Drew Hayden Taylor's Essays

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In Drew Hayden Taylor’s essays, he creates and manipulates various tones that each appeal to a different reader, which allows for his writings to be accepted and related to by various people. Through his use of shifting tones in “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian Block the Road”, from humorous to informative to sarcasm, Drew Hayden Taylor challenges stereotypes about First Nations people. Taylor use the humorous tone to show how ridiculous stereotypes are about First Nations people. Taylor uses First Nations humour to do this, “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian Block the Road” both use jokes that poke holes at the dominant culture. Taylor writes in “Why did the Indian Block the Road”, “you have to admit it was an interesting battle technique, waging war on sluggishness with sluggishness. The 401 became more barren than the Maple Leaf Gardens during the Stanley Cup finals”. Taylor uses metaphor effectively, as he compares the busiest highway in Canada to the home of the Toronto Maple Leafs, who have not made the Stanley Cup finals since 1967 (List of NHL). By using the adverb of “more”, Taylor is also subtly showing the reader his views about the way the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) treats and handles situations involving First Nations people. The line before is the setup for the joke, but the repetition of “sluggishness” by Taylor outlines to the reader that the OPP has a recurring method of dealing with situations, jumping to conclusions before properly assessing different situations and most likely basing their reactions around stereotypes. Drew Hayden Taylor uses the humorous tone to make this point to the reader, however, the information is presented in a way that shows to... ... middle of paper ... ... a variety of readers, Drew Hayden Taylor uses a variety of tones. His views on First Nations stereotypes are expressed through his essays “What’s an Indian worth These Days” and “Why did the Indian block the Road”, and through his use of humorous, which shows how ridiculous stereotypes are, informative, which gives disproves stereotypes through evidence, and sarcastic tone, which stretches a reader’s understanding about a topic, he is able to challenge and contradict stereotypes about First Nations people. Works Cited "List of NHL franchise post-season droughts" Wikipedia: The Free Encyclopedia. Wikimedia Foundation, Inc. 5 Nov. 2013. Web. 9 Dec. 2013. CTV.ca News Staff “Tom Thomson painting sells for almost $2M” CTV News.ca, Bell Media. 26 May 2008. Web. 9 Dec. 2013 "The Wine Society." The Wine Society. Co-operative Wine Society Limited, 2013. Web. 09 Dec.

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