Blue Winds Dancing Poem Analysis

Literary elements are the components of a written piece formed by an author. For example, a poem or short story, in which all of them have settings, plots, and themes that are used to help elaborate their compositions. They help depict the author’s intentions and encourage insight or understanding of the overall meaning even if it’s not easily understood by the reader. “Blue Winds Dancing” by Tom Whitecloud and “The Victims” by Sharon Olds both show examples of conflicts that evolve dynamic characters as a product of growth from their previous experiences.
In both the poem and short story you will see examples of the conflict man versus self. They are battling both internal and external battles that make them question what is right or wrong

This was a trying experience the child was enduring. Thus, changing the child to be cold and bitter mainly towards the father. She is experiencing an internal battle of hating her own father. Where as in “Blue Winds Dancing,” it describes a young Indian boy away in college that doesn’t know what group of people he identifies with. He is concerned he doesn’t fit in with the whites located in the big city or with his Indian heritage back home. He feels anxiety in the white civilization because he feels like an outcast and he can’t seem to bring himself to mimic their behavior. He feels he is constantly reminded by whites that his race is less than. He expresses the frustration by quoting the

“If the character displays an emotional relationship to the object or outcome, then the reader has an emotional response to the pursuit and to the character's success or failure.” (E. Witchey, 2007) In Whitecloud’s story it shows the character being emotionally bonded with the thought of his village. All he could recall was the tranquility of nature and being around others that resembled himself. Of course, being gone for quite some time brought about nervousness and unawareness on if he would now be reaccepted by his own people. To his surprise, no one treats him indifferent. He now understands that he can identify himself as a Native American and that he doesn’t have to worry about fitting in around “white society” because he does not resemble them, but with the people of his village. In “The Victims,” the child grew up and her anger that soon grew into acceptance for her father’s behavior. She originally taunted her father for losing everything his wife, kids, and job which was his whole world. Towards the end, even though she was still angry, you can hear the anger lessen as she describes the weight she feels after the fact. She compares him to the bums on the street and how she feels compassion for their families too. She knows just like her family, the bums have one as well. Did they lose everything like her father? It showed the