During a recent trip through Minnesota and Canada, I bought a voyageur’s cap. My son and I spent the rest of the vacation annoying my wife by hopping, running, and paddling around shouting, “voyageurs,” in a ridiculous french accent that was equal parts Pepe Le Pew and Inspector Clouseau. At Grand Portage National Monument we played dress-up in heavy wool coats and braided belts. After reading about the grueling ordeal of Hugh Glass in The Revenant by Michael Punke, I feel that our behavior would have quickly gotten us killed by the Frenchman that we were mocking. While Glass was not a voyageur himself he was a member of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company and travelled many of the same routes and encountered all of the same hazards, including a grizzly attack that nearly killed him. In The Revenant Punke fleshes out a sketchy historical incident and brings it to life with a vengeance. …show more content…
In all honesty it was my much more literate wife who told me that the movie was based on a book. The trailer is ninety seconds of violence, slam cuts, and jarring musical cues so I was mildly confused when the book started with the owner of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company sending a letter back to St. Louis detailing his new plan for the fur trade.
The letter and the way that Pulke wedges somewhat square historical facts into fictional round holes makes it obvious that this was a true story pulled together from a sparse and disparate collection of primary and secondary historical sources. Ironically, it is this awkwardness that makes the book a compelling read. Knowing that the Hugh Glass was a real historical figure, and that he was viciously mauled by a bear imbues the novel with an intensity and relevance that it would otherwise be
Since the early seventeenth century, French explorers had been able to keep peaceful relations with the Native Americans as a result of fur trading. Samuel de Champl...
I was immediately hooked in the book. In the first paragraph, excluding the preface, Philbrick writes "There were 102 of them 104 if you counted the two dogs: a spaniel and a giant, slobbery mastiff." I love dogs! And two of my "granddogs" are "giant, slobbery mastiffs". I can understand writing a book of fiction and basing it on historical facts, but this is supposed to be non-fiction. How in the world does this man know that two dogs were on the Mayflower? Throughout the book I continued to ask myself the same question, "How does this man know this stuff, did he just make it up?" What I didn't realize, until I was quite a ways through the book, there are pages and pages of notes in the back of the book. These notes take you chapter by chapter and tell you where Philbrick found the information he writes about in that particular chapter. He lists previous books, manuscripts, journals and personal writings that have survived all of these years. Besides the notes, his bibliography is twenty-three pages long! The man did his research, and I am glad he did.
...glass' tumultuous Atlantic crossing on a ship full of slave-owners, his exploits as a traveling lecturer in England, Ireland, Scotland, and Wales, and the "many dear friends" abroad who collaborate to purchase Douglass's freedom from Thomas Auld in 1846 [21]. I understand he does not want to publish his escape for fear others will get caught but it was still very disappointing and ended the book blandly.
Prose , Francine. "The New York Times > Books > Sunday Book Review > 'The Glass Castle':Outrageous Misfortune." The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 13 Mar 2005. Web. 31 Jan 2011. .
During the height of the British Empire—a time of exploration, discovery and colonization—lower class citizens of Great Britain were suffering under the weight of upper-class oppression. Many of these farmers, braziers, blacksmiths and etcetera passed the long arduous hours of manual labor by daydreaming of freedom, adventure, excitement and most of all landownership in the New World. The class system of eighteenth century England was rigid and restrictive to upward mobility; whereas, the New World was rumored to be a place where a man of any stripe could establish himself. Amongst these tired and sweaty daydreamers, a handful of ambitious men were not content to simply dream. These few courageous young lads were willing to take the risks of sea travel to find out for themselves if the rumors were true. Thus, the men made their arrangements and braved the howling gales and icy waters of the North Atlantic in search of their destiny. Joseph Howse was amongst the men who chased their dreams through the rigorous demands of the inhospitable landscape of Prince Rupert’s Land. Howse may have shared their enthusiasm about what lay ahead in the New World, but he did not share their motives.
I am writing my first entry aboard this incredible vessel today, primarily because I have been spending the last three days exploring the sections open to my fellow third-class passengers and I. What I have seen is extraordinary, especially when first boarding the ship. The halls and staircases of the first class section were like nothing I had ever seen before in my life. They were blanketed in luxury from end to end. The first class passengers I had managed to see wore their best garments boarding the ship and were conversing with each other about their rich lives back home. I believe I even saw Mr. John Jacob Astor, a man I had heard much about for his contributions to the American fur trade. I had heard that he would be aboard for the maiden voyage of ...
One night, on March 5, 1770, a street fight occurred between a group of American patriots and some British soldiers stationed in Boston. The Americans harassed the troops by yelling and shouting names at them and throwing snowballs and sticks. A crowd formed and in the noise and confusion, weapons were fired. In the end, ...
Neil Diamond reveals the truth behind the Native stereotypes and the effects it left on the Natives. He begins by showing how Hollywood generalizes the Natives from the clothing they wore, like feathers
I discussed the differences between Captain Thomas Preston’s Account of the Boston Massacre (1770) and Paul Revere, Image of The Bloody Massacre (1770). I then explained both men’s story beginning with Captain Thomas Preston’s vision of the event. I then explained Paul Revere version of the event. I then included my opinion which account I believed was most accurate and explained why.
This chapter provided information from the trial of Captain Thomas Preston. The chapter asked the question, “What really happened in the Boston Massacre”. Chapter four focused on the overall event of the Massacre and trying to determine if Captain Preston had given the order to fire at Boston citizens. The chapter provides background information and evidence from Preston’s trial to leave the reader answering the question the chapter presents. Although, after looking through all the witnesses’ testimonies some might sway in Captain Preston’s favor, just the way the grand jury did.
In Thomas King’s novel, The Inconvenient Indian, the story of North America’s history is discussed from his original viewpoint and perspective. In his first chapter, “Forgetting Columbus,” he voices his opinion about how he feel towards the way white people have told America’s history and portraying it as an adventurous tale of triumph, strength and freedom. King hunts down the evidence needed to reveal more facts on the controversial relationship between the whites and natives and how it has affected the culture of Americans. Mainly untangling the confusion between the idea of Native Americans being savages and whites constantly reigning in glory. He exposes the truth about how Native Americans were treated and how their actual stories were
For example, in the local school, stereotypes such as the image of the ‘wild man’ are consolidated by claiming that there was cannibalism among the indigenous people of the northwest coast (Soper-Jones 2009, 20; Robinson 2010, 68f.). Moreover, native people are still considered to be second-class citizens, which is pointed out by Lisamarie’s aunt Trudy, when she has been harassed by some white guys in a car: “[Y]ou’re a mouthy Indian, and everyone thinks we’re born sluts. Those guys would have said you were asking for it and got off scot-free”
Smith, Susan. Rethinking the fur trade: cultures of exchange in an Atlantic world. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2009.
"What came to dominate the story and to leave a lasting impression was the view of man as a mystery surrounded by realistic data. A poetic divination or denial of reality. Something that for lack of a better word could be called magical realism." -Uslar Pietri
Daniel Defoe has frequently been considered the father of realism in regards to his novel, Robinson Crusoe. In the preface of the novel, the events are described as being “just history of fact” (Defoe and Richetti ). This sets the tone for the story to be presented as factual, while it is in of itself truly fiction. This is the first time that a narrative fictional novel has been written in a way that the story is represented as the truth. Realistic elements and precise details are presented unprecedented; the events that unfold in the novel resonate with readers of the middle-class in such a way that it seems as if the stories could be written about themselves. Defoe did not write his novel for the learned, he wrote it for the large public of tradesmen, apprentices and shopkeepers (Häusermann 439-456).