crow exaggerated Native American customs and traditions in order to create a more compelling novel. Yet, after analyzing these works, I found that I was completely wrong. As Linda Smith states in Decolonizing Methodologies: “It galls us that Western researchers and intellectuals can assume to know all there is to know of us, on the basis of their brief encounters with some of us,” I had unjustly assumed I knew it all (1). Despite various attempts at altering the Native American identity, these three works help to “dispel Indian myths with the real truth” (Indian Pride: Myths and Truths).
When first approaching this work, one feels immediately attracted to its sense of wonder and awe. The bright colors used in the sun draws a viewer in, but the astonishment, fascination, and emotion depicted in the expression on the young woman keeps them intrigued in the painting. It reaches out to those who have worked hard in their life and who look forward to a better future. Even a small event such as a song of a lark gives them hope that there will be a better tomorrow, a thought that can be seen though the countenance by this girl. Although just a collection of oils on a canvas, she is someone who reaches out to people and inspires them to appreciate the small things that, even if only for a short moment, can make the road ahead seem brighter.
‘The woman’ of the poem has no specific identity and this helps us even further see the situation in which the woman is experiencing, the lost of one’s identity. Questions start to be raised and we wonder if Harwood uses this character to portray her views of every woman which goes into the stage of motherhood, where much sacrifice is needed one being the identity that was present in society prior to children.
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
The poem, “Remember”, by Joy Harjo illuminates the significance of different aspects in one’s life towards creating one’s own identity. Harjo, explains how everything in the world is connected in some way. She conveys how every person is different and has their own identities. However, she also portrays the similarities among people and how common characteristics of the world impact humans and their identities. Harjo describes the interconnectedness of different aspects of nature and one’s life in order to convey their significance in creating one’s identity.
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
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.
Change is one of the tallest hurdles we all must face growing up. We all must watch our relatives die or grow old, our pets do the same, change school or employment, and take responsibility for our own lives one way or another. Change is what shapes our personalities, it molds us as we journey through life, for some people, change is what breaks us. Watching everything you once knew as your reality wither away into nothing but memory and photographs is tough, and the most difficult part is continuing on with your life. In the novel Ceremony, author Leslie Silko explores how change impacted the entirety of Native American people, and the continual battle to keep up with an evolving world while still holding onto their past. Through Silko’s
Maya Angelou, a well-known African American author is best known for her autobiographies and her poems. Her legacy that she left behind is the hope, strength, and fortitude that she inspires not only in African American women but in all women in general. Throughout all of her work, there is a common topic that she embodies about overcoming social obstacles and the struggle for self-acceptance. There is also the themes of love, loss, rejection, social acceptance, racial differences, resistance and national consciousness. Some more themes that apply to both her poems and her life are of women, power, and poetry and these themes limit every assumption that people made in the 20th century. She uses her poetry and autobiographies to show the differences
Martha Garcia and Paula Gunn Allen both write of the historical challenges that Native American women have faced and continue to face to this very day. They describe these women as honorable, brave and proud members of a culture who are integral members of their people’s past and future. By bringing awareness of the faulty reports and stereotypical characterizations of the Native American population, these two women shed light on the importance of woman to the survival of the Native American culture.