Comparing The Medicine Bag And Apache Girls Rite Of Passage

Your first job, graduating, and getting married. These are a few examples of rites of passages that most people concur in their life. In the short stories, The Medicine Bag, and Apache Girls Rite Of Passage, Martin and Dachina are going through some of their biggest rites of passage in their Native American culture. Dachina is a confident and courageous young adult that is very eager to enter womanhood through a tradition that is passed through the woman in her tribe. But Martin on the other hand, is very worried about what his friends think of him. So, he is going through a few obstacles to finally accepting his heritage. My analysis from these two stories display a few examples of the similarities and differences between these two Native stories and some advantages and disadvantages of

To begin with, one similarity between the two short stories is that they are both focusing on the Native American cultures, and their ceremonies and traditions to achieve their rites of passages. In the same way, another similarity between these two stories is they both have different types of symbolism. As an example, in the story The Medicine Bag, the medicine bag represents fate, destiny, and guidance and in Apache Girl’s Rite Of Passage, the pollen represents fertility. However, there are also many differences between these two stories. For example, The Medicine Bag is more direct about Martin’s feelings and how he is not ready to accept his heritage right away. While the story, Apache Girl’s Rite Of Passage is more informative about the process of her ceremony to enter womanhood. Another difference between the two short stories is their environments, While Dachina lives on the reservation where all of her Native tribe lives, Martin lives in a city. So, he is not surrounded by a native tribe but he is surrounded by ordinary civilians in the city he lives