"Indian Horse: Analysis of the Effects of Forced Assimilation Other Native American children are forced assimilated into Canadian culture. The experience of forced assimilation plants a poisonous seed in Saul's mind and destroys almost his entire future. The progression of the story reveals the lasting effects of forced assimilation and that they function as the cause of Saul's trauma. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Indian Horse Analysis At the beginning of the novel, Wagamese recounts the forced adoption of First Nations children through Saul's descriptions. parents: “The specter also lived in the other adults, my father, my aunt and my uncle.” At the time, it was common for Native Americans to be forcibly taken to boarding schools. The first victim Saul witnesses is his sister Rachel; she was taken from the family at the age of six. Then his brother Benjamin is caught. A few years later, his grandmother Naomi died while holding Saul in her arms just before Saul was sent to the Saint-Jérôme boarding school. This scene is particularly significant in terms of trauma. Naomi represents the traditionally indigenous side of Saul: "I contacted her shouting in a mixture of Ojibway and English... But instead I was swept away... and I was thrown adrift on a strange new river.” Her death while holding Saul in her arms represents Saul's loss of indigenous culture (Robinson 93). Such forced assimilations occurred at dozens of schools like St. Jerome's: "These missionary schools aimed to assimilate indigenous peoples by using Christianity to 'civilize' the 'savages'" (Neeganagwedgin 32). Saul and the other Native Americans are harshly washed with soap and their hair is shaved; when one of the children disobeys the Sister, he is violently hit with a paddle. The effects were long-lasting and brutal; in the novel, they continue to manifest in Saul's life, appearing in different forms. While Saul tries to survive in Saint-Jérôme, he discovers hockey. Wagamese describes Saul's enthusiasm for hockey in a way that generates hope, both for Saul and the reader. However, it seems that Wagamese intended to illustrate this period of history in such a hopeful and joyful way, so that the dark sides of Saul's traumatic experiences could be forgotten: "It is like seeing yourself enter a secret place that no one else knows how to explain. get to,” the author suggests that hockey is not just a sport for Saul. As the story progresses, we realize that Saul is “trying to escape the emotional turmoil and forgetfulness of hockey: ‘That’s why I played with abandon; abandon me. For Saul, hockey is actually a way to escape traumatic experiences, and yet it turns out to be pathetic when he "packed [his] bag and got on a bus to go back to Manitouwadge." Saul discovers his increasing inability to integrate into the community due to his unresolved misery and tries to escape again: “'I'm not disappearing,' I said. He shook his head sadly. “It seems to me that you have already done it,” this time Saul finds relief in alcohol, which offers an “antidote to exile” in which it allows him to play the clown and storyteller (Robinson 96 ). The ongoing trauma appears throughout Saul's adolescence and early adulthood; they surface in Saul's addictive behaviors in hockey, his disconnection from his community, and his destructive behaviors associated with alcohol. After living with the Kellys for a time, Saul chose to leave Manitouwadge at the age of eighteen. Then, he begins his “fifteen years of his youth which were spent in emotional confusion and alcoholic drift” (Robinson 90). Saul does not leave without reason, even if he is not yet aware of it. According to an academic journal published by Oliver Morgan, ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) "have a profound and lasting impact many years later, although they transform from psychosocial experiences to organic illnesses, poor social functioning, in mental illness and addiction” (Morgan 9). Clearly, Saul possesses various ACEs from his experiences of forced assimilation at St. Jerome, and his Indigenous identity was damaged by “the ‘structured violence’ of residential schools” (Robinson 100). Having lost his identity and way of life, Saul loses the ability to connect with nature and his people. He loses the way of “storytelling” and Saul has no way of “transmitting and preserving indigenous cultural wisdom”; moreover, he cannot “deal with extreme cultural transition,” which is the consequence of residential schools (Robinson 91). When Ervin Sift tries to give him a normal life, Saul wants to connect but "there was a bigger part that he could never understand." It was the part that sought separation” (Wagamais 186). These few lines reinforce the link between his persistent trauma and his disconnection from others. Unable to deal with his naturally occurring unresolved ACEs, addictions, and SUDs, drinking helps Saul calm his rage and "exert some control over intolerable feelings." and intrusive thoughts” (Morgan 8). Thus, Saul continues to rely on alcohol to cope with his lingering trauma until he enters the New Dawn Center for recovery. Many people might not have thought of generational survivors of residential schools as victims of the school system, but in general, a victim refers to anyone who has suffered harm as a result of an event or an action. The author of "Indian Horse" shares his views on intergenerational survivors, having been one himself: "I never attended a residential school, so I can't say I survived it . However, my parents and extended family members did. The pain they suffer has become my pain and I have become a victim”; As Wagamese describes it, the pain carried by the victims spans generations and so the scars are deeply etched on their bodies and minds. Saul and Wagamese's lives begin the same way, living with their families in the bush. In both cases, their families had attended residential schools and were victims of psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical harassment, when only alcohol seemed to aid recovery. Since they were both separated from their families as children, they never learned to be good parents, and as a result, Wagamese's relatives turned out to be abusive. Saul's family experienced the same thing, making them weak enough to choose to consume alcohol, and they abandoned him with his grandmother at the age of eight; it was like Wagamese's parents, who abandoned him at the age of three with his two brothers and sister. They were both abandoned in the middle of winter, where the weather was freezing and the breeze agonizingly cold. Saul's grandmother did not survive because of the sacrifice she made forkeep him alive (by providing him with his clothes) and in both cases the children were found and taken away by the government; They sent Saul to St. Jerome Indian Residential School, while Wagamese and his siblings were sent to the Children's Aid Society. This tragedy changed their lives. Saul was taken to a boarding school where he witnessed and suffered unimaginable abuse. The school attempted to assimilate indigenous people and remove their Indian traits, their identity. According to Richard Wagamese, "the most fundamental human right in the universe is the right to know who you were created to be", but the residential schools denied their human rights, and Saul was forced to tolerate all of this for five years before to be adopted. by Fred Kelly and saved from the dominations of the school. But it was also at this school where Saul discovered his love of hockey, a game that was played for a short time as a means of escape. Saul began playing hockey after being introduced to it by Father Gaston Leboutillier, a young priest at the school: “As long as I could escape to it, I could fly away. Fly away and never have to land on the scorched earth of my childhood.” He describes how he tries to escape his situation, get away from it and seek freedom. He began using hockey to overcome memories of trauma, it was his escape. Richard Wagamese's life also changed dramatically. He was placed in two-parent homes and eventually adopted at the age of nine. For seven years, he suffered "beatings, mental and emotional abuse, and complete dislocation and separation from anything remotely Indian or Ojibway." It was until then that he decided to run away to try to save himself. His experience was just as shocking, brutal and desperate as Saul's in Saint-Jérôme. Both Saul and Wagamese were overwhelmed by the feeling of uncertainty and confusion and had a feeling of not belonging, without any idea of what caused it. Saul, on the one hand, was lost because he continued to hide from the truth instead of facing it. After losing his passion for hockey and it no longer serving as an escape, he turned to an alcoholic. He began to fall into the endless pit of alcoholism and this continued until Saul separated himself and hid so long that he no longer had a clue who he was: “I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take the risk of anyone knowing me, because I couldn’t take the risk of knowing myself.” Saul was constantly running away from his problems, avoiding them, and he got so lost that even if he wanted to know himself, he wouldn't know where to start, so he ran away because it was easier. He only tried to get better once he realized he would die if he continued to drink again and again. While visiting his deceased family, he came to the conclusion that he needed to go back to the beginning. After returning to where it all began – residential school – he realized what had happened to him and was forced to face the horrible truth. On the other hand, Richard Wagamese, who did not know what to do with his life, got lost, either on the street or in prisons. He was lost because he remained ignorant of his family's traumatic past in residential schools: "At that time, our people, the Aboriginal people, didn't really talk about residential schools and certainly the vast majority of Canadians didn't talk about them. Never. Most people had never heard of it,” he says, explaining that he did not know at the time the cause of his family's suffering and the reason for their past behavior. He only discovered them once he reunited with his family after twenty-one painful years of not seeing each other.”.

Essay / "Indian Horse: Analysis of the Effects of Forced Assimilation Other Native American children are forced assimilated into Canadian culture. The experience of forced assimilation plants a poisonous seed in Saul's mind and destroys almost his entire future. The progression of the story reveals the lasting effects of forced assimilation and that they function as the cause of Saul's trauma. .Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Indian Horse Analysis At the beginning of the novel, Wagamese recounts the forced adoption of First Nations children through Saul's descriptions. parents: “The specter also lived in the other adults, my father, my aunt and my uncle.” At the time, it was common for Native Americans to be forcibly taken to boarding schools. The first victim Saul witnesses is his sister Rachel; she was taken from the family at the age of six. Then his brother Benjamin is caught. A few years later, his grandmother Naomi died while holding Saul in her arms just before Saul was sent to the Saint-Jérôme boarding school. This scene is particularly significant in terms of trauma. Naomi represents the traditionally indigenous side of Saul: "I contacted her shouting in a mixture of Ojibway and English... But instead I was swept away... and I was thrown adrift on a strange new river.” Her death while holding Saul in her arms represents Saul's loss of indigenous culture (Robinson 93). Such forced assimilations occurred at dozens of schools like St. Jerome's: "These missionary schools aimed to assimilate indigenous peoples by using Christianity to 'civilize' the 'savages'" (Neeganagwedgin 32). Saul and the other Native Americans are harshly washed with soap and their hair is shaved; when one of the children disobeys the Sister, he is violently hit with a paddle. The effects were long-lasting and brutal; in the novel, they continue to manifest in Saul's life, appearing in different forms. While Saul tries to survive in Saint-Jérôme, he discovers hockey. Wagamese describes Saul's enthusiasm for hockey in a way that generates hope, both for Saul and the reader. However, it seems that Wagamese intended to illustrate this period of history in such a hopeful and joyful way, so that the dark sides of Saul's traumatic experiences could be forgotten: "It is like seeing yourself enter a secret place that no one else knows how to explain. get to,” the author suggests that hockey is not just a sport for Saul. As the story progresses, we realize that Saul is “trying to escape the emotional turmoil and forgetfulness of hockey: ‘That’s why I played with abandon; abandon me. For Saul, hockey is actually a way to escape traumatic experiences, and yet it turns out to be pathetic when he "packed [his] bag and got on a bus to go back to Manitouwadge." Saul discovers his increasing inability to integrate into the community due to his unresolved misery and tries to escape again: “'I'm not disappearing,' I said. He shook his head sadly. “It seems to me that you have already done it,” this time Saul finds relief in alcohol, which offers an “antidote to exile” in which it allows him to play the clown and storyteller (Robinson 96 ). The ongoing trauma appears throughout Saul's adolescence and early adulthood; they surface in Saul's addictive behaviors in hockey, his disconnection from his community, and his destructive behaviors associated with alcohol. After living with the Kellys for a time, Saul chose to leave Manitouwadge at the age of eighteen. Then, he begins his “fifteen years of his youth which were spent in emotional confusion and alcoholic drift” (Robinson 90). Saul does not leave without reason, even if he is not yet aware of it. According to an academic journal published by Oliver Morgan, ACEs (adverse childhood experiences) "have a profound and lasting impact many years later, although they transform from psychosocial experiences to organic illnesses, poor social functioning, in mental illness and addiction” (Morgan 9). Clearly, Saul possesses various ACEs from his experiences of forced assimilation at St. Jerome, and his Indigenous identity was damaged by “the ‘structured violence’ of residential schools” (Robinson 100). Having lost his identity and way of life, Saul loses the ability to connect with nature and his people. He loses the way of “storytelling” and Saul has no way of “transmitting and preserving indigenous cultural wisdom”; moreover, he cannot “deal with extreme cultural transition,” which is the consequence of residential schools (Robinson 91). When Ervin Sift tries to give him a normal life, Saul wants to connect but "there was a bigger part that he could never understand." It was the part that sought separation” (Wagamais 186). These few lines reinforce the link between his persistent trauma and his disconnection from others. Unable to deal with his naturally occurring unresolved ACEs, addictions, and SUDs, drinking helps Saul calm his rage and "exert some control over intolerable feelings." and intrusive thoughts” (Morgan 8). Thus, Saul continues to rely on alcohol to cope with his lingering trauma until he enters the New Dawn Center for recovery. Many people might not have thought of generational survivors of residential schools as victims of the school system, but in general, a victim refers to anyone who has suffered harm as a result of an event or an action. The author of "Indian Horse" shares his views on intergenerational survivors, having been one himself: "I never attended a residential school, so I can't say I survived it . However, my parents and extended family members did. The pain they suffer has become my pain and I have become a victim”; As Wagamese describes it, the pain carried by the victims spans generations and so the scars are deeply etched on their bodies and minds. Saul and Wagamese's lives begin the same way, living with their families in the bush. In both cases, their families had attended residential schools and were victims of psychological, emotional, spiritual and physical harassment, when only alcohol seemed to aid recovery. Since they were both separated from their families as children, they never learned to be good parents, and as a result, Wagamese's relatives turned out to be abusive. Saul's family experienced the same thing, making them weak enough to choose to consume alcohol, and they abandoned him with his grandmother at the age of eight; it was like Wagamese's parents, who abandoned him at the age of three with his two brothers and sister. They were both abandoned in the middle of winter, where the weather was freezing and the breeze agonizingly cold. Saul's grandmother did not survive because of the sacrifice she made forkeep him alive (by providing him with his clothes) and in both cases the children were found and taken away by the government; They sent Saul to St. Jerome Indian Residential School, while Wagamese and his siblings were sent to the Children's Aid Society. This tragedy changed their lives. Saul was taken to a boarding school where he witnessed and suffered unimaginable abuse. The school attempted to assimilate indigenous people and remove their Indian traits, their identity. According to Richard Wagamese, "the most fundamental human right in the universe is the right to know who you were created to be", but the residential schools denied their human rights, and Saul was forced to tolerate all of this for five years before to be adopted. by Fred Kelly and saved from the dominations of the school. But it was also at this school where Saul discovered his love of hockey, a game that was played for a short time as a means of escape. Saul began playing hockey after being introduced to it by Father Gaston Leboutillier, a young priest at the school: “As long as I could escape to it, I could fly away. Fly away and never have to land on the scorched earth of my childhood.” He describes how he tries to escape his situation, get away from it and seek freedom. He began using hockey to overcome memories of trauma, it was his escape. Richard Wagamese's life also changed dramatically. He was placed in two-parent homes and eventually adopted at the age of nine. For seven years, he suffered "beatings, mental and emotional abuse, and complete dislocation and separation from anything remotely Indian or Ojibway." It was until then that he decided to run away to try to save himself. His experience was just as shocking, brutal and desperate as Saul's in Saint-Jérôme. Both Saul and Wagamese were overwhelmed by the feeling of uncertainty and confusion and had a feeling of not belonging, without any idea of what caused it. Saul, on the one hand, was lost because he continued to hide from the truth instead of facing it. After losing his passion for hockey and it no longer serving as an escape, he turned to an alcoholic. He began to fall into the endless pit of alcoholism and this continued until Saul separated himself and hid so long that he no longer had a clue who he was: “I couldn’t take it anymore. I couldn’t take the risk of anyone knowing me, because I couldn’t take the risk of knowing myself.” Saul was constantly running away from his problems, avoiding them, and he got so lost that even if he wanted to know himself, he wouldn't know where to start, so he ran away because it was easier. He only tried to get better once he realized he would die if he continued to drink again and again. While visiting his deceased family, he came to the conclusion that he needed to go back to the beginning. After returning to where it all began – residential school – he realized what had happened to him and was forced to face the horrible truth. On the other hand, Richard Wagamese, who did not know what to do with his life, got lost, either on the street or in prisons. He was lost because he remained ignorant of his family's traumatic past in residential schools: "At that time, our people, the Aboriginal people, didn't really talk about residential schools and certainly the vast majority of Canadians didn't talk about them. Never. Most people had never heard of it,” he says, explaining that he did not know at the time the cause of his family's suffering and the reason for their past behavior. He only discovered them once he reunited with his family after twenty-one painful years of not seeing each other.”.

Navigation

« Prev 1 2 3 4 5 Next »

Get In Touch