Analysis of Marie Kashpaw in the Film Saint Marie

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Marie Kashpaw/Lazarre transitions successfully from not knowing who she is to being proud of who she has become. She is able to come out of bad experiences and use them to improve and guide her. She learns from her mistakes is able to look at her own flaws which help her grow as a person. She is not too ashamed to be able to say that she was naive, ignorant, or made the wrong decision. She thinks before she acts with a plan in mind.
In Saint Marie (1934) Marie is only fourteen years old and is trying to find her identity and sense of importance. Even though she is half native american and half white, she doesn’t feel like she is fully accepted into either community. In order to find her calling, she believes she can prove herself good enough to be accepted into the Sacred Heart Convent and even become a saint. Even though she wants to become part of the Catholic religion she isn’t very religious herself: “I had the mail-order Catholic soul you get in a girl raised out in the bush, whose only thought is getting into town.” Her goal is not necessarily to become religious, rather it is used as a pathway to achieving acceptance in the white community. Marie tells this story a few years later looking back on it. Back then she thought highly of the convent, but when she is older she describes the convent in the book as “Humble, ragtag, out in the middle of no place. Where God had only half a hand in the creation.” She realizes that its a kind of place for nuns that lose their mind or don’t get along anywhere else. As the story progresses, it proves to be true. Yet at first, she has so much faith and trust in Leopolda simply because she was different from the other nuns. She thinks the reason is while the other nuns didn’t keep track of ...

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... seek Leopolda's approval and admiration in Flesh and Blood but different from when she was younger. Now that she was older and had already lived a good amount of her life raising five children and being married to a successful man, she wanted Leopolda to acknowledge that.
In conclusion, it is apparent that Marie is intelligent, strong, and an independent women even though at times she proved to act childish as she can never seem to let go of her hate for Leopolda and her love for Nector. In order to move on, she has to learn to accept things the way they turned out even if it wasn’t what she wanted initially. Marie is still a hero because even though she used violence to escape Leopolda, it was probably the only way she could have escaped. Along with physical strength she is often fearless when facing Leopolda which may have helped her in other situations in life.

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