How Does Andrew Smith Use Humor In Winter In The Blood

One of the themes used in the book is of racism towards the Natives. An example used in the book is of Edward Sheriff Curtis who was a photographer of 1900s. Curtis was interested in taking pictures of Native people, but not just any Native person. “Curtis was looking for the literary Indian, the dying Indian, the imaginative construct” (King, 2003; pp. 34). He used many accessories to dress up people up “who did not look as the Indian was supposed to look” (King, 2003; pp.34). He judged people based on his own assumptions without any knowledge of the group and their practices. Curtis reduced the identity of the Native Americans to a single iconic quintessential image of what Native meant to white society. The idea related to the image of this group of people during the 1900s consisted of racism in terms of the “real looking Indian”. This is not

Everyone is unique in this world. They may be different because of their background culture, customs and beliefs as it changes them throughout their lives. In the novel “The Light in the Forest”, a 15 year old boy called True Son experiences two very different cultures that has irreconcilable differences. When True Son was 4 years old, he was adopted by an Indian tribe. Since then, he has been taught the cultures and customs of Native Indians. But soon afterwards, he was exposed to the “Whites” cultures and beliefs. Within the novel, there are characters who play parallel roles from both sides of each culture (Indians and “Whites” that relate to True Son).

To begin, one of the main themes of this book is the slow death of a culture. This is shown in many ways. For instance, the way the elders speak of the children. They discuss how the children don’t know their own language. They talk about how the children seem ashamed of their own traditions and culture. The young people of the tribe no longer look on their tribe’s culture with pride, but with embarrassment. This theme is also shown when the man from the RCMP comes by to talk with Mark about Keetah’s sister, and mentions how common her

The mother is the character representing the pride of the Blackfoot. She attempts to pass their values down to her children by narrating them their myths, as her son describes, “she’d tell them slow, repeating parts as she went, as if she expected me to remember each one.” (144), but he does not pay attention and think about food instead. Due to being from different generations, the two siblings, do not share the same sense of belonging to the Blackfoot that the mother has, and therefore they lack the effort towards understanding her. Laetitia is especially reluctant towards the Blackfoot tradition, which can be appreciated in the dialogue: ‘“You can still see the mountain from here,’ my mother told Laetitia in Blackfoot. ‘Lots of mountains in Salt Lake,’ Laetitia told her in English.” (135) Laetitia does not embrace her Blackfoot identity, as she is not willing to speak in Blackfoot and eventually ends up moving to the U.S. As Gruber argues, “King’s depiction of the scenario amalgamates a universal teenage disinterest in traditional values with more specifically Native issue of the precarious nature of the oral tradition” (357). This generational border is finally crossed when the mother’s fight is shown on TV. In that shifting moment, Laetitia is finally able to understand her mother and to appreciate her Blackfoot heritage, as she wants to hear the story of the borders over and over again and considers moving back to the

Almost everyone has heard the quote, “you can’t understand someone until you walk a mile in their shoes” at least once in their life. It means that a person should not judge another person before considering their perspective on something. For the novel Tracks by Louise Erdrich, that quote is an important theme for its main characters. The novel gives a glimpse into the lives of Native Americans in 20th century America through the narrative of two characters: Nanapush and Pauline Puyat. The stories of the two alternate through every chapter, with each character narrating their own side of the same continuous timeline. The first narrator is Nanapush, a wise elder of the Ojibwe tribe, whose wisdom is a useful tool for the tribe’s people. The

Laetita’s mother thinks that “the mountains are closer” on the reserve in “blackfoot”, but contradicting her mother Laetita states that “the mountains are close in salt lake city as well” in English. The two different meanings are the obvious reason that Laetita wants to walk away from her mother, her tradition and heritage, creating the atmosphere of a bird leaving the nest, and how Laetita’s generation wants to assimilate with the western society, and not stand proud for their identity and heritage. This becomes a major factor, as Laetita sees her mother on the news, and wants to come back to the reserve, symbolising Laetita’s realisation for pride. King also emphasizes this idea through Laetita stating her response in English, as English is the cultural norm, for all societies, and cultures, while Laetita’s mother states her question in “blackfoot”. The mother is unhappy that her own daughter is turning on her heritage, which the mother holds in high regard. The protagonist’s mother tells her son “stories and legends, which she insists were true”, which is another representation of the mother’s identity, through pride and dignity. We get the sense that the mother’s identity is

The relationship between the white man and the Indian can be seen in both pieces. The Soul of The Indian focuses on the

The rural setting depicted in In Cold Blood by Truman Capote has a big impact on the novel and by looking at the time and place’s impact on the book, gender roles and rural social norms that have affected the characters become clear. These effects can be seen in the behaviors and personalities displayed by the characters throughout the book and in their reactions to important things going on in their lives. The impact on the characters is a very important thing to look at because it clearly illustrates characters and their values.

It seems odd then when Sherman Alexie, who has a firsthand account of what it's like to be a Native American, seemed to have further solidified these stereotypes in his short story, “The Only Traffic Light on the Reservation Doesn’t Flash Red Anymore”. Upon release of this story, Alexie was hit with immense backlash stating he did nothing but further cement the unrealistic and incorrect views we have on Native Americans. Critics not only declared his representation on what it’s like to live on a reservation, but stated his characters, Victor and Adrian, dehumanized Native

Cultural difference, or diversity, is the main theme in this novel. The whites and Indians do not understand each other or the reason behind their actions. For example, the whites think they are doing a favor for the “prisoners” by taking them back to their biological families. While in reality, the white prisoners are extremely reluctant to leave their adopted family because the Indians embraced them as their own kin. The Indian custom was to take the prisoners that were not executed and use them to replace a dead spouse or child.

He also tries to make sense of his life after her death. He explains what it was like growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation in Wellpinit, Washington. Both

The movie Naturally Native not only addresses the issue of alcohol abuse in Native communities, but also portrays the fetishism and sexual abuse of Native women carried out by white men, appropriation of Indian culture, Indian poverty on reservations, and general dislike of Indians and gaming. With all of these narratives being represented, this film has something everyone can relate to, making the target

In the “An Indian Story” written by Roger Jack, story focuses about native American Boy going through ups and downs in his life. He grew up in Park city which is in Washington State. Jack start the story by telling about his family and more about his Aunt Greta. Jack’s mother died when he was very little, and his dad took care of him. After some time, his father got re-married with half-breed Indian. His step-mother had a boy of their own, making jack uncomfortable to live in his own house. One-day Roger runs away from his house to his Aunt Greta’s house. After talking it over with his father and Aunt, it is decided that Jack will stay with his aunt.

Winter in the Blood, a Native American novel written by James Welch, takes place on a cattle ranch in Montana, around 1970. On the surface, this is a story of a Blackfoot Indian sleepwalking through his life, tormented by visions, in search of a connection to his heritage. Welch's language is, at once, blunt and poetic, and the pictures it conjures are dreamlike and disquieting. Furthermore, the narrator of the novel is disheartened by the loss of his brother, Mose, and his father, First Raise ? the two most cherished people in his life. After struggling with guilt, sorrow, and alcoholism, the narrator overcomes these down falls through re-identifying with himself and his culture? specifically

Then the book proceeds to talk about how close Victor got to his father because of Jimmy Hendricks. He believes that Jimmy Hendricks was the cause of his parents’ divorce. After his father left, Victor rarely saw him. Once he got the call that his father had passed away, he made any attempt to go pick up the few things his father had left behind. Out of all the stories in the book, it shows how much Native Americans still struggle in today world with family and the weight of doing well.