In 1492, Christopher Columbus discovered America and began an era of colonialization, Eurocentrism and cultural assimilation. In the following centuries, the Europeans took control of America and enforced their culture onto the Native Americans that have always lived on the continent. Dorothy M. Johnson’s “Lost Sister” tackles this assimilation through the character of Aunt Bessie, who, like many Native Americans, refused to completely adopt the colonizers’ way of life. Accordingly, the short story conveys the theme that individuals may choose to stay in the liminal stage if they are forced to undergo a rite of passage. To start, the rite of passage in the story is one that is forced upon the main character. Aunt Bessie is going through a …show more content…
Consequently, she does not acquire the characteristics of someone having an Euro-American identity and exits the rite of passage before entering the incorporation stage. Nevertheless, if Aunt Bessie had accepted to go live with her sister Mary (Johnson 66), the rite of passage would have continued. In that case, the moment she would leave the house would be considered the end of the liminal phase and the beginning of the incorporation phase, using the symbolic properties of the doorway again. Then, the moment she will arrive at her sister’s house will constitute incorporation, and at that point, she will acquire her new state of having an Euro-American …show more content…
First of all, according to Turner’s theory, liminal figures are “betwixt and between” social statuses and are both this and that and yet neither this nor that (6). In “Lost Sister”, Aunt Bessie is “betwixt and between” two statuses: having a Native American identity and having a Euro-American identity and yet having neither one nor the other. She has a Native American identity, as she speaks their language, wears moccasins, and has lived most of her life with the Native American community (Johnson 58). She also has an Euro-American identity, as she was born into an Euro- American family and has physical features that identifies her as a Caucasian female: “Beautiful blonde curls … and big blue eyes” (Johnson 55). In addition, by returning to her original family, she is physically included in an Euro-American community and wears some of their clothes, such as dresses (Johnson 58). Second, in Turner’s theory, liminal figures do not have rights nor obligations (7). Indeed, when Aunt Bessie arrives in the family, she “had no things, no baggage” (Johnson 57), indicating that she has no property or rights over property. Furthermore, she has no obligations or responsibilities, as “her skills were useless and unwanted in a civilized home” (Johnson
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
Shoemaker, Nancy. “ Native-American Women in History.” OAH Magazine of History , Vol. 9, No. 4, Native Americans (Summer, 1995), pp. 10-14. 17 Nov. 2013
The Grandmother often finds herself at odds with the rest of her family. Everyone feels her domineering attitude over her family, even the youngest child knows that she's "afraid she'd miss something she has to go everywhere we go"(Good Man 2). Yet this accusation doesn't seem to phase the grandmother, and when it is her fault alone that the family gets into the car accident and is found by the Misfit, she decides to try to talk her way out of this terrible predicament.
Native American Captivity Narratives are accounts about people of European decent getting captured by their enemy “the savage” (Hawkes, par. 1). According to the “Encyclopedia of The Great Plains” These accounts were widely popular in the 17th century and had an adventurous story-line, resulting from a conflict between Native Americans and Europeans settling in the New World. A clear message through these captivity narratives is that European American culture was superior to Native American culture. In 1682 the first Native American Captivity Narrative was written by Mary Rowlandson titled “A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration.” Some years earlier, John Smith related his experience of being captured in his personal account of the settlement of Jamestown. Their contributions ultimately made a great historical impact on Native American Literature. The captivity narratives authored by Mary Rowlandson and John Smith portrayed the Native Americans as devilish creatures that were simply evil, but the stories also reveal that the natives were frightened of white people and at times treated them with benevolence.
This program is part of the PBS series American Experience. In this episode, a critical eye is cast on the early efforts by Congress to "civilize" Native Americans. This homogenization process required the removal of Native American children from their homes and placing them in special Indian schools. Forced to stay for years at a time without returning home, children were required to eschew their own language and culture and learn instead the ways of the white man. Archival photographs and clips, newspaper accounts, journals, personal recollections, and commentary by historians relate the particulars of this era in American History and its ultimate demise. ~ Rose of Sharon Winter, All Movie Guide
“Quantie’s weak body shuddered from a blast of cold wind. Still, the proud wife of the Cherokee chief John Ross wrapped a woolen blanket around her shoulders and grabbed the reins.” Leading the final group of Cherokee Indians from their home lands, Chief John Ross thought of an old story that was told by the chiefs before him, of a place where the earth and sky met in the west, this was the place where death awaits. He could not help but fear that this place of death was where his beloved people were being taken after years of persecution and injustice at the hands of white Americans, the proud Indian people were being forced to vacate their lands, leaving behind their homes, businesses and almost everything they owned while traveling to an unknown place and an uncertain future. The Cherokee Indians suffered terrible indignities, sickness and death while being removed to the Indian territories west of the Mississippi, even though they maintained their culture and traditions, rebuilt their numbers and improved their living conditions by developing their own government, economy and social structure, they were never able to return to their previous greatness or escape the injustices of the American people.
There are consistent patterns or themes regarding Native American world views and the differentiation of cultural elements and society. Native Americans retained control of institutional and cultural orders against the assimilation effort because all aspects of Native American societies are interrelated, guided by the broader cultural world views. Each cultural or institutional element is, in fact, overlapped with other elements, so change in one element inevitably affects the broader cultural and social complex. While adopting to a new environment and small changes was possible in the West, where social and cultural elements are separate from each other, Native Americans were faced with conflicts and a potential, large disruption of the existing social orders.
In our day and age where our youth are becoming more aware of the history of the country and the people who inhabit it, the culture of Native Americans has become more accessible and sparks an interest in many people young and old. Recent events, like the Dakota Access Pipeline, grab the attention of people, both protesters and supporters, as the Sioux tribe and their allies refuse to stay quiet and fight to protect their land and their water. Many Native people are unashamed of their heritage, proud of their culture and their ancestors. There is pride in being Native, and their connection with their culture may be just as important today as it was in the 1800’s and before, proving that the boarding school’s ultimate goal of complete Native assimilation to western culture has
The issue of identity also emerged in her commentary on how many Native American women are forced to prove their ethnicity for equality in health care and school: “For urban Indian women, who are not registered in federal government records, social services and benefits are difficult or almost impossible to obtain” (page 222). This governmental requirement for people to prove themselves as being “indian enough” can be damaging to one’s sense of self, and is proof of ongoing colonialism because the oppressors are determining whether one’s identity is legitimate.
At these boarding schools, Native American children were able to leave their Indian reservations to attend schools that were often run by wealthy white males. These individuals often did not create these schools with the purest of intentions for they often believed that land occupied by Native American Tribes should be taken from them and put to use; it is this belief that brought about the purpose of the boarding schools which was to attempt to bring the Native American community into mainstream society (Bloom, 1996). These boarding schools are described to have been similar to a military institution or a private religious school. The students were to wear uniforms and obey strict rules that included not speaking one’s native tongue but rather only speaking English. Punishments for not obeying such rules often included doing laborious chores or being physically reprimanded (Bloom, 1996). Even with hars...
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
Acceptance of who we are plays a large part in the overall theme of “rite of passage” in the story. The young girl is opposed to the thought of working for her mother at the beginning, but eventually comes to a realization that it is her pre-determined fate to fit the mould of the gender stereotype. Through the girl’s hardships, she accepts the fact that her younger brother, Laird, is now the man that his father needs for help, and she takes her place in womanhood. The story embodies gender identity and stereotypes, as a young child moves into adulthood. The fact that our rite of passage is unavoidable proves that we must all go through our own journeys to find our own true 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
First we will take a look at grandmother. She is made to look like the saint in this story. Her, in contrast to the rest, is the good person, always looking out for the best of others. She is not going on vacation, she is going to visit her "connections" in Tennessee. While on the drive, to their destination, she sits and admires the scenery as the others are more interested in the funny papers or the sports section. She brings the cat along on the trip for the good of the cat. She didn't want the cat to accidently kill himself by turning on the gas on the stove or something. She is the "Christ-like" figure of this story, and this is more relevant at the end of the story when she confronts the Misfit. Just like in so many other O'Connor stories the grandmother, the good character, is going to take the hardest fall.
Miss Lottie, the woman that she had once believed was different from those she thought of as normal, was really a person aged from difficult times. Lizabeth’s actions, although at the time had brought her small joy and an antidote to her boredom, had effected Miss Lottie by taking away the last bit of hope and care put into the flowers. Her father was no longer the center and the support of her family, but just a person who could no longer work and earn like he had once done. Lizabeth had not noticed the change and the depression in her father, as a result of childhood blinding her to the troubles of the rest of the world. Lizabeth’s confusing emotions spurred her to continue the destruction of the marigolds, as her brother, who did not understand her actions, sat confused and upset. He was not experiencing the rite of passage that his sister was faced with. As Lizabeth is sitting in the middle of the mess she made in Miss Lottie's garden, “...that was the moment when childhood faded and adulthood began.” Lizabeth's actions as child had opened her eyes as an adult and “... gazed on a reality that is hidden from childhood.”