Analysis Of Spineless By Marilyn Dumont

Marilyn Dumont, born in northeastern Alberta in 1955, is a métis writer and educator whose poems have for many years been an inspiration in Canadian literature, giving insight into the struggles of the aboriginal peoples in Canada. Marilyn, in many of her poems, explores the deep feelings of hatred that native peoples feel towards ‘the whites’, otherwise known as the settlers that arrived in the 1600s, or later the Canadian government. These emotions are deep-running, tracing back many years, under which the native peoples have been oppressed physically, culturally, and psychologically to the point where many have given up hope. With her poems, Dumont breaks ties with conventional generalizations through her loud and flamboyant style, ultimately

crying out for change and denouncing the practices of the past, portraying the white social class as judgemental and oppressive. She does this in various ways, including through her choice of language, imagery, and tone.

Dumont uses symbolism and historical themes to her advantage in many of her poems, specifically in A Letter to Sir John A. MacDonald. In the poem, which is an open letter addressed to John A. MacDonald (Canada’s first Prime Minister), Dumont explores the different aspects of how the Canadian government has mistreated natives. To this extent, she often takes on a defiant tone. On lines 1-3 one can see this usage of emotion quite clearly: “Dear John: I’m still here and half breed, after all these years you’re dead, funny thing…” The satirical nature of this poem is emphasized by the loose way in which the speaker addresses former Prime Minister, referring to him only as ‘John’. The usage of sarcasm in this case displays the disdain that the speaker feels for MacDonald and for what he symbolises; the government destroying native culture and trying to repress native individuality. The element of spite portrays the whites as a force to be distrustful of, showing that many injustices have been wrought upon the natives. In addition, Dumont references historical persona like Louis Riel to emphasize on the satirical nature of this poem, showing that despite the government's moves to repress the aboriginals, they will not give up their individuality. “...Riel is dead, but he just keeps coming back...” (22-23). Dumont uses Riel’s image in a mocking way, highlighting the fact that MacDonald failed in his objective, and that the injustices inflicted upon the natives did not break them. Both of these illustrations make up one of the main themes of the poem, which is the oppressive nature of white society towards aboriginals.

The poem Spineless is similar to A Letter to Sir John A MacDonald in that the speaker retains a highly aggressive demeanour in responding to the oppression of white society.

Harsh, sharp, and unforgiving language is specifically chosen like “big, loud, and bitching” (4), and “too damn wise and smiling” (13), to show the speaker’s anger and elicit emotion in the reader. This again reinforces the idea of the oppressive nature of the whites against the natives. This poem, however, does not elicit these emotions merely through irony, but rather by taking a more direct approach. Overall, the poem deals with the stereotyping that many natives face. “The welcome image of you is gone; the unwelcome image of me is still here...” this quote references the ways that natives are stereotyped in Canada, an ‘unwelcome’ image that remains to this day. These images are: ‘the myths, the ones that I threaten your small frame of mind with” (5-6). According to the speaker, these myths are ones that were spread by the white social class, to keep the natives in check. By breaking these myths, she is serving to rob the whites of their power over the aboriginals. This is further supported by line 10 of the poem: “all you’ve heard are lies”, showing that the speaker is trying to break away from the harsh generalizations imposed on her people and show the reader the untruths that permeate through our society. The writing conventions that Dumont uses in these cases reflects the overall theme of the

poem, or the stereotypes and the judgemental nature of the ‘white’ class, that groups and compartmentalizes various ethnicities without a second thought.

By changing perspective and showing the readers how the natives view the situation, it becomes apparent that one of the main themes of A Really Good Brown Girl is explicitly racism, and the generational suffering that it entails.

That said, Dumont is fighting an uphill battle. The racism and hate started by the white settlers hundreds of years in the past has remained for ages, building into a veritable fortress upon which the ideals of white entitlement and power rest. To fight back against this, Dumont makes herself as loud as she can get in her compositions, acting as a proverbial cymbal to the ears of those above. Her poems are designed to be this way; they aggressively break the mold and rip apart traditional ideas of looking at natives. In turn, she gives her fellow aboriginals freedom to express themselves by allowing them to realize that they no longer have to conform to these generalizations. Simply put, by changing the status quo in how natives are generally viewed, she weakens the power that white society’s “small frame of mind” has and puts that power back in the hands of the

aboriginals.

Hence, Dumont portrays the white race in her poems as a judgemental and oppressive towards the native inhabitants, who they fear to be a threat to their ‘small frame of mind’. Dumont does this by employing her larger-than-life language, historical themes, and by directly confronting traditional generalizations. She does so to combat the racism and oppression towards the natives and in turn give more power to them through the power of her creativity. To this extent, Marilyn Dumont is successful in her goal and her written voice remains powerful in mind of the reader, even after the words of the poem have disappeared from memory.