Joy Harjo is a Native American poet who uses her heritage as an influence in her writing. She also uses her Native American background to bring awareness to the adversities that they encounter in the society, especially from a feminist point of view. The poem, written in the style of a Native American chant, “She Had Some Horses” gives a voice to a voiceless woman which gives her the opportunity to tell her story and provides her with a sense of worth. In the poem “She Had Some Horses” we can identify various themes throughout the poem that show the influence of her Native American culture and feminist views in her writing. The poem “She Had Some Horses” describes the metaphorical horses in the speakers life as she struggles with her contradictory feelings. The speaker ultimately wants to achieve a sense of oneness, which the Native American achieved with nature. We see the theme of nature in the poem. The Native Americans were known have pride in one’s tribe, they cared for and respected the land they lived on land which is a characteristic of Native American life. This is evident when Harjo writes,“She had horses who were skins of ocean water/She had horses who were the blue air of the sky” (4-5). Harjo also uses the horse as a metaphor for the struggles that the speaker is experiencing. Considering that the horse was symbolic to the Native Americans, the horse is perceived as a symbol of power, strength and survival. However, as the poem goes on, the speaker views the horse in different forms and sometimes appropriates the horse. In the first stanza, due to the incorporation of her culture in her writing, the horses are compared through nature, which as stated, plays a significant part in her culture. When Harjo writes, “Sh... ... middle of paper ... ...-discovery which can help readers to have a better understanding of our purposes in life, along with a better understanding of ourselves. Harjo’s use of her culture and her feminist views ultimately leads to a better understanding of the horses in her life. Although the horses are different and contradict themselves, in the end the speaker loves the horses in her life all the same. Considering that every line in the stanzas begins with,“She had horses . . . ,” reinforces the speaker’s Native American identity, which Harjo wanted to continuously incorporate in her poem. Effectively labeling the horses as both loved and hated, the dichotomy between her emotions and experiences, and her reason for attempting to reconcile them, becomes clear. The speaker's life is made up of the various "horses" in her life and by uniting them, a whole sense of self can be accomplished.
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.
This quote describes how Louise Halfe uses all four common elements of native literature in her writings. I have chosen to discuss two of the elements she frequently uses, Spirituality and Orality in relation to three of her poems: My Ledders, She Told Me and The Heat of my Grandmothers.
Early on in Joy Harjo’s career, the nature and native american culture never appeared in her works. As demonstrated in her poem, “Everybody Has a Heartache” Joy goes on to talk about how everyone feels down and out but everytime they fight back from it, they are happier than before, rarely mentioning nature or native american culture. Comparing “Everybody Has a Heartache” to “My House is the Red Earth” there is a stark difference in the way nature is used
She is in her kitchen, working away, when she hears the screams of the horses; “the song was so pained and tortured that Big Mom could never have imagined it before the white men came along” (Alexie 9). This quote describes the horse’s reaction to their slaughter at Wounded Knee many years ago, and shows that their screams are still heard today. As the novel proceeds the horses scream countless times to foreshadow the negative events that are to come for the Native Americans on the
In American Indian Stories, University of Nebraska Press Lincoln and London edition, the author, Zitkala-Sa, tries to tell stories that depicted life growing up on a reservation. Her stories showed how Native Americans reacted to the white man’s ways of running the land and changing the life of Indians. “Zitkala-Sa was one of the early Indian writers to record tribal legends and tales from oral tradition” (back cover) is a great way to show that the author’s stories were based upon actual events in her life as a Dakota Sioux Indian. This essay will describe and analyze Native American life as described by Zitkala-Sa’s American Indian Stories, it will relate to Native Americans and their interactions with American societies, it will discuss the major themes of the book and why the author wrote it, it will describe Native American society, its values and its beliefs and how they changed and it will show how Native Americans views other non-Natives.
In the poem, Harjo portrays the importance of recalling the past to help shape one’s identity. She uses the repetition of the word “Remember” to remind that while the past may be history, it still is a defining factor in people’s lives (l. 1). This literary technique
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
In conclusion , I believe that as strong as the protagonist’s self image of herself was, one girl is no match for all of society, which has efficiently put her “in her place”. This manipulation of the girl’s self image is not only the end of her unique identity, but it is also a blow against freedom and individualism. Unfortunately for this horse, she could not roam free forever, and she has finally been caught.
Just like in the beginning exert of “A Silent Spring” by Rachel Carson, the author introduces suspense and invites readers in by first setting the scene of an ideal and perfect world where,”…all life seemed to live in harmony with its surroundings.” The scene the author is painting shows nature and humans coexisting together and this type of interaction brings an image of beauty and peace to mind. She also mentions that the country was especially famous for its abundant and various types of birds and makes several references to them throughout the story. Different types of birds carry a different symbolism each for example, the dove is a symbol for peace and friendship but a crow can signify that something terribly wrong is near.
Overall, it expresses the love and affection of Collin about this poem. This poem is basically looked at, or listened to, and the rodent tested. Such imagery used in poem supports the central ideas of Collin in poem, that the reading poetry must be, just like a good exploration, a discovery act. The poem has a very conversational effect and scholastic feel in it. First stanza directly linked to the second stanza while the third and fourth stanza of this poem has distinct thoughts in them. Similarly, the six stanzas come in a follow-up way but the mood actually changed in the last two stanzas of the poem. In short, Collin has written this poem in a very special and artistic way which really changes other’s minds about how to better understand a poem by knowing its actual meaning.
In the first three lines of the poem, Harjo talks about opening oneself up to nature where you feel yourself. She does this by connecting the human body to the sky, earth, sun, and moon. The next six lines talk about the concepts and aspects during prayer and how you are in a whole other place. In these first nine lines, Harjo uses repetition with prayer and shows parallelism with the peacefulness nature and prayer can bring to oneself. Harjo also uses similes in lines ten and twenty two. She compares the circle of life to that of the eagle as well as the eagle to an angle.
In Steinbeck's classic tale of a young boy's coming of age and his initiation into manhood, this sense of life and rebirth played harmonious roles together. As a typical ten year old boy in a western farming village, Jody basically~y felt the need to justify his manliness, and to prove to his parents that he alone could handle immense responsibilities that others of his own age couldn't. To test this exact faith, a horse, named Gabilan, was handed to Jody by his stem father, ironically called Carl Tifflin instead of "dad." The horse, in fact, proved to be Steinbeck's reoccurring message throughout the remainder of the novel. Testing the patience between man and horse, and also the boy's great love for the beastly animal, it is learned of the need to develop discipline in order to cope with life and with death and the violence associated with it.
Dorothy Johnson in “A Man Called Horse” writes about a young man who was born and raised in Boston. He lives in a gracious home under his grandmothers and grandfather’s loving care. For some reason, he is discontent. He leaves home to try to find out the reason for his discontent. Upon leaving he undergoes a change in status and opinion of himself and others. He begins a wealthy young man arrogant and spoiled, becomes a captive of Crow Indians- docile and humble, and emerges a man equal to all.
Judith Wright is a respected Australian poet is also known as a conservationist and protester. Her poetry has captured the most amazing imagery of Australian Culture. For Australian students to understand their own culture and history it is necessary to study the best poetry and Judith Wright’s poetry is definitely some of the best.