Comparing The Medicine Bag And The Apache Girl's Rite Of Passage

Did you know that many native american tribes used herbs like sage and tobacco during ceremonies? This essay is about two stories that include children going through coming of age rituals. These stories contain information about two native american tribes, The Medicine Bag is about the Lakota tribe and The Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage is about the Apache tribe. In The Medicine Bag the main character has to get the sacred medicine bag passed down to him to continue his family's tradition. In The Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage a girl has to go through a coming of age ritual to prove that she is strong enough to become an apache woman. When both of these stories are compared they have different rites of passage and different types of conveying the story but in some ways they are still both similar.

The Medicine Bag and The Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage have many similarities and many differences.

Comparatively, both of these characters go through a significant rite of passage in their life, something that will affect them forever. Additionally, the main character has to do something or go through a ritual to complete their rite of passage. In addition, Martin had to put the sacred sage in the medicine bag to complete his rite of passage, Dachina went through a coming of age ritual to complete her rite of passage. Although, the stories have many similarities they do have some differences. After all, Martin had negative feelings about receiving the medicine bag and Dachina was really excited about completing her ritual. In contrast, Dachina coming of age ritual lasted days, while Martin just had to receive the bag to complete his rite of

passage.

Both The Medicine Bag and The Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage are showing the rite of passage of the main character, but the stories a presented in different ways. First off, The Apache Girl’s Rite of Passage is shown in a video format; and an advantage of a video format is that there is music and speaking so that you are engaged in what you are listening to throughout the story. On the other hand, The Medicine Bag is in text form and an advantage of writing a story is that the reader can make a movie in there mind so that they can depict what is going on in the story and comprehend it as well. However, a disadvantage of watching a video is that you don’t know what the main character is thinking or feeling unless they say it themselves. Likewise, in a nonfiction video or documentary it is shown in third person, where in written form it is usually in first person and you will only one character's feelings instead of many.