Isn’t That Ironic “I’m Not the Indian you Had in Mind” uses many of the ironies described in “As Canadian as Possible under the Circumstances” to help make its point. Both texts either make reference to or use the duplicity of irony. “I’m Not the Indian you Had in Mind” uses the irony by making the reader visualize the common stereotypes of First Nations people before stating that the stereotypes are false and that First Nations people are just like everyone else. We see this in the quote “I’ve heard him, heard him roar/ the warrior wild in the video store/ the movies we all adore/ the cliches we can’t rewind/ but I’m not the Indian you had in mind.” (King lines 9-13) This shows the different perspectives in the poem. The perspective of racist stereotypes that date back to a …show more content…
The form of irony used in the poem allows the author to say more with less and still give a serious and hard hitting criticism of society. An example can be seen in the quote “Hell we didn’t make this mess/ it was given to us and when we’re gone,/ as our parents did, we’ll pass it on/ you see we’ve learned your lessons well.” (King lines 64-67)This section of the poem mocks and criticizes modern society and how we see things as someone else’s problem. Amongst the criticism is blame, to an oppressor that forced people to follow their ways. This Irony is called deconstructive irony. “As Canadian as Possible under the Circumstances” states that deconstructive irony is “A kind of critical ironic stance that works to distance, undermine, unmask, relativize, destabilize.” (Hutcheon page 9) Its uses in the poem are to get people to realize the issues in society and the kind of world we built. The poem is asking us to be better people, to leave the world better than when we found it. The way this irony is used helps reinforce the authors social commentary, and helps people see from the authors
Someone might’ve had an intention to do nothing but good, and then ends up doing a terrible deed. Situational irony can completely shock and surprise the reader and their expectation of the story. This could be an easy and entertaining way for the author to show a character’s failure, or even a character’s unexpected success. The narrator had said,”I ran as fast as I could, leaving him far behind with a wall of rain dividing us.” (pg.425) This quote helps to represent the stories theme because it talks all about irony and how things don’t end up as they are supposed to. It was obviously ironic when the Narrator caused the breakdown of Doodle while he was the one trying to build Doodle up the most. Or even how the Narrator thought he would be stuck with Doodle his whole life, and then he becomes the reason why Doodle is gone from his life permanently. The Narrator does something completely unexpected and leaves Doodle behind in the rain. Throughout the whole story we knew the Narrator didn’t really like Doodle in the beginning, but he still stuck with him. Now when the Narrator and Doodle are at their closest point yet, the Narrator decides to abandon him. It is ironic how if Doodle wasn’t pushed towards societal betterment, he would still be
Irony is simply stated as the difference between what we expect to happen and what actually
The purpose of this irony is to shock the reader, since ironic things are by definition unexpected, it works well as a twist in the story.
The speaker alone faces the impudence as she is the sole “Real Indian” standing there. The speaker never refers to a “we” or a collective that she is a part but only speaks to her own feelings, and while that is a strong message and feeling of how a true single person feels. The singularity reveals that she lacks a community that she is a part of and people around her who she knows feels the same way. There are “more fake Indians than real ones” in America (17). She is outnumbered by the cheap imitations that are violating and disregarding her culture.
“not met an Indian in Canada who has not suffered the humiliations of being overlooked (in jobs, in
Many people do not realize that Indian people are around us everyday. They could be our neighbors, our bus driver, or anyone that we see on a daily bases. In Thomas King’s essay “You’re not the Indian I Had in Mind,” and his video “I’m not the Indian You Had in Mind,” he exemplifies the stereotype that many people make about Indians. King mentions in his essay that people always would say to him, “you’re not the Indian I had in mind,” because he did not look like the stereotypical Indian. Through King’s essay and video, I have been educated about this stereotype that I was unaware of. Since I now have an understanding of how unrealistic this stereotype is, I now can educate friends and family members on this issue.
In Drew Hayden Taylor’s essays, he creates and manipulates various tones that each appeal to a different reader, which allows for his writings to be accepted and related to by various people. Through his use of shifting tones in “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian Block the Road”, from humorous to informative to sarcasm, Drew Hayden Taylor challenges stereotypes about First Nations people.
In the poem the teacher points out mistakes such as the student’s thinking, his style of writing the paper and his grammar errors. The teacher said, “there are spots/where your thinking becomes, for me, / alarmingly opaque, and you syntax/seems to jump backwards through unnecessary hoops,” (6-9). This instance shows the error the teacher found in the paper about how the student’s thinking was not straight and would jump backwards and forward throughout the poem. Another error that the teacher finds is when the teacher tells the student that he should have wrote the paper differently or said something else. The teacher said, “I’d have said it differently, / or rather, said something else” (17-18). This instance shows that the teacher is not happy about the way the student has written he paper and tells him that he should have wrote it differently. Another instance where the teacher finds mistake in the paper is when the teacher fixes the students semicolons mistake in the paper. The teacher says, “Please notice how I’ve repaired your/ use of semicolons.”(28).This instance shows that the teacher found a mistake of semicolons, which the student did not use correctly in the paper. However, even after finding all these mistakes the teacher gives A- as an overall grade to the student. This is an example of an irony that shows that the teacher not only gave negative comments to the student, but after giving negative comments
In the essay “As Canadian as Possible under the Circumstances!” Linda Hutcheon tells readers that Canada is a nation with distinct and independent existence, however she starts off the paper with a point, Canadians can come up with American things easier than Canadian. Hutcheon points out the fact that irony is everything in Canadian culture. We use it to make fun of ourselves and other people. Canadian’s are ironic in the sense that they hate the cold and complain about it, yet they don’t move away. It is used in literature sometimes intentional and other times not intentional. Canadian literature often use ironic adjectives to express an opinion. It is also used in metaphoric structures quite often. Irony is used in the way Canadians speak, it gives people a nice way to lie. It states that polite Canadians are good with this kind of irony because they can lie without being intentional. This way of writing and speaking allows anger to come off in a humorous and friendly way. It can be used to simply be funny or to be sarcastic, or even to start plays and writing off with a good introduction. It gives speakers a way of saying small amounts but having a big significance or meaning. Irony is not only used in speech whether it be verbal or written, but it can also be used by visual artists. Artists use titles that make their work ironic. There are countless ways irony is used in Canadian literature.
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.
“The fact that we were unconsciously part of a plan to weaken and cross out the Indianness in you, to pattern your land with our grain and beets and corn and alfalfa now clearly hits me. It is like a blow to the gut to learn that the years spent on the reservation, the times wading in the Wind River, were not the free years of childhood, but the manipulations of a power hungry to exonerate itself, to free itself, to purge the treaties of any real meaning or responsibility. They stole from me my innocence, leaving me a co-conspirator, an enemy to the children I grew with ton the prairie, drove us apart when we could have and should have forged an alliance for our own survival. The force of this unremitting design has killed many of my friends and acquaintances and left me forever with a feeling of unintentional complicity and sadness.” (Wind River, Wunder)
Dramatic irony is used through Mrs. Mallard’s reaction to her husband’s return. His death had brought her such great sorrow but upon his return she died. Her death then created sorrier bringing in the irony of the beginning of the story where it was said that Mrs. Mallard’s heart was bad and she was tried not to be stressed.
Lastly, half of the poem, “I’m not the Indian you have in mind,” has a double meaning behind it. The first half of the poem is all about our perception of what we believe an Indian is. Linda Hutcheon talked about“Dual allegiances,” in her writing. These two authored works blend together in a sense because they both seem to follow the ideology of a double meaning hidden within Canadian beings; between having a set perception of something such as a stereotypical Indian to the irony of Canadian culture both are examples of double
The ironic use of rhyme and meter, or the lack thereof, is one of the devices Larkin uses to emphasize his need to break out of industrial society. The typical rhyme scheme is not followed, but instead an ironic rhyme scheme is used in the sonnet in the form of abab cdcd efg efg. Larkin writes this poem as a sonnet but at the same time diverges from what a typical sonnet is supposed to be. He is commenting on society’s inclination to form restrictions on those within it. By writing out of the accepted form of a sonnet, his writing becomes more natural because of a lack of constraints due to following certain rules and fitting a certain form. He breaks free and writes as he pleases and does not conform to society. Just as with the rhyme, ...
Over the years many different ways of analyzing poetry have been developed. One such approach is the “New Critical,” or the “Formalist,” which is based on the writings of Coleridge. The formalist approach is useful because it takes the poem’s form, which may be overlooked, and analyzes it to see what its effect is on the meaning of the poem. There are other aspects taken into consideration, like who the speaker is and how the author incorporates “ironic awareness” into the poem. Eavan Boland’s message in “The River” comes across best when looking at the poem with the formalist approach, taking into consideration the speaker and the speaker’s situation, the organic form, and the use of irony. Some aspects may have more importance than others, but all need to be looked at, beginning with the speaker.