Mean Spirit By Hannah Hogan Sparknotes

571 Words2 Pages

Within this system Hogan wants readers to remember they are “somewhere between the mountain and the ant.” By accepting this, Hogan considers that one must see their place in the world as a small part of a bigger structure in which everything is alive and has a desire to live. Consequently, she takes apart the Western and often Biblical notion, that humans have dominion over the earth, and her worldview places humanity within the overall organization. In her novel Mean Spirit, the character Horse, exemplifies the critique stating, “I think the Bible is full of mistakes. I thought I would correct them. For instance, where does it say that all living things are equal?” Failing to recognize the equality of living beings has broken the covenant that used to exist between humans and other …show more content…

Within Western academic culture the use of oral accounts has often been questioned or ridiculed. However, the tradition remains an important aspect of indigenous cultures, and Hogan emphasizes its significance. Although the main narrator of her novel Solar Storms is Angel, other narrators highlight sections with numerous oral accounts. These segments provide character histories and fill in the back-story, but they serve a larger purpose as well. Printed in italics and written from a first person point of view, as if someone was speaking the stories, these parts show the value and purpose that the oral tradition serves for indigenous people. Hogan confronts this issue directly in her short story “Meeting.” In an early scene a section of dialogue appears to be nothing more than rumor, but she corrects the reader stating, “It was not gossip. It was the history of our living.” While not all oral history sounds like gossip, Hogan points to the variety of function and meaning that the oral tradition encompasses. For her, its use is vital in the way indigenous people form meaning and memory in their

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