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Unfair treatment for native americans
Trail of tears
Introduction essay trail of tears
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The frequent use of songs in Reservation Blues by Sherman Alexie alludes to the discrimination faced by Indians while providing an outline for what reservation life was like. The Blues have long been a way of expressing one’s woes and hardships through music, and Alexander uses this genre of music to express the plight the Indian community has faced. A harsh journey over two-thousand miles, the Trail of Tears was a forced relocation of the Native Americans: “I hear you talking about your Trail of Tears/ If you feel the need I can help calm your feels”( Alexie 53). Although referring to the historical event, in this love song the Trail of Tears is used to describe how the woman he’s watching feels. Watching their loved ones die of disease,
Ethnic hierarchy is something that states the superiority of the white people then the other
For the author, the blues are more universal than a specific type of music. The narrator describes that the blues are "the tale of how we suffer, and how we are delighted, and how we may triumph." With this quote, the story "Sonny's Blues" is actually a blues piece: it starts with the suffering that the two brothers face, continues with their developing communion, and ends with brotherly love and triumphs over loneliness and suffering. The story "Sonny's Blues" is like Sonny's actual music, because it tries to bring people together and, through that link of grace and understanding, to relieve suffering. The author is not playing the blues but actually putting it down in writing. The title "Sonny's Blues" doesn’t describe the music Sonny plays but it tells Sonny's story of suffering and overcoming his obstacles, through his music.
Indian Killer by Sherman Alexie is a work of humor, an investigation of community identity and family love, as well as a discussion of race and hate. Marie’s speech to the hapless Dr. Mat...
Hardship is everywhere but Sherman Alexie’s “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-time Indian” is an amusing and intelligent novel that clearly provides the reader with perfect examples of poverty and friendship on an Indian reservation. Alexie incorporates those examples through the point of view and experiences of a fourteen year old boy named Arnold Spirit Jr.
Indian Education by Sherman Alexie places the reader in the shoes of Sherman Alexie. Taking the reader step by step through different school years of his life. As each year passes by the evidence of his struggle become more apparent. Although the story is told in that of a narrative, it doesn’t have anything spectacular separating it from other stories. There were a few moments that captivated the attention of the reader such as “But on the day I leaned through the basement window of the HUD house and kissed the white girl, I felt the good-bye I was saying to my entire tribe. I held my lips tight against her lips, a dry, clumsy, and ultimately stupid kiss. “Personally, this sentence stood out because it displayed the struggle and difficulties
Growing up on a reservation where failing was welcomed and even somewhat encouraged, Alexie was pressured to conform to the stereotype and be just another average Indian. Instead, he refused to listen to anyone telling him how to act, and pursued his own interests in reading and writing at a young age. He looks back on his childhood, explaining about himself, “If he'd been anything but an Indian boy living on the reservation, he might have been called a prodigy. But he is an Indian boy living on the reservation and is simply an oddity” (17). Alexie compares the life and treatment of an Indian to life as a more privileged child. This side-by-side comparison furthers his point that
If analyzed carefully, the melancholy verses of the song are in sharp contrast to the overpowering chorus. Ignore the addictive chorus "Born in the U.S.A.” and what you really hear is a protest song that tells the depressing story and struggle of Vietnam Veterans returning home to a disillusioned life. To his most devoted ...
Not known to many, the genre of rock music originated from gospel music sung on the slave plantations in early Mississippi. A common musical device used in rock music is known as “call and response”. This is where the singer sings the line and everyone else involved in the chorus repeats that line. This came from slaves working in the fields and singing songs to get through the day. Theses hymns are fondly referred to as “negro spirituals”. In Anne Moody’s novel, Coming of Age in Mississippi we revisit African Americans in Mississippi struggling not through slavery, but through the oppression of the Civil Rights Era. At the same plantation but in a different time, Jim crow has made life almost impossible for blacks to get by in the South. In a country were all men were created equal, laws were put in place to ensure that blacks could never achieve equality. Through Anne Moody’s work and through the work of musical artists Johnny Cash, and Nas, we will discover just how far we may or may not have come.
Junior decides he has to leave his home reservation and go somewhere where he can be successful and get a good education. Junior decides to leave the reservation and go to Reardan in search for a better life. As Mr P says on page 43, “Son, you're going to find more and more hope the farther and farther you walk away from this sad, sad, sad reservation.” He explains that there is no reason for Junior to keep living on the reservation when he has a chance to move somewhere else and start a new life. His reservation is full of drunks and bullies so if Junior wanted to become who he dreams to be. So he leaves the reservation because nothing there will help him in life. Another example of Junior leaving his reservation in order to find hope is on
“Sonny’s Blues” is a short story in which James Baldwin, the author, presents an existential world where suffering characterizes a man’s basic state. The theme of tragedy and suffering can be transformed into a communal art form, such as blues music. Blues music serves as a catalyst for change because the narrator starts to understand not only the music but also himself and his relationship with Sonny. The narrator’s view of his brother begins to change; he understands that Sonny uses music as an outlet for his suffering and pain. This story illustrates a wide critical examination.
According to The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Indians over use alcohol and have many issues that occur on the reservation because of this. For Example, When Junior's grandmother died from a drunk driver who had struck her. Junior was in a grieving period and had a lot to say about the deaths within the reservation because of alcohol. “I know only, like, five Indians in our whole tribe who have never drunk alcohol.”(156). This shows us that almost all Indians on the reservation drink alcohol. Within the whole reservation there are many issues that occur according to the novel. For example, because the reservation is in poverty and doesn't have much income they don't get to live life to the fullest. “And it's not like my mother
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
“Sonny’s Blues” revolves around the narrator as he learns who his drug-hooked, piano-playing baby brother, Sonny, really is. The author, James Baldwin, paints views on racism, misery and art and suffering in this story. His written canvas portrays a dark and continual scene pertaining to each topic. As the story unfolds, similarities in each generation can be observed. The two African American brothers share a life similar to that of their father and his brother. The father’s brother had a thirst for music, and they both travelled the treacherous road of night clubs, drinking and partying before his brother was hit and killed by a car full of white boys. Plagued, the father carried this pain of the loss of his brother and bitterness towards the whites to his grave. “Till the day he died he weren’t sure but that every white man he saw was the man that killed his brother.”(346) Watching the same problems transcend onto the narrator’s baby brother, Sonny, the reader feels his despair when he tries to relate the same scenarios his father had, to his brother. “All that hatred down there”, he said “all that hatred and misery and love. It’s a wonder it doesn’t blow the avenue apart.”(355) He’s trying to relate to his brother that even though some try to cover their misery with doing what others deem as “right,” others just cover it with a different mask. “But nobody just takes it.” Sonny cried, “That’s what I’m telling you! Everybody tries not to. You’re just hung up on the way some people try—it’s not your way!”(355) The narrator had dealt with his own miseries of knowing his father’s plight, his Brother Sonny’s imprisonment and the loss of his own child. Sonny tried to give an understanding of what music was for him throughout thei...
It is no surprise that American Indian tribes are mentioned in our Constitution. Indian tribes have always played a major part in the non-Indian exploration, settlement, and development of this country. When Christopher Columbus thought he had discovered the “New World” in 1492, it is estimated that 10-30 million native people lived in North America, that is, in the present day countries of Mexico, United States and Canada. These millions of people lived under governments of varying sophistication and complexity. These native governments were viable and fully operational political bodies which controlled their citizens and their territories and were an important factor in the development of the United States government we live under today.
In ‘Refugee Blues’ it is hard to interpret exactly who is talking to who, but at the end of every stanza a key phrase is said: ‘My Dear.’ This suggests that there is a man possibly addressing his wife or a love...