“He jumped into the car and drove off, not quickly, no sirens wailing, so there was then an unreal and frozen about the whole scene in which the only sound to hear was the high-pitched, broken sobbing of the child. . ‘Did you see it?’ I said. ‘They took away a pregnant woman.’” (Erdrich 86, 2017). The dystopian novel, “Future Home of the Living God,” by Louise Erdrich, follows the story of Cedar Hawk Songmaker, a pregnant woman living in a world of decaying evolution. The society she lives in seeks to control female fertility and “save humanity” by rounding up expecting women. She goes into hiding with the father of her child, who betrays her, and she ends up a hostage in the hospital. This essay will analyze the intersectionality of motherhood and indigenous identity through …show more content…
Not even inside your own body." This quote shows how the government's control of women's bodies violates their bodily autonomy and privacy, echoing broader authoritarian normalities that prioritize control over women's reproductive choices. Additionally, Cedar's interactions with the males of this novel continue to highlight the power dynamics at play. When discussing her pregnancy with Phil, Cedar writes, "He knew about my pregnancy and was treating me like glass." This quote reveals how notions of fragility and dependence inform male attitudes towards women's bodies and reproductive abilities. By analyzing these gender dynamics, we gain insight into how authoritarian structures maintain abuse and disempowerment, particularly in the world of reproductive rights. Cedar and others in this novel show remarkable resistance in the face of violating reproductive control. Cedar's journey towards reclaiming authority over her own body and reproductive choices stands as a powerful act of defiance against patriarchal oppression. When Cedar reflects on her determination to protect her unborn child, she declares, "I'll fight for my baby... I'll take risks, do
The first three chapters focus on women in agriculture and reproduction and in the process unveils how the “internalization of prescribed gender traits colored people’s reactions to the world around them (p. 25).” Unger spends a great deal of time discussing how Native Americans and enslaved Africans used reproduction as a means of resistance and autonomy in their status. Unger does not shy away from practices that uncomfortable like abortion and infanticide. Unger notes the practice of “prolonged lactation, Native American women, like their European counterparts, also practiced infanticide and abortion (25).” She discusses these topics with unbiased language and does so without using any judgmental tone or justification for such practices. Reproduction is discussed in terms of its effects on the
Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within himself.
Professor and poet Deborah A. Miranda, pieces together the past and uncovers and presents us with a story--a Californian story--in her memoir, “Bad Indians.” Her use of the Christian Novena, “Novena to Bad Indians,” illustrates the irony of using the form of her oppressors as a call out for help, not to God, but to her past ancestors. We tend to think of religion as a form of salvation and redemption of our lives here on Earth, in which we bare down and ask for forgiveness. But by challenging this common discourse using theological allegories and satirical terminology, Miranda turns her attention away from a Deity to call the reader out for help. It is crucial to recognize the struggles that the Native community currently face. Californian Indians are often not given recognition for their identity and their heritage, and are also repeatedly stereotyped as abusive, alcoholic, uncivilized, and “freeloaders” of the United States government. Such generalizations root back from European colonization, nevertheless still linger in our contemporary society. Miranda has taken the first step forward in characterizing few of these stereotypes in her Novena, but she’s given her story. Now what are we going to do with ours? It’s up to us to create our
For, in relinquishing, a mother feels strong and liberal; and in guild she finds the motivation to right wrong. Women throughout time have been compelled to cope with the remonstrances of motherhood along with society’s anticipations Morrison’s authorship elucidates the conditions of motherhood showing how black women’s existence is warped by severing conditions of slavery. In this novel, it becomes apparent how in a patriarchal society a woman can feel guilty when choosing interests, career and self-development before motherhood. The sacrifice that has to be made by a mother is evident and natural, but equality in a relationship means shared responsibility and with that, the sacrifices are less on both part. Although motherhood can be a wonderful experience many women fear it in view of the tamming of the other and the obligation that eventually lies on the mother.
As Mother’s Day approaches, writer Penny Rudge salutes “Matriarchs [who] come in different guises but are instantly recognizable: forceful women, some well-intentioned, others less so, but all exerting an unstoppable authority over their clan” (Penny Rudge), thereby revealing the immense presence of women in the American family unit. A powerful example of a mother’s influence is illustrated in Native American society whereby women are called upon to confront daily problems associated with reservation life. The instinct for survival occurs almost at birth resulting in the development of women who transcend a culture predicated on gender bias. In Love Medicine, a twentieth century novel about two families who reside on the Indian reservation, Louise Erdrich tells the story of Marie Lazarre and Lulu Lamartine, two female characters quite different in nature, who are connected by their love and lust for Nector Kashpaw, head of the Chippewa tribe. Marie is a member of a family shunned by the residents of the reservation, and copes with the problems that arise as a result of a “childhood, / the antithesis of a Norman Rockwell-style Anglo-American idyll”(Susan Castillo), prompting her to search for stability and adopt a life of piety. Marie marries Nector Kashpaw, a one-time love interest of Lulu Lamartine, who relies on her sexual prowess to persevere, resulting in many liaisons with tribal council members that lead to the birth of her sons. Although each female character possibly hates and resents the other, Erdrich avoids the inevitable storyline by focusing on the different attributes of these characters, who unite and form a force that evidences the significance of survival, and the power of the feminine bond in Native Americ...
When an individual belongs to two different disadvantaged classes, the risk of abuse and discrimination multiplies. Thus, Native American women are at a very high risk of violence and sexual abuse. As of 2007, “One in three Native American women will be raped at some point in their lives, a rate that is more than double that for non-Indian women, according to a new report by Amnesty International” (Fears and Lydersen 1). This is exemplified in the novel in the rape, murder and mutilation of Evelyn Rose McCrae and Madeline Jeanette Lavoix. There was the possibility of a third assault and it occurs in front of the two brothers on New Year’s Eve. A car full of white men, one of which Jeremiah believes to be in his history class, pulls up in front of a young pregnant woman whom the young men jeer and proposition. All three women were Native American and in seedy neighbourhoods at the time that they were offered a ‘good time’, and the two were assaulted and murdered. The two assaults and murders were perpetrated by young men, and to be assumed as young white men. Through these encounters we can see how Native women were treated in the city as a twofold minority. In the setting of the city, Native American women are treated as lowly sex objects by the young men in all three instances. They had a lower social status as being both women and Native...
Louise Erdrich’s short story “American horse” is a literary piece written by an author whose works emphasize the American experience for a multitude of different people from a plethora of various ethnic backgrounds. While Erdrich utilizes a full arsenal of literary elements to better convey this particular story to the reader, perhaps the two most prominent are theme and point of view. At first glance this story seems to portray the struggle of a mother who has her son ripped from her arms by government authorities; however, if the reader simply steps back to analyze the larger picture, the theme becomes clear. It is important to understand the backgrounds of both the protagonist and antagonists when analyzing theme of this short story. Albetrine, who is the short story’s protagonist, is a Native American woman who characterizes her son Buddy as “the best thing that has ever happened to me”. The antagonist, are westerners who work on behalf of the United States Government. Given this dynamic, the stage is set for a clash between the two forces. The struggle between these two can be viewed as a microcosm for what has occurred throughout history between Native Americans and Caucasians. With all this in mind, the reader can see that the theme of this piece is the battle of Native Americans to maintain their culture and way of life as their homeland is invaded by Caucasians. In addition to the theme, Erdrich’s usage of the third person limited point of view helps the reader understand the short story from several different perspectives while allowing the story to maintain the ambiguity and mysteriousness that was felt by many Natives Americans as they endured similar struggles. These two literary elements help set an underlying atmos...
Nevertheless, Cisneros’s experience with two cultures has given her a chance to see how Latino women are treated and perceived. Therefore, she uses her writing to give women a voice and to speak out against the unfairness. As a result, Cisneros’ story “Woman Hollering Creek” demonstrates a distinction between the life women dream of and the life they often have in reality.
“Reclaiming Culture and the Land: Motherhood and the Politics of Sustaining Community” is about a mother who is a Native American activist who has two children, she wants them to be raised and go to school in an Indian community. “I put my children in that school because I wanted them to be in the Indian community.” She explains that she is not sure if her children know what she is doing is common, but they know that what she is doing is right. “My children do have the sense that what I do is not necessarily common. Recently my daughter started asking me if I’m famous.” She has fought for her children to have a good life, full of community, ritual, and an understanding of who they are and where they come from.
According to Smith, Native bodies will continue to be seen as expendable and inherently violable as long as they continue to stand in the way of the theft of Natives lands” (Smith 2005, 69). That is to say, that racism plays a major role in the widespread anxieties produced by white supremacy, regarding a rise in the global population of Native Americans. Although, “some populationists say population growth contributes to starvation,” and organizations may claim that they want to reduce the size of all ethnic and racial groups, in the end, they often work to reduce populations of color (Smith 2005, 71). In the white dominated society, “black and dark may be associated with death, evil and destruction” (Anzaldúa 1987, 91). To clarify, “people of color are scapegoated for environmental destruction, poverty, and war. Women of color are particularly threatening, as they have the ability to reproduce the next generations of communities of color. Consequently, it is not surprising that control over the reproductive abilities of women of color has come to be seen as a ‘national security’ issue for the U.S.” (Smith 2005, 79). Native American women should be treated equally, like any other woman because they also have reproductive rights. According to Min-ha, “it is as if the sexual act has become virtually the only direct contact with
Gault, Cinda. "The Two Addies: Maternity and Language in William Faulkner's As I Lay Dying and Alice Munro's Lives of Girls and Women." American Review of Canadian Studies 36.3 (2006): 440. Academic One File. Web. 18 Feb. 2014.
In the story Reclaiming Culture and the Land: Motherhood and the Policies of Sustaining Community, the author describes just some of the challenges of working while being a Native American living on and off within a normal Caucasian society. One of the issues brought up in the story is that the author does a poor job in raising her children while they are at the most important stages in their childhood. In this Indian community, everyone knows each other and it is a close, tight knit community throughout. One of the principals which backs this up is that one or more mothers in the community take care of all of the children of the community, kind of like a daycare center. The author is indeed one of these caretaker mothers that would spend a lot of time with all the children. As a result, outsiders look at her and believe that she is doing a poor job at what she considers to be a fine parenting job. And other hardship that she has is trying to understand her place in society because she is a woman. In the story, she describes how things are constantly being taken from her and assumed by the male sex. These and more are some of the problems that she has to deal with in the story.
“Lullaby” follows the systematic destruction of Native American culture and society on a smaller scale, depicting how the influences of outsiders led to the ruination of a single family.
Native American children were physically and sexually abused at a school they were forced to attend after being stripped from their homes in America’s attempt to eliminate Native peoples culture. Many children were caught running away, and many children never understood what home really meant. Poet Louise Erdich is part Native American and wrote the poem “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways” to uncover the issues of self-identity and home by letting a student who suffered in these schools speak. The poem follows Native American kids that were forced to attend Indian boarding schools in the 19th and 20th centuries. By using imagery, allusion, and symbolism in “Indian Boarding School: The Runaways”, Louise Erdrich displays how repulsive Indian
The role of class conflict caused a ripple effect of violence and mutiny in the seek for independence associated with the struggle for maintaining cooperation within the colonies in the American Revolution between those who were superior with titles and those who of poor inferior background chasing a dream with promised wealth and better social status. As the war started, many colonists who have and owned any property or no property were also recruited into the coalition of the Revolution. When the desperate need called for soldiers, the colonial militia was formed up with the men from their own community. Along with the local militia members, many also joined by members of the free black men community, members of white servants and unsettled