A Pipe For Friday Analysis

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Recommended: Importance of cultural identity introduction

Literature review: The book a Pipe for February was written by charles H.Red Corn. The story focuses on the greed of government officials and businessmen to increase their own wealth and their willingness to destroy an osage community for their own ambitions. Furthermore the story contains three main themes; it is based on the survival and continuance by adapting old stories and customs to new circumstances; a sense of community and a communal sense of identity, on notions of kinship and interdependence; the power of language and stories to shape identity, both individual and collective. The book goes more in depth in the way in which new generations fight for the survival and continuance of their customs, as stated in the story by the main character john I am grateful the Old people did not bury all of our teachings and all of our rituals. I will search for those qualities within Indian People and in those the Old People did leave”(268). Not only is the new generations who try to keep their customs, but if past generations did not have their hearts set on preserving their culture it would …show more content…

When john lost his parents his grandpa “did all he could to make up for not having parents”(13). Furthermore, John and his cousin Molly growing up became really close for the fact that they had been told throughout their entire lives to “look at each other as brother and sister”(216) . in the story the osage community is described as a big family not as neighbors or friends “ no matter how many of us they murdered we would always respond with a full tribal funeral”(155). The osage depend on each other for support, the feeling of being a party of a community is a big part of the story since it is written in a way that suggests that is “us” versus “them; us being the osage community and them being the United States government as well as white

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