Literary Analysis : ' Indian Horse ' By Richard Wagamese

Richard Wagamese, the award-winning author of the novel Keeper’n Me (2006) as well as various other literary pieces such as Dream Wheels (2006), Medicine Walk (2014), and Indian Horse (2012), was born in 1955 in Northwestern Ontario and is from the Wabaseemoong First Nation. Through the combination of Wagamese’s fictional writing blended with components of his personal life in Keeper’n Me specifically, the fifty-nine year old author has been recognized for this and other phenomenal works through a variety of diverse awards in his years of writing including being the recipient of the 2012 National Aboriginal Achievement Award for Media and Communications. His debut novel allows audiences to get a glimpse of what this writer is capable of and furthermore his personal life as he incorporates many fascinating concepts into it while keeping it a light read.

Father Leboutillier plays an important role in the book, Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. He is seen as Saul’s ally and father figure during his time at the residential school. Father Leboutillier allowed Saul to play hockey with the older boys, gave him books to read about hockey, let him watch his television, and defended him when the nuns were too hard on him. Saul saw Father Leboutillier as his friend and protector, as did the readers. However it is not discovered until later in the book that all of these courtesies given to Saul from Father Leboutillier come with a price.

When they do, they will find Saul and we will lose them both.” (Wagamese 17). Out of many important things Naomi also taught Saul how to hunt and harvest rice through efficient techniques so that they can learn how to make food. Also, in her last days she took great care of Saul even after his parents abandon them. She made all the arrangements to move from Gods lake to Minaki because if they stayed there they would have died from hunger and cold. During the entire journey, she had ensured that Saul should remain warm even though she had to sacrifice, like in the novel Saul questioned her what about you and she made a gesture that we have to keep moving. These all things showed how important was Saul to her which made her to risk her own life to save him that’s why when Father Leboutilier hugged Saul he felt loved and made him think of Naomi, who he still misses immensely.

Symbols are often a way to connect the reader to the general theme of a novel, the book Indian Horse is a story of a young Indigenous boy named Saul Indian Horse and all the troubles he went through growing up. Richard Wagamese the author uses symbols like hockey, family and friendship and culture to reinforce a major theme that love can never be broken. The most important symbol in the book is the game of hockey and Saul’s never-ending love for it. While Saul was forced to attend a residential school called St. Jerome’s, he discovered that he is a naturally gifted hockey player.

The residential school and other negative influences cause Saul to lose his identity. First of all, at St. Jerome’s they would constantly crush the

At St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School, Saul sees the lonely world, which crams on him like a black hole with no light, however it creates a determination for him to endure. As he is expeditiously thrown into the vast world of a different religion, he quickly realizes,

“I knew that what I was seeking to discover was a thing I'd always known. That all courage was a form of constancy. That it was always himself that the coward abandoned first. After this all other betrayals came easily.” (Cormac McCarthy, All the Pretty Horses) Humans are fallen, they have a tendency to be self centered and for one to take themselves out of their own body and see themselves, in the way they think and process images and words is

“At St. Jerome’s we work to remove the Indian in our children so that the blessings of the Lord may be evidenced upon them” (Wagamese 46). These words provide the exact mindset the white people had toward the Indians. In the novel Indian Horse written by Richard Wagamese, the protagonist Saul grows up and is accustomed to the period of time where there is a pro - white bias. A bias so strong that the racism becomes institutionalized. This bias in all its forms and degrees crushes Saul’s spirit and turns what could have been a terrific athletic career to years of fighting, searching and drinking. Through the definite racism of his taking, the sexual and verbal abuse he receives from high religious figures, as well as the hierarchy created within the National Hockey League it is clear Saul believes his people are inferior to the whites which, in tail, develops the racism and prejudice central theme in the novel.

Everyone has a different way to deal with overwhelming situations. It can be more difficult for people with mental illness to cope with the hardships of life. For instance, in “Horses of the Night,” the character of Chris has dissociative symptoms that can be linked to his depression. Margaret Laurence’s short story tells the story of Chris, a young teenager who moves to from a small farm to the town of Manawaka in order to go to high school. The story is told by his younger cousin, Vanessa. As she grows up, she learns that Chris is depressed. The author uses the theme of fantasy to show that he does not cope well with reality. The horses, Shallow Creek, and the children are symbols that show us the fantasy that Chris lives in.

Foremost, after Saul decides to quit his forestry job, he opts to leave Manitouwadge and look elsewhere for work. Saul is able to find jobs as he mentions that “Medicine Hat. Fort Chipewyan. Wabasca. Skookum-chuck. Tagish Lake. I worked in all those places and more.” (179). Nonetheless, Saul is unable to hold down a job because he cannot focus due to the abuse he suffered in the past. He is never consistent with his career and keeps changing with every new location he resides. Additionally, Saul mentions that “Whenever the stories and the invented histories started to unravel, I’d move on to a new crowd…” (181). He is not able support himself as a person as he is incapable of facing what happened in his past. Whenever his past caught up to him, Saul is reminded of had happened to him; something he wants to forget consequently, Saul struggles with moving on as any human would. Not only is Saul unable to focus on his job, he states that “A part of me missed the banter of the bench and the dressing room…So I began to eat lunch and supper in beverage rooms and taverns…” (180). Since Saul is not able to fill the feeling of something being empty, he tries to push everything away by spending as much time as possible in scenes such as taverns. Moreover, his frequent visits to pubs, further aggravates his incapability to focus on his life. After spending much of his time in taverns, Saul remarks that “I’m not sure when I began to drink myself. I only know that when I did the roaring in my belly calmed. In alcohol I found an antidote…” (180). The drinking habit Saul develops aids him temporarily by filling the vacuum in his life. Drinking took over his life and he used it as means of escaping from reality. Saul continuously tries to escape from reality and immerses himself in activities that will allow him to not acknowledge his pain and

Indian Horse, a novel by Richard Wagamese, is a realistic and tragic story of a First Nations child named Saul who is taken to residential school. Saul Indian Horse goes through a multitude traumatic experiences at a young age; experiences consisting of losing his family, experiencing sexual abuse, and violent racism. In the novel, a theme the reader is always brought back to is Saul’s connection to, and longing for the land. Saul’s relationship with the land is meaningful to his character because it helps him understand his family history, connects him with his culture, and comforts him in times of need.

Saul experiences a tremendous amount of change throughout the novel, and becomes an intelligent, and creative individual, from learning the ways of the Ojibway people. Saul begins to lose trust in his family, due to them leaving him in the bush. Saul loses his innocence throughout his time spent in residential school. Saul begins to change form a kind, warm young boy to an angry alcoholic. Saul's life is altered forever through the people he meets. In the novel Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese, the character of Saul Indian Horse forms a variety of relationships within his life. Although Saul experienced difficult relationships, he was still able to form positive and loving relationships within his life.

“Holy Cow, An Indian Adventure,” by Sarah MacDonald, is a book written describing Sarah’s experience living in India. She goes through many tough times and endures life changing experiences that eventually make her the person she is meant to be. In this book Sarah relates India to western perspective several times. India and the United States do have similarities, India and the United States both are run by a Democracy, they both have very strong cast systems; both have their own “Hollywood” films, and both places have many religions mixed within.

All Canadian's need to know of Canada's dark past. For many years aboriginal children were put through boarding school ran by religious institutions, these schools were called residential schools. The novel "Indian Horse", by Richard Wagamese inculpates perfectly what the kids went through before, during and after residential schools. The book also gives insight on current issues that the survivors of the school face after they are dropped into the real world. It is also important that older generations read this novel as older people have not learned about residential schools while they were in school. Canadians need to read "Indian horse" by Richard Wagamese in order to discover why reconciliation is needed for the Aboriginal people of Canada.

Indian horse by Richard Wagamese allowed me to open my eyes on the issues of Aboriginal people dealing with all the horrible pains and abusive trauma from the residential school. Before reading this book, I felt like I was educated well enough to understand how much aboriginal people suffered through generations and how much they have lost compared to what they had before. However, after reading this book I was able to see through First nation’s perspective and realized it's not just knowing about what aboriginal people have been through throughout the history. In this novel, the author allowed me to see Saul’s life transitioning ,where in the beginning saul was living the indigenous way of life with his family, but eventually forced to be