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

in their lives. They gradually change their opinions over time towards the end of both written works. Both start out with strong emotions and open ended questions that only the character can answer. In “The Victim” the character reflected from when he or she was younger and described a trying time in their life. It describes the hurt and anger the child felt toward their father.
“When Mother divorced you, we were glad. She took it and
took it in silence, all those years and then
kicked you out, suddenly, and her
kids loved it...” (Olds, 1-4)
It reveals that something bad happened for there to be excitement of the splitting of one’s parents.

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

following:
” But we are inferior. It is terrible to have to feel inferior; to have to read reports of intelligence tests, and learn that one's race is behind. It is terrible to sit in class and hear men tell you that your people worship sticks of wood—that your gods are all false, that the Manitou forgot your people and did not write them a book.” (Whitecloud, 1-4)
It shows how he was feeling beat down by the “white society” as if he would never be good enough, as though he would never equate to a white child’s stature. Thus, being an external conflict that created an internal one. He became very troubled by society and was in dire need to find comfort within himself.
The writers are descriptive in both literary works to help set the setting for the conflicts and to create emotional ties from the reader.

“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

narrator who was once a child, and now has grown into an adult has learned to let go and move forward past having a relationship with her father so she can be done with all of her pain.
Both the poem and short story showed growth in the characters rather it was helping them identify with who they were or learning to move past hurt. The internal and external conflicts in both compositions helped develop the characters’ views on life so they could be a better person. Conflict is bound to happen in life, but it is what you make from it that helps you change for the good as an individual. As you can grasp from both readings you should never allow turmoil to define you, but to allow the situation to be your stepping stone for greatness!