Analysis Of Tracks By Louise Erdrich

At this time period, ideal beauty was manifested in the image of Shirely Temple: blond hair and blue eyes. The more she lived with her own black family, the more she came to resent how poor and ugly they were, thought to be because the lacked those features. As a result she searched the happiness that allegedly accompanied the Shirley Temple postulate and found it by working as a servant for a white family. Being a servant to those who fit the Shirley Temple precept made her feel as though she was a part of the “perfect life”. All this leading to the point that, yes, Pauline was happy working for the white family.

Throughout human existence, mankind has had to overcome difficult obstacles in order to prosper. In Diane Glancy’s “Pushing the Bear”, the reader discovers how the Cherokee Indians overcome their hardships and flourish into a new, thriving community. In this novel, the audience observe how these Cherokee Indians outlast the harsh environment during the Indian Removal Act. Additionally, Glancy creates a human experience during the Trail of Tears; giving a different perspective of various characters. Through the eyes of characters such as Maritole and Knobowtee, the reader is able to sense the desperation that the Cherokee endured. The upheaval of being forcefully removed from the land stripped the Cherokee of their identity. This disruption left the Cherokee confused, causing frustration to arise because they were unable to live their familiar roles. Men were no longer able to farm. Women had a loss of property and wealth. The bear symbolizes these struggles throughout this novel. Maritole explains, “The bear had once been a person. But he was not conscious of the consciousness he was given. His darkness was greed and self-centeredness. It was part of myself, too. It was part of the human being” (183). In other words, the “bear” is the personal dilemma each character is put up against during this removal. Furthermore, each character has their own personal struggles to overcome; whether that be Knobowtee’s loss of masculinity or Maritole’s loss of family. These struggles,

Pauline Breedlove, Pecola's mother, experiences racism within the black community when she moves to Lorain, Ohio. Being a dark-skinned black woman from the south, she does not understand why "northern colored folk was different... [and why they were] no better than whites for meanness" (117). She recognizes the hierarchy, or the "difference between colored people and niggers" within the black community, especially from the light-skinned women she encounters (87). One of these light-skinned black women is Geraldine, Junior's mother, who believes "colored people were neat and quiet; niggers were dirty and loud" (87). She even tells her son

Although stories are a universal art form, they hold a more significant role in Native American culture, and literature. This occurs due to the millennia spent in isolation from the rest of the world, and having stories as the main source of entertainment. Thomas King’s statement, “stories can control our lives,” is an important notion, because it embarks on the idea of molding the diseased into more interesting versions of themselves. The statement is prevalent in many pieces of literature which fuse reality into the imagination, and cause people to lose themselves in the fictitious realm. Native literature is all closely related, and they all hold messages within their stories that show their great culture; both the good and the bad. Story

Pauline’s Catholicism and her duties as an “Angel of Death” continue to control her for the rest of the passage. Before giving Fleur the Alder (or whatever herb she actually grabbed) steep, Pauline is captivated by her face: “Fleur’s eyes were closed. Her face was drained of color. I k new this look and I was fascinated, rapt, as at other death – and sickbeds” (157). Here, Pauline forgets what she is doing for Fleur and reverts to her duty as the “Angel of Death,” abandoning her Ojibwa ways for Catholicism. This seems to create further confusion for Pauline, as Fleur must instruct her on what to do with the alder plant. When Pauline puts herself to that task, she finds that she is unable to do anything because “the Lord overtook [her] limbs and made them clumsy…it must have been his terrible will” (157). Pauline feels that God does not want her to help Fleur, and is preventing her from doing so by deadening her limbs. Although she is trying to help Fleur, she simply cannot. Pauline’s claims that clumsiness and forgetfulness of Ojibwa traditions is God’s ‘terrible will,’ are a claim of validity for both her follies in this passage and her stubborn separations from the Ojibwa.

In his story “The Lakota Way; Joseph Marshall III adequately convinces the reader to persevere through a series of stories that allows the reader to develop a personal connection with characters. Marshall achieves this by informing the reader and using formal diction. This allows his readers to experience how perseverance can have a positive impact on one’s life. Marshall teaches us that Perseverance represents a quality in human beings that allows us to be steadfast despite the difficulty. In the folk tale “The Story of the Giant,” perseverance is abundant; Marshall utilizes the skill of teaching to persuade his audience to persevere through the story. Marshall‘s unique way of writing allows the reader to take lessons from a story and influence them to use it in their own lives. From lya the giant terrorizing people to Indians having to leave their land because of the government to Marshall’s grandfather’s stories of hardship, Marshall shows his audience how the Native Americans have always had it rough but more importantly how they persevered.

Lives for Native Americans on reservations have never quite been easy. There are many struggles that most outsiders are completely oblivious about. In her book The Roundhouse, Louise Erdrich brings those problems to light. She gives her readers a feel of what it is like to be Native American by illustrating the struggles through the life of Joe, a 13-year-old Native American boy living on a North Dakota reservation. This book explores an avenue of advocacy against social injustices. The most observable plight Joe suffers is figuring out how to deal with the injustice acted against his mother, which has caused strife within his entire family and within

Many were forced to evacuate to other regions within the country and endure the infamous Trail of Tears. While Native Americans are not forcibly removed from their homes anymore, this story shows a modern-day example of mistreatment or borders that Native Americans deal with. While the mother faced many different conflicts, externally and internally, she readily accepts the challenge and is not willing to step down. She displays the pride of the Blackfoot Indians and is not willing to let the government tell her who she is and let them define her. She sets an example for Native Americans, standing up against a government that has held them down for so long. That they should always have pride in who they are, and where they came

Storytelling is a large component of Native American’s culture. Storytelling has the ability to connect people, events, and things to each other which transcends racial and temporal boundaries. Van Camp transcends the binary’s boundaries through storytelling, bringing Native traditions and events into the modern world. For example, Larry is a Dogrib, yet he is not living on a reservation and more or less seems to know little about his Indigenous identity, “Due to the novel's multiethnic small-town setting and his parents' residential schooling, Larry seldom receives cultural knowledge that might explicate... a traditional Dogrib social structure” (McKegney). However, through storytelling, specifically oral storytelling, Van Camp sets up a connection between Larry and his tribal knowledge. Larry is told his tribe’s creation story which serves as a vessel to deliver tribal knowledge into Larry’s modern world. The creation story can also be seen to transcend boundaries between the different Indigenous tribes of Jed, Larry, and Johnny. Larry is also seen to share stories with the readers as well as the characters of Juliet, and Johnny. Juliet is white and learns of an Indigenous story through Larry, “I closed my eyes and decided to let the story lead. I was just the voice, and I knew the story would tell itself.” (Van Camp 113). The story connected Juliet with

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

Like a coin dropped between the cushions of a couch, traditional oral storytelling is a custom fading away in current American culture. For Native Americans, however, the practice of oral storytelling is still a tradition that carries culture and rich history over the course of generations. Three examples of traditional oral stories, “How Men and Women Got Together”, “Coyote’s Rabbit Chase”, and “Corn Mother”, demonstrate key differences in perspectives and values among diverse native tribes in America.

Eli shows up at Nanapush's house. Eli wants Nanapush to feel sorry for him, but Nanapush refuses. Eli and Nanapush argue about Fleur. Nanapush has his own worries about the land. His people are losing it because of illiteracy. Nanapush remembers being a government interpreter until he

Pauline eventually meets Cholly, who is Pecola’s biological father, and they fall in love. "He seemed to relish her company and even to enjoy her country ways and lack of knowledge about city things. He talked with her about her foot and asked, when they walked through the town or in the fields, if she were tired. Instead of ignoring her infirmity, pretending it was not there, he made it seem like something special and endearing. For the first time Pauline felt that her bad foot was an asset. And he did touch her, firmly but gently, just as she had dreamed. But minus the gloom of setting suns and lonely river banks. She was secure and grateful; he was kind and lively. She had not known there was so much laughter in the world." (Morrison, p. 115)

Pauline Breedlove's personal history is shown to have played out in extreme measures in the life of her daughter. From the early part of her life she has worn a shroud of shame. The book says that it is due primarily to her injured foot that she felt a sense of separateness and unworthiness and

Another example of the failure of adults is seen in Pauline Breedlove. Just as Geraldine focuses more on her desires than her child, so does Pauline in ways that also drift her away from her family. Mrs. Breedlove is a black woman who dreams she can somehow make her family appreciate her but after Pauline figures that she could not, she finds meaning in romantic movies and the Fisher Family - the white family she works for. The narrator tells readers, “More and more she neglected her house, her children, her man – they were like the afterthoughts one has just before sleep, the early-morning and late-evening edges of her day, the dark edges that made the daily life with the Fishers lighter, more delicate, more lovely. . .Here she found beauty, order, cleanliness, and praise” (127). Pauline Breedlove works for a family that is not her family and because the Fishers give her what she desires, she ends up neglecting her own family. Mrs. Breedlove fails to