When we have to face challenges, people deal with those in different ways. Sometimes it is easy to just ignore these difficulties. However, to overcome an obstacle, we have to face and deal with it. In this book, “Indian Horse” by an Ojibway writer, Richard Wagamese presents this beautiful novel to the reader concerning a tragic life of a boy, Saul Indian Horse. The protagonist, hero of this novel was in a period and a place where his native sources were not acknowledged in the world. He experienced many catastrophes just to see how the society treats him without the help of anybody. By discovering Saul losing the ability to trust and being abandoned by his family members, causing himself harm and harden himself. Also, this affects the growth …show more content…
of Saul; these are the effects that take place when Saul is stripped of his purity. Saul loses his ability to interact with someone because of his past experiences.
He had to experience the life of going to residential school at the young age where many horrific things happened to him by making him a go crazy. Also, Sauls loss of purity affects him in so many ways that lead him to harm himself. Racism and discrimination, since he was Indian, he had to feel the pain of being discriminated and segregated by nuns, priests, and white people. Also, Saul’s loss of purity compelled him by forcing him to solidify himself and to tolerate the horrendous things that happened to him. Therefore, by observing this affects, the reader can discover the conflicts in which the main character struggles against his external “demon.”
First of all, Saul Indian Horse’s life is set apart by disaster. His parents are residential school survivors, and his mom is crushed by the experience at the school. When he was eight years old, his parents abandoned him with his grandma. When it comes to the children, they all need someone in their life who they can love and trust without getting it shattered. However, for Saul, he never got that chance. So, he never had an opportunity to experience the love, and there was nobody to make him feel that way. After his
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grandma’s shocking death, he was all by himself without knowing the purpose of his life. At one point Saul says, “When I started to think about that day, I still can see the shimmer of the wake they all left behind me, the fee of it and the different lines that lapped at the shoreline. I can see the bent back of my dad paddling.(Chapter 3, Pg 33, Indian Horse) Saul believed that his family would be there for him throughout his life, but instead, during his childhood, they left him. This occasion in his life identifies how Saul lost his ability to trust someone who you really loved. The horrific happening that happened to him at the residential school. Saul comes to the topic of residential school by referring his school to “Hell on Earth” Chapter 4, pg 41, Indian Horse) because it is the hell on earth. At the school, he was forced not to speak his language anymore but speak English, and he was compelled to respect Christianity. However, he did not follow any of these cause he didn't know what was happening. The nuns and priests always beat him up when he spoke his language and when he forgot to follow the school rules. He says, “ They called it a school, but it was never that… There were no tests or exams. Only thing you need to learn is survive” (Chapter 7, Pg 79, Indian Horse) This represents the pain and agony he endured at the residential school. This all caused him having a hard time with his mental illness. He didn't have anyone to be friend with, and there was nobody that wanted to talk with him. He felt like he was being judged by the world. This everything smashed his human soul and which created him a sense of life that wasn't worth. Eventually, this ended up losing his ability to trust nobody. Father Leboutillier who always been a father to him, sexually used and abused him. In his fourth year of living in this school, he finally finds someone, whom to trust, Father Leboutillier comes to the school as a new teacher. He helped Saul to overcome many adversities; also he engaged him in hockey. In the beginning, Saul explored that his adoration for hockey fills in as a mean of the escape. He loved hockey very much, but the only way he had the chance to play hockey was letting Father Leboutillier sexually abuse him. At first, Saul believed that is the pure romance he was getting, however later on in his life; he understood how wrong it was. “You are a majesty, Saul.” Those are the words he used instead of his romance, and he would tell me to clean the field just to get my silence and to protect his secrets. He would tell me that I could play hockey when I was strong enough. I loved that idea. So, I managed to keep it quiet. I liked the idea of being loved so much, and I did everything he asked me to do. When I found myself wanting it, I felt dirty, disgusting, sick.” (Pg 199, Chapter 15, Indian Horse) This relates when Saul indian Horse lost his ability to trust, he gave his love to somebody who he really believed instead that person abused him by making him forget and disgust what real romance is. This event in his life relates when Saul is losing his ability to trust someone whom he loved. Therefore, this reveals how he loses his ability to trust because of his past experiences. Second of all, a huge problem that becomes the cause of Saul’s tragic lifestyle is the racism towards him.
He was getting discriminated at the school all the time. So, his loss of integrity caused him in a way where he harms himself. He used alcohol as an escape from the rough time he was having. Saul made an imprudent choice, and it resulted in him trying to harm himself. Saul ran away from his troubles, and he chose not to respond to any of them with the support of alcohol. When Saul was eighteen years old, and he had left to Manitouwadge. He was wandering around, seeking for a job in the town. At that moment, Saul starts thinking, “I'm not sure how I started drinking. but I know that when I'm always drunk, the noise of roaring in my stomach calmed me down” (pg 180-181, Chapter 20, Indian Horse). This is the first time; he reveals to the reader that he has been drinking. He thought this would be the best idea to get away from his real, mature feelings and emotions but using it as his escape didn't work out and turned out as a terrible choice. He didn't even try to solve any of his problems. Instead, he was walking away from them. Finally, it ended up him trying to pretend to be someone who he wasn't. If Saul only sought after people who adored him other than alcohol, he would have been liberated from his past that was cutting him down. His whole life was surrounded by the racism and which caused him in a way where he causes himself harm. At the school, Saul’s talent that
he had towards sports was recognized by a local coach, and with the help of him, he escaped the school. He trained and played for the Moose (a local First Nations team). At first, he believed that he had survived discrimination and abuse from everyone, but the other white teams and his team members started to discriminate him due to his skin color, and Indian background. “Everything was contained in the glance. All the shame and all the rage. The white people, they thought this is the game only white people should play not indians. (Chapter 15, Pg136, Indian Horse) This reveals how white people ruined the passion that Saul had for hockey. Also, they think that Indians can’t play hockey. Then his escape becomes tainted with regret and agony? The numerous difficulties he had to confront from fans of his team disappeared his ability to play hockey, and the gross verbal abuse regularly bellowed at him, immediately weakened his human soul and built up anger that he could hardly contain. “Whenever I stepped onto the field, and when I scored a goal, there were plastic indian dolls everywhere on the field.” (Chapter 17, Pg 156, Indian Horse) After Saul joined a white people team he became the most hated person for breaking their convention. This made an enormous impact on Saul’s life leaving him having suicidal thoughts. There is another way his loss of innocence cause himself harm. When he was in the school, the priests and nuns took full advantage out of him. They used him as a slave to fulfill what they want. But if he rejected any of those things, they would isolate him by putting him in a dark room, where he has to spend one week straight without having food or water. 11Third of all, Saul was forced to overcome his adversities in which once destroyed his human spirit and made him feel like he was worthless. The ideas of difficulty such as being beaten at the schools and the prejudice he confronted while playing hockey shows Saul’s constant inward battle and his desire to become a more productive person. 11Throughout this novel, Saul Indian showed a lot of painful experiences that he confronted those left him non identity and a way of different look on his life and everyone’s life. That is why Saul’s loss of purity affected him when he constrains to solidify himself, to figure out how to tolerate the horrible things happening around him. Throughout the novel, I was seen that Saul Indian had to endure many difficulties, challenges to maintain his mental quality, but Saul was still not robust enough to handle how the world was. When Saul was 18 years old, he came to Toronto to play hockey for a white people team, but the racism got him. As a result, he started a beef with other players. Eventually, he lost his enthusiasm for hockey. Virgil, his friend,“ “What happened??” He asked. “ oh! It was for shit,” Saul said. ” (Chapter 20, pg 170, Indian Horse) This shows that the love he had for this sport is gone and destroyed now because he doesn't enjoy the game that much. The outside world did not acknowledge Saul playing hockey. Likewise, Saul was not sufficiently intense to deal with the racism and gave into it. However, the most shocking part is that he was not able to recover himself after that. So, he wanted to quit playing hockey. Which shows how his loss of Innocence affected him by forcing him to set himself and to tolerate the awful things happening around him. Moreover, Saul had to grow up without parents and that had profoundly affected Saul’s life because he grew up with horror and anguish. Saul took a long time to forget the past, and make things right in the future. When Saul was in the school, he cried all the time from the abuse, racism, and difficulties that he had to go through every day. At the ending of the story, he went to Fred Kelly’s house to share the story with him. He shared what he had learned. He said, “ Saul, they all destroyed our insides. We are not responsible at all for anything that happened to us but our healing, there are up to us. That’s the life we deserved to have. I guess.” (Chapter 25, pg 210, Indian Horse) he shared with Saul how he had toughened up from the loss of his honesty, and he told him, Saul, that he should take consideration of it. Moreover, Saul shouldn't blame himself for anything that happened to him, and they all are in the past, he will never see those. From the abuse, racism, and challenges Saul had confronted in his childhood, he discovered that he should look at his life in the future, instead of the past. In conclusion, By looking at this, we can discover that Saul is losing the ability to trust anyone who he really loved and being abandoned by his family members, caused himself harm. Also, Sauls loss of integrity affects him in so many ways where he harms himself. Likewise, Saul’s loss of freedom compelled him by forcing him to concrete himself, to learn how to disregard the horrendous things happening around him. In Saul's case, he experienced an appalling, sharp and dismal life that no one deserves. He lost his ability to trust someone, which caused him to harm himself and solidified himself.
The Essay, I have chosen to read from is ReReading America was An Indian Story by Roger Jack. The topic of this narrative explores the life of an Indian boy who grows up away from his father in the Pacific Northwest. Roger Jack describes the growing up of a young Indian boy to a man, who lives away from his father. Roger demonstrates values of the Indian culture and their morals through exploration of family ties and change in these specific ties. He also demonstrates that growing up away from one’s father doesn’t mean one can’t be successful in life, it only takes a proper role model, such as the author provides for the young boy.
Saul Indian Horse is an Ojibway child who grew up in a land which offered little contact with anyone belonging to a different kind of society until he was forced to attend a residential school in which children were being stripped away of their culture with the scope of assimilating them into a more “civilized” community. Saul’s childhood in the school, greatly pervaded by psychological abuse and emotional oppression, was positively upset once one of the priests, Father Leboutillier, introduced him to the world of hockey, which soon become his sole means of inclusion and identification, mental well-being and acknowledged self-worth in his life. It is though universally acknowledged how, for every medal, there are always two inevitably opposite
Stories are much more than just ink placed in clean rows on paper or dialogues that travel through air columns. All stories transform worldly experiences into sources of inspiration and perspicuity and Saul Indian Horse’s story is no exception. In Richard Wagamese’s novel, Indian Horse, Saul Indian Horse explains the events that have resulted in him receiving treatment for alcoholism at a rehab centre. Readers are exposed to the former hockey player’s moments of triumph, failure, and everything that falls in between. Saul mentions in his story how a leisure pursuit like hockey granted him temporary freedom and happiness from his sorrow-filled life. Saul’s example can inspire First Nations individuals to remain resilient in the face of adversity.
Indian Horse is a novel by Richard Wagamese that beautifully explores the idea of family, and what it means to have people around you that make you feel at home. The reader is bombarded with an overwhelming sense of family and betrayal in the first few pages of the novel. As Richard Wagamese continues to write, one is able to see how safe Saul Indian Horse felt with his biological family, and he also shows how lost he felt without their love when he was taken to the Residential School. The school he was brought to was drained of all consensual love the moment it was open, and continued to fill the children with horrible feelings the entire time they were there. Indian Horse was unable to really feel as though he still had family while he was in the
In the introduction, Hämäläinen introduces how Plains Indians horse culture is so often romanticized in the image of the “mounted warrior,” and how this romanticized image is frequently juxtaposed with the hardships of disease, death, and destruction brought on by the Europeans. It is also mentioned that many historians depict Plains Indians equestrianism as a typical success story, usually because such a depiction is an appealing story to use in textbooks. However, Plains Indians equestrianism is far from a basic story of success. Plains equestrianism was a double-edged sword: it both helped tribes complete their quotidian tasks more efficiently, but also gave rise to social issues, weakened the customary political system, created problems between other tribes, and was detrimental to the environment.
The novel “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese demonstrates the many conflicts that indigenous people encounter on a daily basis. This includes things such as, the dangers they face and how they feel the need to flee to nature, where they feel the most safe. Another major issue they face is being stripped of their culture, and forcibly made to believe their culture is wrong and they are less of a human for being brought up that way, it makes them feel unworthy. Finally, when one is being criticised for a hobby they enjoy due to their indigenous upbringing, they make himself lose interest and stop the hobby as it makes them different and provokes torment. People who are trying
Finally, Hockey offers Saul Indian Horse the feeling of salvation and freedom from the troubles he is experiencing, such as the death of his loved ones and physical beatings at the mission. “My salvation coming instead through wood and rubber and ice and the dream of
At the beginning of the story Horses of the Night, Chris, who lives at Shallow Creek with a poor living condition, is introduced as a distant cousin of the narrator Vanessa. Since there is no high schools at Shallow Creek and as Chris’s dream of becoming a civil engineer, these two facts push him to seek for new opportunities in Manawaka. Though he is still undertaking various inconveniences and hopelessness while he studies in Manawaka, such as Grandfather Connor’s disdain sights toward him and lacking of financial support, he acts indifferently to respond to Grandfather Connor’s attitudes and speaks out his “great expectations” with assurance, as if his future of
Adjusting to another culture is a difficult concept, especially for children in their school classrooms. In Sherman Alexie’s, “Indian Education,” he discusses the different stages of a Native Americans childhood compared to his white counterparts. He is describing the schooling of a child, Victor, in an American Indian reservation, grade by grade. He uses a few different examples of satire and irony, in which could be viewed in completely different ways, expressing different feelings to the reader. Racism and bullying are both present throughout this essay between Indians and Americans. The Indian Americans have the stereotype of being unsuccessful and always being those that are left behind. Through Alexie’s negativity and humor in his essay, it is evident that he faces many issues and is very frustrated growing up as an American Indian. Growing up, Alexie faces discrimination from white people, who he portrays as evil in every way, to show that his childhood was filled with anger, fear, and sorrow.
Both Saul Indian Horse and Winston Smith use writing as a means of survival from repression. In Indian Horse, Saul uses writing as a means of seeing what made him turn away from the pain of his rape and cease repressing its happening; for him survive and live on with his life. Saul writes memoirs to find the hidden answers of why he turned to violence and alcoholism and using them to break free of the cycle. From pages two to three Saul says “They say I can’t understand where I’m going if I don’t understand where I’ve been. The answers are within me, according to them. By telling our stories, hardcore drunks like me can set ourselves free from the bottle and the life that took us there …. So Moses gave me permission to write things down. So
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...
In “The Truth about Stories”, Thomas King, demonstrate connection between the Native storytelling and the authentic world. He examines various themes in the stories such as; oppression, racism, identity and discrimination. He uses the creational stories and implies in to the world today and points out the racism and identity issues the Native people went through and are going through. The surroundings shape individuals’ life and a story plays vital roles. How one tells a story has huge impact on the listeners and readers. King uses sarcastic tone as he tells the current stories of Native people and his experiences. He points out to the events and incidents such as the government apologizing for the colonialism, however, words remains as they are and are not exchanged for actions. King continuously alerts the reader about taking actions towards change as people tend to be ignorant of what is going around them. At the end people give a simple reason that they were not aware of it. Thus, the author constantly reminds the readers that now they are aware of the issue so they do not have any reason to be ignorant.
Over the past two centuries, First Nations people have been oppressed by the Canadian society and continue to live under racism. The struggles, injustices, prejudice, and discrimination has played a significant role in the construction and impact of how they are treated and viewed in the modern society. Saul Indian Horse from Richard Wagamese's "Indian Horse" and Chanie Wenjack from Gord Downie's "The Stranger" are the perfect examples of how the belief that First Nations were inferior to the Europeans impacted the Aboriginal generations. However, both of the characters can be compared and contrasted by the following ways. As they both go through the breakdown of family bonds and the traumatic sufferings of residential schools, but they differ
Many Aboriginal children across Canada are distressed as most of them have difficulty finding their inner quality and enhancements in life. This is visible in the life of Saul Indian Horse, the main protagonist in Richard Wagamese’s “Indian Horse”. Saul has many struggles in his life that he had to overcome, He could have come down a negative path, but instead learns from them. Saul’s personal growth is a result of overcoming racism, surviving residential school and his passion for hockey.
Many naive people, like myself for example, would see a book titled The Indian Lawyer, by James Welch, for the first time thinking that it must be about Indians with horses and bows and arrows trying to get revenge, but this novel written by James Welch is nothing of the sort. It is about the modern Indian, in today’s modern world, with modern problems, but written in a unique way. The book is written in many different characters points of views, and it adds a tremendous amount of detail and understanding to the story. In this paper I will discuss three of the main characters points of view and why this helped illuminate the story even more. By telling the story through multiple points of views, which gave more insight, it showed the reader