Peace Shall Destroy Many Paper

970 Words2 Pages

The Rudy Wiebe novel titled, “Peace Shall Destroy Many” is about a small Mennonite community and the people living within. This book brings to the surface many issues that have been occurring in the small community including the injustice and prejudice towards the aboriginal people. Most of the people in this particular Mennonite community treat them like they are in-humane; not even referring to them by their own names. They do not respect their heritage, lifestyle or the way they do things. Lastly this novel shows a great example of this Mennonite was more concerned with following their strict church rules than trying to help and evangelize to the Aboriginal peoples.
“‘Half-breed’ to Hal was merely a species of being that did certain things he himself was not allowed to do because they were ‘bad.’ Usually when talking near his elders, he was careful to avoid phrases that might catch a sensitive adult ear but then he always forgot what they had termed ‘bad’ before (Wiebe 8).”
From the very beginning of this novel there is no respect for the Metis people. They are referred to as the ‘half- breed,’ the people in this community do not think that they deserve the respect to even call them by their proper name. Readers get the impression “right off the bat” that the tone of voice while even mentioning the aboriginals or metis is said with pure disgust. Hal is just a kid, and already readers become aware of what ideas have been put into his head regarding the aboriginal and metis people. He plainly says, “because they were bad (Wiebe 8).” This is already an in humane way of treating people. It shouldn’t matter where you come from, who your parents are, or what you have done in the past; everybody deserves an a...

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...e are valuable and deserve to be treated with respect. No one should ever be treated the way the “breeds” were, it is completely unacceptable. In this novel the author is getting at the root of treating aboriginal people right, but readers may also get the impression Rudy Wiebe may be trying to address a bigger issue that still applies to people and their lives today. Rudy Wiebe may in a roundabout way, be trying to get at the issue of what we now know as, bullying. Everybody deserves to be treated with respect. Background, lifestyle, friends, family, race, religion should not determine how a person deserves to be treated.
In conclusion, Wiebe’s novel shows clear examples of how unjustly the Aboriginal and Metis people were treated. Through this, he sends a subtle message to the reader that all people deserve respect and to be treated equally.

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