Louise Erdrich’s novel Tracks, published in 1988, recounts the story of an Anishinaabe family on an Indian reservation. The plot revolves around the life history of the protagonist, Fleur Pillager. Erdrich uses the multiple narrator technique by telling the story from the perspectives of Nanapush, an affable tribal elder, and Pauline Puyat, a mixed-blood girl. The novel recounts the incidents that took place between the years 1912 to 1924 in the life of Fleur Pillager. Erdrich divides the narrative into two distinct sections. The Nanapush chapters recount the conversation between Lulu, the daughter of Fleur, and Nanapush. In these chapters, Nanapush in an “authoritative and confiding tone” (Walker, 37) narrates the events that compelled Fleur…
In the opening passage of “The Halifax Explosion 1917” MacLennan established his narrative authority by writing from the point of view of the people of Halifax. MacLennan used purposeful degradation in his descriptions of the Mont Blanc to make it abundantly clear that this vessel was so unassuming that going unnoticed was not out of the ordinary in this situation. This bias altered the portrayal of the event and leaned away from a traditional, purely historic rendition, to more of a storied, pleading approach. The use of narrative authority to change the perspective here is critical because it allows the reader to become engrossed in the perspective of the people of Halifax, creating a vantage point not usually seen in most historical depictions.…
Guglielmo Marconi is to the telephone pole as the Wright Brothers are to the airplane. Both of the people noted were inventors of great items, though they hadn’t invented the ideas of their works. Off of the subject of inventions, this essay will discuss a strange subject. Are great men hard to understand? In the book “The Chosen “ by Chaim Potok, Mr. Malter makes the statement “Great men are difficult to understand” in regards to Reb Saunders. This statement could also be associated with the Wright Brothers, the creators of the first controllable airplane. Their motives for wanting to abandon their humble, and comfortable lives, to compete in a race to create the first airplane will never be completely explained. All great people, including the Wright Brothers, are hard to understand.…
In this written assignment I will write a synopsis for the first three chapters of the book The Head in Edward Nugent’s Hand. The first chapter was about Ossomocomuck. In 1584 Phillip Amadas, Arthur Barlowe, and other men’s reached the Outer Banks. The Indians did not consider their land as the new world and English travelers enter an environment ruled as a prevailed. The Carolina Outer Banks was a world of water. Indians leaders show their high status through clothing, body orientation, and manner. The Wingina’s discussed among themselves about the encounter of newcomers and the dramatic changes in Ossomocomuck. The Wingina’s people had their own creation myths that are passed on through generations. The Indians Pomeiooc houses were made of small poles and use mats that covered the house providing ventilation. The Algonquian warrior painted themselves for battles and their weapons were arrows. Englishmen could not understand that women’s worked was on the village and agriculture fields while men hunted and fought. The Wingina’s people had different death rituals according to the individuals ranking. The ritual was a reason to survive the world with spiritual power. The second chapter was about Granganimeo. The Indians did not how to approached newcomers because they did not know if there were enemies or allies. Europeans interest about the North America had grown remarkably. The leader of a small group of Jesuit missionaries was Don Luis. The Jesuits first interaction with the Indian was respectful but they were pushy, intolerant, and the priest depended on them for food. Then Don Luis led his people to murder the priest and Menendez learned about what was going on. He came with help by attacking Don Luis people. In 1584 Sir Walter Ralegh was send by Queen Elizabeth I to search for any New World lands that was owned by Christians. They realize if they assist the Indians they could get them to compromise with the profit, empire, and Christianity.…
non-indigenous members of the community in which the novel is set. Much like the shore upon which they exists the insular townships of Cromarty, Port Morno and Kenmare are inarguably broken and divided.Throughout the text Temple investigates these divisions in a way that exposes the corrupt small-town legal system for…
The differences between each author's tone, structure, and voice further build on the dichotomy between the experiences of the Mohawk at the northern border and migrants at the southern. Both the migrants and the Mohawk have resisted marginalization; however, this is where the commonality of resistance quickly forks off into two distinct paths. As alluded to by Audra Simpson, the Mohawk people are hoping to gain sovereignty, whereas the migrants are hoping to integrate themselves into the US population (Simpson 116). The Mohawk, like other American Indian groups, hope to establish themselves as distinct entities from the United States and Canada. Meanwhile, migrants are hoping to gain access to these political entities only to be turned away for lack of belonging. To emphasize this dichotomy of experience and further their arguments, Simpson and De León construct very different ethnographies. The Land of Open Graves plays with hyper-realism in tone and voice. In De León’s work one can find a solemn topic dotted with jokes and light language (De León 148-151). This plays into De León’s purpose of highlighting the humanity of migrants by imitating human emotion in writing. Likewise, De León uses imagery to his advantage with the descriptive power of his writing. For example,…
In The Red Convertible Louise Erdrich uses the foreshadowing and the symbolism of boots and water to show the death of Stephan and the car as a symbol of the loss of a lifelong brotherhood in the last 40 lines.…
Kenneth Roemer remarks the significance of storytelling that “The stories contain information that the listeners needed or still need to understand themselves, their culture, and their environment” (1982: 41-42). In the novel, Nanapush’s oral storytelling to Lulu has the aim to re-educate her by stories because she has been educated in the western tradition. Nanapush remarks that he has “so many stories . . . They’re all attached, and once I start there is no end to telling” (46). Stories are a source of reconstructing the losing cultural identity and resistance. Storytelling reminds the natives that stories are all they have. It leads and guides them to their culture. So the stories should survive and passed on. As long as the stories exist,…
Gombrich’s point of view the center panel represents after the flood where man has not quite descended into the hideously debaucherous modern state of the right panel, but ultimately the lesson is that every generation is slightly more destructive to the inherent dignity of human beings purely devoted to God and the center panel represents in a way the birth of over-indulgence in the treasures of the earth.…
Pratima Dutta wrote in her criticism piece that, “The red convertible, although extremely western in its resonance, is the only native link between Lyman and Henry” (121). Her statement precisely highlights the importance of the red convertible in the story and it's significance to the both brothers Lyman and Henry. The red convertible had a great influence not only on the lives of both brothers, it also had a great value for the author of the “The Red Convertible” Louise Erdrich. She grew up near Sioux Indian reservation and was raised in between the western and Native American philosophies of life, which she deeply incorporated into her stories, so deeply, that even Pratima Dutta stated that, “According to the Native American critics, she is not a true Native American writer and does no justice to Native American storytelling traditions. Erdrich has also been…
In the beginning of the story (paragraphs 1-10) the Indian compares the city to the reservation. He thinks of the city as a captive place, a place "where trees grow in rows and the palms stand stiffly by the road sides."� I think the author is using this to represent the order of city life, the example above is in comparison to the military. He thinks of the reservation as a place of freedom, where "when the winds come whispering through the forests, they carry a smell of rotting leaves,"� and the animals roam freely through the forest. In this the author is saying to me that the reservation is a place where there is freedom, the environment is not militant. He uses these phrases to compare the two, city versus the reservation, the city being captive and the reservation being free.…
Chief Seattle’s diction reflects his sorrow and passion in regards to selling the land. The purpose of the speech was to persuade the “The Great Chief of Washington” on how important the land was to his people. With vivid description, history and memories he was able to contract the difference between the Indians love of the land and the white man ignorance of the land by saying, “The earth is not his brother, but his enemy, and when he has conquered it, he moves on. He leaves his father’s grave behind, and he does not care.” These words illustrated the great respect and the different morals toward each family. He condemns the white man for moving away from their land which displays the disrespect they have for their dead.…
Horowitz starts this chapter by describing the large room Mrs Rothman leads Alex to at the hotel in Positano. “There was no bed, just two chairs and a trestle table with a video player and some files”, Horowitz describes. He then engages the reader with direct speech between the two characters. He makes the text interesting by using a dash to give further information and a simile “like an actor on stage when the scenery has been removed.” This technique helps the reader to imagine the situation by comparing it to something everyone can visualise.…
Myth and history are necessary in explaining the world, and can be depended upon for guidance with one as reliable as the other. The idea of place, with its inherent myth and history, is an important factor in one 's identity because place shapes character and events. Robertson Davies ' Fifth Business, E. Anne Proulx 's The Shipping News, Michael Ondaatje 's In the Skin of a Lion, and Jack Hodgins ' The Invention of the World use myth and lore to describe the obstacles which the protagonists and others must get over or confront in order to recover their perspective identities. Place anchors the novels in Canada: Fifth Business in Ontario, The Shipping News in Newfoundland, In the Skin of a Lion in Toronto, and The Invention of the World on Vancouver Island. Because they are different places, different stories develop; but since these places are in Canada, they share the Idea of North in which the dream world is as important as the real world. This paper will demonstrate this typically Canadian characteristic of myth coexisting with reality, showing that explanations of identity given by myth and the oral tradition are at least as powerful as documented history.…
Nelson, Robert M. Place and Vision: The Function of Landscape in Native American Fiction. New York: Peter Lang, 1993.…