“I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move” written by Louise Erdrich is about a child and his or her grandfather observing a flood taking over their entire village and the surrounding trees, consuming the nests of the herons that had been living there. In the future, they remember back to the day when they had started cleaning up after the flood. They notice the herons without a habitat “dancing” in the sky. This is a literal analysis of what the poet says, but figuratively, this has another meaning. The whole poem is a metaphor about the increasing amount of Europeans settling in the US, slowly expanding westward. Long before the Europeans came, there were many Native American tribes living throughout the US. With the incoming Europeans, the native people were continually pushed farther and farther west. Throughout the poem, there are examples of personification and imagery that further imply the metaphor. …show more content…
Louise Erdrich had an interesting background, which is one reason for the whole poem being a metaphor.
In her biography, it says, “As the daughter of a Chippewa Indian mother and a German-American father, Erdrich explores Native American themes in her works…” (“Louise Erdrich” 1). Because she had had a close connection to Native American society, it is a good basis for exploring and creating works that relate to her past, such as this poem. Metaphorically, the flood that ruins the village symbolizes the incoming Europeans, settling in the homelands of Native Americans. The trees knocked down by the flood represent the resisting Native Americans. The metaphor that this poem indicates can also be shown by the poetic devices used throughout the poem, such as personification and
imagery. The poet uses several examples of personification in this poem, to emphasize the metaphor. One important example is in the first stanza of the poem. The speaker says, “and terrible in its unfamiliar body. / Wrestling everything into it, the water wrapped around trees…” The poet describes the flood aggressively taking over everything in its path. This emphasizes how fierce and vicious the Europeans were when they took over the Native Americans’ land, and forced them to relocate. This and the other examples of personification in this poem therefore convey the metaphor of the Europeans, being hostile to the Native Americans, forcefully pushing them out of their native land. Erdrich also uses imagery that contributes to the meaning of the metaphor. One good example of vivid imagery is in the second stanza. The speaker says, “Nests of the herons, roots washed to bones, / snags of soaked bark on the shoreline: / a whole forest pulled through the teeth…” This imagery descriptively shows the devastation caused by the flood. Metaphorically, this describes the impact on the Native Americans caused by the Europeans. Their homes and other important parts of their native areas are ruthlessly destroyed by the Europeans. The imagery in this poem are very good examples of the metaphor this poem implies. In “I Was Sleeping Where the Black Oaks Move,” poetic devices such as personification and imagery are used throughout the poem to convey a message. The whole poem represents a metaphor that is related to the poet’s background, and can be additionally be seen by the poet’s usage of poetic devices. This metaphor represents the incoming Europeans long before and how they invaded the homelands of the Native Americans. This metaphor is an important message to readers because the devastation caused by the Europeans can be seen through the poetic devices used. Readers will know that mistakes done in the past should never be done again.
Kim Addonizio’s “First Poem for You” portrays a speaker who contemplates the state of their romantic relationship though reflections of their partner’s tattoos. Addressing their partner, the speaker ambivalence towards the merits of the relationship, the speaker unhappily remains with their partner. Through the usage of contrasting visual and kinesthetic imagery, the speaker revels the reasons of their inability to embrace the relationship and showcases the extent of their paralysis. Exploring this theme, the poem discusses how inner conflicts can be powerful paralyzers.
The places in which we live are an integral and inescapable aspect of who we are, as they largely determine culture, community, and determine the outlook that one has on the rest of the world. In the American South, physical and cultural geography has played a particularly important role in the historical and modern contexts of racial relations. The dynamic between enslaved peoples and the natural landscape is a complex one that offers innumerable interpretations, but inarguably serves as a marker of the wounds created by institutional racism and human enslavement. In her collection of poems entitled Native Guard, Natasha Trethewey utilizes external features of the natural environment in the South in order to communicate the repressed grief, both personal and collective, which can arise as a result of inflicted systemic violence. Through comparing part one of Native Guard, which focuses on
gain whilst simultaneously pressuring actual Native Americans to assimilate into western European society. This connects to the poem as a whole because it connects to the after effects of
By personifying nature, Lorde establishes that nature’s indifference to human presence thus makes it immune to human cultural maladies like racism. From the beginning of the poem, the narrator describes natural elements as “hid[ing] a longing or confession,” thus marking it as a safe refuge where she can trust her secrets (Lorde line 2). Similarly, describing how “tree mosses point the way home” describe nature as a guide to home, a place of serenity, safety, and comfort (Lorde line 5). This personification all works to convey that nature provides an escape for the narrator, contrasting with the harshness attributed to human racism later on in the poem.
Lucille Clifton's poem "Move" deals specifically with an incident that occurred in Philadelphia on May 13, 1985. On that date, Mayor Wilson Goode, Philadelphia's first African American mayor, authorized the use of lethal force against fellow African Americans living at 6221 Osage Avenue. In her introduction to the poem, Clifton says that there had been complaints from neighbors, who were also African American, concerning the "Afrocentric back-to-nature" group that called itself "Move" and had its headquarters at this address (35). The members of this group wore their hair in dreadlocks and they all used their surname of "Africa." Clifton's poem suggests that it was these differences that cost the lives of eleven people, including children, and the loss of sixty-one homes, as authorities bombed the neighborhood rather than tolerate such diversity. In this poem, Clifton emphasizes the word "move," giving it a layered meaning that encompasses it not only as the name of the organization of the people who were bombed, but also as the imperative command to take action and "move" away from harm. Ultimately, however, the word becomes a command that is directed toward the African American major who caused the tragedy. Clifton points an accusing finger, saying that it is he that should "move" and not the people to whom he directed such violence.
She is commenting on how Native Americans lived before they were moved. They had a good life, as she writes, will a great sense of community, friendship and prosperity. No one in the tribe was left behind, no matter if they were not good hunters or gatherers. As long as you had a tribe to look after you, you will be alright. However, each stanza this pleasantness is interrupted by the white man. Even though what the Native Americans stand for is beautiful, they are removed and they are only allotted what the imperialists will give them. Here is a stanza to understand these concepts, “To each head of household—so long as you remember your tribal words for/ village you will recollect that the grasses still grow and the rivers still flow. So/ long as you teach your children these words they will remember as well. This /we cannot allow. One hundred and sixty acres allotted” (Da’). As we see with this quote, Da’ is pointing out how the new Americans exiled the Native people not only from their land, but their righteous ways of living, and the precious land that allowed them to be
Erdrich writes about different part of Anishinaabeg culture because her mother was Ojibwe and her father was German American (“Louise Erdrich”). While Erdrich was growing up she heard many stories about Ojibwe culture. According to the Encyclopedia of World Biographies, “rich oral tradition of Ojibwe storytelling has been part of Erdrich’s life since childhood. “Listening to her families stories has in some ways been her most significant literary influence (“Louise Erdrich”). Since she grew up with these themes, she integrates them into her work to tell her readers what she believes is important in understanding life.
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
The imagery used in “The White Heron” is shown through the relationship that is formed with Sylvia and the pine tree. She realizes that she needs to connect with nature and not let human greed take over. “The pine tree seemed to grow taller, the higher that Sylvie climbed. The sky began to brighten in the east. Sylvie’s face was lik...
The death camp was a terrible place where people where killed. Hitler is who created the death camp for Jews. The death camp was used for extermination on Jews. This occurred on 1939 – 1945. The death camps were in the country of Europe. Hitler did all this because he didn’t like Jews and the religions. The book Night is a autobiography written by Elie Wiesel. The poem called First they came for the communist written by Martin Neimoller is a autobiography.
...efers back to Marie’s hostile statement. Although not every Indian feels as Marie and Reggie do, certainly not John Smith in his dream, the ominous metaphor of the owls marks Alexie’s prediction for the future: unless hate can be reconciled, the spirit of murder and blood shed will continue to plague man kind. While the title of the work serves to encompass victims of both white and Indian cultural backgrounds and closes on the image of the ambiguous killer, (could it be Wilson dancing wildly with his store bought cassette tape? Or could it be Reggie living large in his bloody victories?), the content of the novel is a living account of human actions to historical contexts. Alexies’ work is exaggerated beyond reality, to be sure, yet his assessment of Native American identity is intriguing and universal in the story of recovery from human inflicted violence and hate.
Born and raised in a family of storytellers, it’s no wonder that this author, Louise Erdrich became a prolific writer. Louise was born in Little Falls, Minnesota. She grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, near the Chippewa Reservation with her mom, who had Native American roots and her dad who was of German descent. Her parents encouraged and challenged her at an early age to read, also to write stories and even paid her a nickel for each one that she wrote. Lorena Stookey states that Louise Erdrich’s style of writing is “like William Faulkner, she creates a fictional world and peoples it with multiple narrators whose voices commingle to shape her readers’ experience of that world” (Stookey 14). Louise writes this moving story “The Shawl” as she is haunted by the sorrows of the generations of her people, the Anishinaabeg. I initially saw this tale as a very complex reading, but after careful reading and consideration, saw it as a sad and compelling story.
She Kills Monsters has a lot of obstacles that characters have to overcome during the play. From accepting each other for who they are, overcoming struggles and shaping their identity even more. I created a poem about acceptance and how you just be yourself no matter what people say. Be imaginative because it leads to the best outcomes. Shape your identity into something you are proud of.
Indian Boarding Schools were a huge and un-noticed issues in the United States during the 19th and 20th century. And the author uses allusion in the poem to bring back what the Native American children experienced during this time in history. The “Turtle Mountains” is a key reference to allusion for this story. It tells the reader exactly where this poem is taking place, at the Chippewa Indian Reservation in North Dakota, the home land of the tribe members. Allusion is also used in the second line when the speaker says, “Boxcars stumbling north in dreams” (2). Boxcars are a North American railroad car that placed a huge significance in the Native Americans Lives. As the speaker says in the poem, “The rails, old lacerations that we love, shoot parallel across the face” (4-5). The rails that the Boxcars traveled on cut parallel through the Native Americans homeland. They say that the rail road track shoots right across the “face” which allude to the face being mother nature. Because in their culture it is very important to respect mother nature. And the rails cut right across her face making a “laceration”, or in other words a scar. The “face” of mother nature is also the authors use of
The imposition of a dam and a human-made lake and reservoir on a Blackfoot reserve in the small town of Blossom, Alberta, is a potent symbol in Green Grass, Running Water for non-Native oppression of Native Canadians’ land rights, traditions and cultural codes. Intrusion of western culture into the lives of natives is shown vividly in many instances of the novel. Dr. Hovaugh observes the changes happening to the garden in front of hospital and laments over the loss of elm trees. Thomas King describes the cutting down of elm trees li...