Maria Sanchez
Women’s Literature
Dr. Thompson
Nov 26 2014
Analyzing Literature: Zitkala-Sa Essays
Gertrude Simmons Bonnin was one of the first American Indian writers to publish her work without the intervention of an editor, translator or sponsor. Bonnin was also the first writer to publish her work using her Lakota name Zitkala-Sa. I will be analyzing two of her most well known essays, The Cutting of my Long Hair and Why I Am a Pagan, both essays are found in School Days of an Indian Girl. Her work is related to cultural issues due to her native ancestry and her personal struggle to assimilation both between the Western culture and the Native American way of living. I will review these aspects within her writing in specific relation to
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In the beginning of the vignette she lines up with the other American Indian children and Zitkala-Sa states that she did not speak a word of the English language. She says, “My friend Judewin gave me a terrible warning. Judewin knew a few words of English; and she had overheard the paleface woman talk about cutting our long, heavy hair” (The Cutting of My Long hair, 1306). Zitkala-Sa is terrified by the news because her strong ties to her native culture and the fact that her native language will soon became disrupted. She says, “Our mother had taught us that only unskilled warriors who were capture had their hair shingled by the enemy. Among our people, short hair was worn by mourners, and shingled hair by cowards!” The meaning of having long hair for the Native American was highly important and meaningful. Her tone changes as if she was screaming for help. Her use of the exclamation point at the end is to convey that that she did not agree with cutting her long hair since is seen as a symbol of …show more content…
She sought acceptance in the Anglo world on her own terms, refusing to bend to the prevailing ethnocentrism of her time. From her perspective, Indian peoples possessed a cultural tradition not merely equal, but superior, to that of Anglo America. The title of the narrative and the conclusion summarize her feelings of not being fully a part of either world, she is tied to her Native American ideal of spirituality but refuses the newly accepted idea of religion in Westernized society. She states, “A wee child toddling in a wonder world, I prefer to their dogma my excursions into the natural gardens where the voice of the Great Spirit is heard in the twittering of the birds, the rippling of mighty waters, and the sweet breathing of flowers. If this is Paganism, then at present, I am a Pagan” (1902). She consciously chooses the ideals that she was raised with rather than cave into the pressure to believe in what mainstream society is converting to for the sake of
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
In the text “Seeing Red: American Indian Women Speaking about their Religious and Cultural Perspectives” by Inés Talamantez, the author discusses the role of ceremonies and ancestral spirituality in various Native American cultures, and elaborates on the injustices native women face because of their oppressors.
Zitkala-Sa was extremely passionate with her native background, and she was adamant on preserving her heritage. When Zitkala was a young girl, she attended White’s Manual Labor Institute, where she was immersed in a different way of life that was completely foreign and unjust to her. And this new way of life that the white settlers imposed on their home land made it extremely difficult for Native Americans to thrive and continue with their own culture. In Zitkala’s book American Indian Stories, Legends, and Other Writings, she uses traditional and personal Native stories to help shape her activism towards equality amongst these new settlers. Zitkala’s main life goal was to liberate her people and help
In this essay, McFarland discusses Native American poetry and Sherman Alexie’s works. He provides an overview of Alexie’s writing in both his poems and short stories. A brief analysis of Alexie’s use of humor is also included.
Professor and poet Deborah A. Miranda, pieces together the past and uncovers and presents us with a story--a Californian story--in her memoir, “Bad Indians.” Her use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates the irony of using the form of her oppressors as a call out for help, not to God, but to her past ancestors. We tend to think of religion as a form of salvation and redemption of our lives here on Earth, in which we bare down and ask for forgiveness. But by challenging this common discourse using theological allegories and satirical terminology, Miranda turns her attention away from a Deity to call the reader out for help. It is crucial to recognize the struggles that the Native community currently face. Californian Indians are often not given recognition for their identity and their heritage, and are also repeatedly stereotyped as abusive, alcoholic, uncivilized, and “freeloaders” of the United States government. Such generalizations root back from European colonization, nevertheless still linger in our contemporary society. Miranda has taken the first step forward in characterizing few of these stereotypes in her Novena, but she’s given her story. Now what are we going to do with ours? It’s up to us to create our
Significantly, Welch deconstructs the myth that Plains Indian women were just slaves and beasts of burden and presents them as fully rounded women, women who were crucial to the survival of the tribal community. In fact, it is the women who perform the day-to-day duties and rituals that enable cultural survival for the tribes of...
The novel “Through Black Spruce”, written by Joseph Boyden, details life of Native Culture and the corruption within its society. Will Bird and his niece Annie Bird alter narrations every chapter telling their individual stories of their struggles to remain pure in Native culture. Both characters experience a detachment from their roots and must learn to rely on each other for the livelihood of their culture. All characters in the novel show negative effects of being impacted by the white culture, seen through the use of drugs and alcohol leading to isolation from the community. Through detailed analysis of both Will and Annie’s narrative, their connections to their Native roots seem to be vanishing and the need to integrate the traditional
Her mother would spend hours “torturing that wild hair” (8-9), and berating her to “sit with [her] knees together” (12). Her mother forced her to adopt these mannerisms and beauty ideals so that she would not be treated differently by others around her. However, the speaker felt conflicted in her identity as a Native person by the want to be closer to her mother, but her mother pushing away. When she played as a child she personified her desire to be accepting of her culture by referring to herself as “the savage” (29).
Sabina Magliocco, in her book Witching Culture, takes her readers into the culture of the Neo-Pagan cults in America and focus upon what it reveals about identity and belief in 21st century America. Through her careful employment of ethnographic techniques, Magliocco allows both the Neo-Pagan cult to be represented accurately, and likewise, scientifically. I argue that Magliocco's ethnographic approach is the correct way to go about this type of research involving religions.
“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
Native American literature from the Southeastern United States is deeply rooted in the oral traditions of the various tribes that have historically called that region home. While the tribes most integrally associated with the Southeastern U.S. in the American popular mind--the FIVE CIVILIZED TRIBES (Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole)--were forcibly relocated to Indian Territory (present-day Oklahoma) from their ancestral territories in the American South, descendents of those tribes have created compelling literary works that have kept alive their tribal identities and histories by incorporating traditional themes and narrative elements. While reflecting profound awareness of the value of the Native American past, these literary works have also revealed knowing perspectives on the meaning of the modern world in the lives of contemporary Native Americans.
In her book American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa's central role as both an activist and writer surfaces, which uniquely combines autobiography and fiction and represents an attempt to merge cultural critique with aesthetic form, especially surrounding such fundamental matters as religion. In the tradition of sentimental, autobiographical fiction, this work addresses keen issues for American Indians' dilemmas with assimilation. In Parts IV and V of "School Days," for example, she vividly describes a little girl's nightmares of paleface devils and delineates her bitterness when her classmate died with an open Bible on her bed. In this groundbreaking scene, she inverts the allegation of Indian religion as superstition by labeling Christianity.
...itan Orthodoxy And The 'Survivor Syndrome' In Mary Rowlandson's Indian Captivity Narrative." Early American Literature 22.1 (1987): 82. Academic Search Complete. Web. 3 Feb. 2014.
Pages one to sixty- nine in Indian From The Inside: Native American Philosophy and Cultural Renewal by Dennis McPherson and J. Douglas Rabb, provides the beginning of an in-depth analysis of Native American cultural philosophy. It also states the ways in which western perspective has played a role in our understanding of Native American culture and similarities between Western culture and Native American culture. The section of reading can be divided into three lenses. The first section focus is on the theoretical understanding of self in respect to the space around us. The second section provides a historical background into the relationship between Native Americans and British colonial power. The last section focus is on the affiliation of otherworldliness that exist between
As this poem characterizes the view of a native woman expressing feelings of passion relating to her culture, it also criticizes society, in particular Christianity, as the speaker is experiencing feelings of discontent with the outcome of residential schools. It does not directly criticize the faith, but through the use of a heavy native dialect and implications to the Christian faith it becomes simple to read the speakers emotions.