Identity Theft In Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

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Identity Theft
Racism is when you believe that everyone from one race has the same characteristics, which is used to distinguish which race is superior or inferior to another. Racism leads to the discrimination of people from different races, and restricts them from reaching their goals and aspirations. In the novel Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese, racism is prevalent because the natives are discriminated in various ways. Racism alters people’s perception negatively, causing them to think of the victims as a lesser person, resulting in a loss of his/her identity.

The natives are forced to deal with the repercussions of the actions of the religious figures in the residential school, when they impose their beliefs on the natives. First of …show more content…

But those ways are gone. Those gods are dead. We need to take my son to the priest so that he can be returned to the bosom of Christ” (Wagamese 31-32). The natives are forced to deal with cultural confusion because they have not been properly assimilated into society, and do not know about their heritage since they were forced to stop following their culture in the residential school. Afterward, during Saul’s time at the residential school he is forced to deal with the deaths of the other native children. After his experience with the fish, Saul talks about the gruesome experiences at the residential school, “I saw young boys and girls die standing on their own two feet.... That would never stop, never change so long as that school stood in its place at the top of that ridge as that school stood in its place at the top of that ridge, as bush and from the arms of their people. So I retreated. That’s how I survived” (55). Saul is forced to deal with these experiences, where the other native children take their own lives which teaches them to ignore the situations they do not want to deal with. Finally, the racism causes the religious figures of the residential school to implement their negative thoughts on the culture of the native children which makes them feel like lesser beings. After Saul sees the Iron Sister, he describes the effect of

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