The Light in The Forest: True Son’s Character By: Gaberiel Olivarri In ‘The Light in the Forest,’ True Son, or John C. Butler, was raised by Indians and taught how to live like they did. But the most absurd aspect of this story is that he was born white. He was born to the Butler family and his father, Harry, and his mother, Myra, had been looking for him and praying to God that he would come home. These prayers and pleads were answered eleven years later. True Son came to them and changed three times over the course of the story. He was at first more Indian than white, then he was more white then Indian and lastly was more of a mix at the end. When True Son first was leaving the Lenni Lenape, he was still more of an Indian than white. He was …show more content…
so attached to them and did not want to leave them. But at this time he also was confused about why he was being forced to leave. “Never would he give up his Indian life. Never!” (Richter 2) and later in on this page “Had he unknowingly left a little white blood in the boy’s veins and was it for this that he must be returned?” (Richter 2) this showed that he was unwilling to leave and that he was attached to the Indians. When True Son was being left by his father to Del, he was told “Now go like an Indian True Son,” he said in a low stern voice, “Give me no more shame.” (Richter 3) this gave more evidence that True Son did not want to leave but that he would do so to honor his father.
The final action he did to defy the white men was denying everything that was being said about him being white, “’I'm Indian!’ the boy said and looked up at him straight in the eye” (Richter 8) and “My father is Cuyloga. My mother Quaquenga.” he said (Richter 8) this was a major point that showed he was stubborn and would not listen to anyone other than the Indian family he had before. When they had just about reached the Paxton township, he had a meeting with his cousin Half Arrow and he was given some things to keep that would further help his memories remind himself of his ‘heritage’. “He lifted from his pack a small buckskin sack of parched corn… after that he fetched out moccasins embroidered in red… finally all that was left of the pack was its covering the old worn bearskin that had been True Son’s bed in the cabin.” (Richter 14) this showed that he was still wanting to be an Indian but he was willing to move on and accept what was coming his way. I think what was difficult to get True Son to become more white was getting him to dress as a civilized white person, “I go look at clothes” he said with dignity in English. (Richter 40) here he was barely willing to even look at the clothes let alone put them on but when his Aunt Kate told him, “You’re not just going to look at them!” She informed him sharply “You’re going to
put them on and you’re going to was yourself all over first or I’ll do it for you.” (Richter 41) he grudgingly did what he was told. This showed that he was starting to become more white and follow his blood line. Lastly he had to wear shoes that he was not used to and that he found repulsive “…but the shoemaker was worse. The boots that he pounded out were like half hollowed logs. They gripped the boys feet wedged his toes cramped his ankles. He felt that he stood in millstones. How could white men endure such things when they might run light and free in moccasins?” (Richter 47) this revealed True Son’s willingness to do what he was told but he did this mainly to get his family off his back. Some of the issues that Parson and True Son were discussed also help show more of his character and attitude. When they first met True Son was offered a chair but he refused and said, “I am used to sit on the floor,” he answered, “Always I sit on the ground outside it is the lap of my mother the Earth.” (Richter 61) This demonstrates his attachment to his tribe because it was one of the last teachings he was able to hang on to. Later True Son had brought up a massacre that he knew had happened and that the Parson was in charge of. True Son questioned him by asking ‘“Does good man like preacher get out of hand too?” the boy asked’ (Richter 63) then the Parson replied, “No not often,” he said, “I did what I could as their military leader, I ordered them to disperse and go home. But they refused. Had I persisted, they would have killed my favorite horse.” (Richter 63-64) This made True Son frustrated and so he told Parson “Better your favorite horse dead than the favorite young ones of the poor Indian” the boy asserted (Richter 63-64) this whole conversation showed that True Son was vividly concerned about his old family. A little later in the story he was leaving with Half Arrow, he was attached in a small way because of Gordie. He felt that he was abandoning him and this troubled him. “His only regret was leaving Gordie. He could see him in his mind now lying alone on their wide bed a chattering squirrel by day a bed-warming stone by night only a little minny of a fellow waiting for his Indian brother who would never return.” (Richter 88) this was the result that True Son had come to love Gordie and did not want him to suffer. Later he and Half Arrow were leaving the valley they came across a white trader. Half Arrow was wanting to steal one of the two dugouts from the trader, but True Son was thinking of his white heritage and he did not want to do this, “True Son considered…I see the two boats but they belong to the trader.” But Half Arrow had to almost convince him to be able to even consider it, “Cousin. You have been too long among the whites. They have corrupted you in your thinking…Now all we Indians know it is not stealing to take back form the whites what they took form us… look at the white traders fine house and all of his possessions…” (Richter 92-93) At this point True Son was almost unwilling to do this but he eventually listened to his cousin. When the duo reached their village, they were welcomed back and soon found out that there was a meeting being held. This was important about True Son because if he did not go it would show that he was still loyal to the white people. “…It would not look good for him to stay behind….he is surely white, see he is unwilling to fight against his white people.”(Richter 105). When the war party was first leaving it brought up a custom that they had and one part showed that there was a part of True Son that was still Indian “…When he sang his war song…the others made the chorus….True Son felt a savage sweetness he had never known before…” (Richter 105-106) Later the party came back a night with the first kill and they had brought scalps with them from the escapade. This was really troubling to True Son because of one being the scalp of a child. “…But all the time the…discarded scalp…soft hairs the color of willow shoots… a child’s scalp…” (Richter 108) I think that this was so troubling to True Son because he had told his white mother that they did not scalp children. “He tried to forget what he had said to his white mother that never had he seen a child’s scalp taken by his Indian people.” (Richter 108) and this again shows that True Son was not wanting to let go of the love that he had started to feel for his blood line. The last part of this story that I think illustrates True Son’s character was the attack that they tried on the boat. When they first saw the boat, he did what he was told and tried to get the boat as close as possible to the shore. “Brothers. Help! Brothers. I am English. I have white skin like you!” and “Mothers! Take me with you! Mothers! See, I am white boy! Mothers! Take me or I starve.” Then lastly “Brothers. Listen to her!” He cried, “Mothers. Don’t pass by!” (Richter 111) were his calls to get them to come closer to the shore. This showed True Son was also still hanging on to his Indian upbringing. But when they came closer he noticed that there was a child that looked like Gordie. “…Then someone in the boat moved and disclosed a child. It was a boy about Gordie’s age dressed in a dark gray dress with a broad light band around it such as his small white brother used to wear…” (Richter 112) I think that this changed his mind significantly because of the reminder that it gave him. “He was conscious of only this child so like Gordie coming closer and closer to the unseen rifles and tomahawks of his companions.” (Richter 112) he did not want to hurt those people and know that it may or may not have been his brother. In this it showed that he was hanging on to his family by a thread. So all in all I think that from the beginning of the story to the end True Son was Indian then became more of a white man and then lastly was left broken and scarred as a white Indian husk of what he had been.
In the Lilies of the Field by William E. Barrett, Homer and Mother Maria both display straightforward, hardworking, and stubborn character traits. Firstly, Homer and Mother Maria both display a straightforward personality by being brutally honest about their opinions. For example, when Mother Maria asks Homer to build a chapel, Homer speaks his mind by telling her he does not want to build it. Mother Maria shows her straightforward behavior during Homer’s stay at the convent. One morning, when Homer sleeps in late, Mother to becomes extremely upset and is not afraid to show how she feels about him. Secondly, both Homer and Mother Maria display a hardworking spirit. Homer is a hardworking man because after finally agreeing to build the chapel,
The test he had so eagerly taken identified him as every single race except African. He is, according to the test, 0 percent African. The life he had built was made under an assumed race. He had been passing for black for over fifty years. The discovery sent his world into a spiral and he began questioning what he should consider himself. He had been a part of a community forged through blood, sweat, and tears only to find out that he did not belong. He was now excluded due to the one-drop rule. He had lost his community, but it was all he knew.
O’Brien argues the multiple Indians who are put forth in histories as being the last of their tribe: Eunice Mahwee of the Pequots, Esther of the Royal Narragansetts. This phenomenon falsely narrates the disappearance of Indian people, being relegated to anonymity except for the “last of their kind.” These stories also discuss the purity of Indians, downplaying their current environment. Indians were only Indians if they had complete pure blood, one drop of anything other than their own tribe meant they were not Indians. The racist contradictions in this logic is pointed out by O’Brien. For whites, any claim to one “drop” of New England Puritan blood meant this person could claim to be a descendant of the Puritan Fathers. The children or grandchildren of the “last” Indians were not truly Indian because they did not grow up in a wigwam, or possess their native
AP English Literature and Composition MAJOR WORKS DATA SHEET Title: A Raisin In the Sun Author: Lorraine Hansberry Date of Publication: 1951 Genre: Realistic Drama Biographical Information about the Author Lorraine Hansberry was born in Chicago on May 19, 1930. She grew up as the youngest in her family. Her mother was a teacher and her father was a real estate broker.
Grace is a very sweet and sensitive girl. She made some mistakes herself, but because of her foster parents she got through the tough parts. In Far From the Tree written by Robin Benway, she created a character that had a child in highschool and Her little girl was adopted and has a better life than what Grace could have offered her. Once Grace got told she had a sister named Maya she bursted into joy. Her heart was beating out of her chest when she was emailing Maya to meet up. When Maya replied with an answer Grace was ecstatic, but at the same time she did not know what to think. The moment when she saw the answer was ¨yes¨ she ran downstairs to tell her parents. Her whole life was now different because she had a relief that she had someone
He had been surrounded by Indians almost his whole life. From a very young age, he had been taken in by a Pomo Indian family. To think that these weren’t his people was probably upsetting. He had learned the Indian culture and even some of the Pomo Indian language. It didn’t matter if he wasn’t actually Indian biologically. He was nothing less than Indian at heart.
“The bond that links your true family is not one of blood, but of respect and joy of each other’s life” -Richard Bach. Far from the Tree by Robin Benway explores the meaning of family, and the impact that loved ones have on identity. The novel tells the story of three siblings who have three very different lives reunite after spending all of their lives separately. Grace, Maya and Joaquin grow dependant on one another, and unknowingly give and take values from each other that help them solve their own issues slowing being brought to light. With the help of his parents and siblings, Joaquin reveals a critical capacity for change as he leaves his old self behind and moves on to a better future with a loving family.
Father is a character that represents all of the white Americans that used to blindly belive that "there were no negros, there were no immigrants". When he left to go on his trip to the artic this was sort of how life seemed to be. However, when he came back he was bewildered to find the change that had set
Although he learned of his true identity at an early age, it seems as though the narrator preferred to be white. This could have possibly been influenced by his upbringing during his early childhood and the mistreating of blacks as opposed to the higher regards for whites. He seems to accept a white, and sometimes often racist view of the world in general. This can be noted in ways such as when he states he never forgave the teacher that led him to understand he was black. Also, in his travels throughout the South, the way he observes his surroundings is often like those made through the eyes of a racist white man. He picks out the "unkempt appearance, the shambling, slouching gait, and loud talk and laughter” of the lower-class blacks that he meets (p. 40). He also admits that he never really enjoyed seeing a rich white widow have a black companion. Then, after partaking in a debate about race among several white passengers on a train, the narrator expresses his admiration for the most racist man that was involved in the discussion. It also seems as though he only had eyes for white women and he eventually married one and had children with her. Although he may have preferred to
...s the only one who sees the injustice and still identifies most wholly with Native American identity, and does not wish for a place in white society.
While it may seem that society’s restrictions continually halt the way one progresses in life, the ability to defy the odds and overcome them truly defines a person’s courage. This fact is evident in the novel, All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr, where an orphan named Werner is continuously forced to participate in cruel Nazi practices because his enrollment in the Hitler Youth is the only way he is able to get the proper education to become an engineer. Similarly, in Keeping the Faith, directed by Edward Norton, a local rabbi named Jake is restricted from publically dating his childhood best friend, Anna because of the fact that she is not Jewish. First off, characters originally alter their views and behaviour due to their circumstances,
There is some evidence that connects our protagonist's line of thinking with his upbringing. Our protagonist's mother tells him, "The best blood of the South is in you," (page 8) when the child asks whom his father is. Clearly, his mother was proud of (and perhaps still in love with) this genteel white man who gave her a son. So his bold pronouncements make much sense in light of his own condition.
The play “A Raisin in the Sun” by Lorraine Hansberry has many interesting characters. In my opinion, the most fascinating character is Ruth because of her many emotions and captivating personality. She goes through extreme emotions in the play such as happiness, sadness, anger, stress, and confusion. Ruth is very independent, firm, kind, witty, and loving.
Bigger Thomas as America’s Native Son. In the novel the Native Son, the author Richard Wright explores racism and oppression in American society. Wright skillfully merges his narrative voice into Bigger Thomas so that the reader can also feel how the pressure and racism affects the feelings, thoughts, self-image, and life of a Negro person. Bigger is a tragic product of American imperialism and exploitation in a modern world.
Because of indian roots being almost completely extinct from america, the white culture has inevitably taken over. “Afraid of what my father will say, afraid of being looked on as a stranger by my own people” (Whitecloud). The native says this because the two cultures differ so much, that he may not be recognizable to the speech and vibes of his people. “Alex is a Carlisle man, and tries to keep his home up to white men standards. White standards. Funny that my people should be ever falling farther behind. The more they try to imitate whites the more tragic the result. Yet they want us to be imitation white men. About all we imitate well are their vices.” (Whitecloud). Most native americans, being the minority of the population, give into white authority before there is dispute or conflict. So, in this case, alex could be forced against his will to keep a satisfactory work environment for the white man. “Before the lodge door i stop, afraid, I wonder if my people will remember me. I wonder--”Am I indian, or am I white?”” (Whitecloud). He thinks that he may not be the same man that he was before he came to the city. He has finally found the blue winds that dance, and he doesn't want to let it