My Antonia

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Recommended: The influence of westward movement

In the book, "My Antonia", nostalgic views can be compared to those from narratives of Indians personal experiences. The experience that can be compared is the relation that they had regarding the westward movement and the plans the Americans had for the different races. The hardships they had experienced had been uncomfortable and unfair. The Indians had it harder than the immigrants, because they were moved from their own homes and sent to reservations and their kids were taken to the east to learn to become white. The immigrants came to the west expected great opportunities. They experienced hardships which involved new culture, religion, and the racist ways of the white men. Although these images can be compared to hardships they had the Indians had a more difficult outcome to experience. As America moved westward the Indians had finally run out of places to live. The Indians were moved to reservations, and the parents were convinced that their kids could develop better lives by abiding and living as a white American in the east. After they reached the east they were looked upon as savages, uncivilized and dirty. As they walked through a town they were looked upon as being the conquered and mocked. Children at the sight of them had much fear. People did not understand the culture of the Indians. In the first narrative, the Indians boys and girls were sent to the east to become just like the white men. Indians children were oppressed with new cultures and new ways of living that were the opposite of how they have always been living. They were forced to wear new clothes that were much more uncomfortable, such as trousers, high collars, boots, stiff- blossomed shirts, and suspenders. The Indians could not understand how the whites could be comfortable in those clothes. The Indians were also degraded when it came to tampering with their culture. Their hair was cut and their names were changed to common English names and most of all they were not allowed at all to speak of their mother tongue. The food was also modernized and they had to change accordingly to stuff they never experienced. Disease was never apart of the Indian community but there were imposed as well on the Indians. So the Indian children did not necessarily benefit from the change only make them feel worse about who they were and the fact that they could not do anything about it.

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