Michelle Romero
Eng 48B
Dr. Scott Lankford
"On one occasion, I forgot the cloud shadow in a strange notion to catch up with my own shadow." Page 1013
This is the opening sentence for the cloud chasing scene in which Sa is trying to catch her own shadow which always seems to be a few steps beyond her reach.
In this scene we discussed double consciousness. I think this particular scene has more to do with individual and familial identity rather than ethnic identity. A few paragraphs before this, Sa says, "We delighted in impersonating our own mothers." The source of her mother's anger then, comes when Sa no longer seeks to impersonate her mother but goes searching for something more. She is searching for her own shadow, and in the context of double-consciousness, is looking for the other half of her identity which can only be found in her father’s culture. When I say shadow, I mean her past, the outline of her own likeness, her father. I am sure she had moments where she thought of finding her father or at least thought of what her father looked like or lived like. Especially because story telling is so much a part of Indian culture, I would assume she would want to know stories about her father and who he was.
From the mother's perspective, I imagine this must have offended her greatly while at the same time, knowing that she could not provide many nice things in the poor conditions of their living. This is probably why she does not deny Sa from attending the Quaker school, but only discourages her.
In this shadow chasing passage, Sa says she forgot the cloud shadow. I think the cloud shadow would be the shadow of the tribe, the shadow of her collective identity. After all, clouds are a collection of water molecules and cannot be formed by just one.
Also, the fact that her comrades did not know what she was doing and had not tried chasing their own shadow before gives me further reason to believe that this experience may have been a more personal one rather than a representative experience of the Indians.
This I think is a unique quality which Sa brings to literature. In this time period it seems there is a lot of themes in realism, racism, and cultural identity, but so far I think she is the first (from the authors we are reading in class) who can project the experience and emotion of a girl without a father and the effects it has on her quest to confirm her identity.
Friday, March 16, 2007
Journal 21: Zitkala Sa
Michelle Romero
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"Never pluck a single plum from this bush, my child, for its roots are wrapped around an Indian's skeleton. While he lived, he was so fond of playing the game of striped plum seeds that, at his death, his set of plum seeds were buried in his hands." Pg. 1015, bottom of the page.
This is the story of the dead Indian who was buried under a plum bush that Sa and her mother come across as they are walking. In class, we touched on a few aspects, 1) that story-telling is so much a part of their culture, and 2) it was as though the bush was a monument for a brave Indian they knew or heard of.
I want to bring up the darker side of this image. (Maybe I should lighten up, but I can do that later). I think it is important not to miss that the image of the plums carries to his death. It is the mark of something, a clue. I would say the picking of plums killed him, literally. The sentence right after this passage says, "Eyeing the forbidden fruit, I trod lightly on sacred ground..." The plums were forbidden fruit and I would say they were forbidden at the time the dead Indian was alive too. Therefore, his consumption of the fruit killed him.
Back to the Bible, it is widely known that the beginning of all evil started in the garden at the picking of a forbidden fruit, at least in the Christian perspective of things. Because this is a Christian belief, I would say that the forbidden fruit is the sweetness that the whites can offer. (Another passage describes the mother telling Sa not to believe the sweet words of the whites.) In essence, is it probably not greener on the other side.
The bush instead, serves as a reminder not to pick at forbidden fruit. It is probably not the literal grave of a dead Indian, but a symbolic one. This image is a metaphor of the luring, seducing power of the whites and their deceit and inhumane actions towards Indians.
Mexicans for a time in more recent history did not eat grapes. The grapes were symbolic of the harm that their pesticides were doing to the farm workers. The concept is the same here with the plums and the bush.
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"Never pluck a single plum from this bush, my child, for its roots are wrapped around an Indian's skeleton. While he lived, he was so fond of playing the game of striped plum seeds that, at his death, his set of plum seeds were buried in his hands." Pg. 1015, bottom of the page.
This is the story of the dead Indian who was buried under a plum bush that Sa and her mother come across as they are walking. In class, we touched on a few aspects, 1) that story-telling is so much a part of their culture, and 2) it was as though the bush was a monument for a brave Indian they knew or heard of.
I want to bring up the darker side of this image. (Maybe I should lighten up, but I can do that later). I think it is important not to miss that the image of the plums carries to his death. It is the mark of something, a clue. I would say the picking of plums killed him, literally. The sentence right after this passage says, "Eyeing the forbidden fruit, I trod lightly on sacred ground..." The plums were forbidden fruit and I would say they were forbidden at the time the dead Indian was alive too. Therefore, his consumption of the fruit killed him.
Back to the Bible, it is widely known that the beginning of all evil started in the garden at the picking of a forbidden fruit, at least in the Christian perspective of things. Because this is a Christian belief, I would say that the forbidden fruit is the sweetness that the whites can offer. (Another passage describes the mother telling Sa not to believe the sweet words of the whites.) In essence, is it probably not greener on the other side.
The bush instead, serves as a reminder not to pick at forbidden fruit. It is probably not the literal grave of a dead Indian, but a symbolic one. This image is a metaphor of the luring, seducing power of the whites and their deceit and inhumane actions towards Indians.
Mexicans for a time in more recent history did not eat grapes. The grapes were symbolic of the harm that their pesticides were doing to the farm workers. The concept is the same here with the plums and the bush.
Thursday, March 15, 2007
Journal 20: Zitkala Sa (Gertrude Simmons Bonnin)
Michelle Romero
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"'Pity the man, my child. I knew him when he was a brave and handsome youth. He was overtaken by a malicious spirit among the hills, one day, when he went hither and thither after his ponies. Since then he cannot stay away from the hills,' she says." Page 1014, 1st paragraph
This quote is the quote of Sa's mother advising her to have pity on Wiyaka-Napbina, a man who Sa is not very fond of and even a little frightened by perhaps. Her mother tells her of a time when Wiyaka was brave and handsome, before he was overtaken.
What strikes me here is the metaphorical hills in the passage. Later down the page, we read that they are making coffee with water from the Missouri River. Missouri of course has literal hills, but also, compared to mountains, they are just little stumps. Sa publishes this work in 1900 and a little over 60 years later, Martin Luther King writes a speech using mountains and hills as metaphors for high and lowly people. In fact, he specifically criticizes the hills of Missouri, where there was a huge amount of oppression and racism against blacks. I wonder if he didn't read Sa. Who knows?
What I do know is that both King and Sa perceive the Missouri hills to possess a "malicious spirit" as Sa puts it. In this story, it is a spirit which overtakes a member of their tribe, but in a broader sense, an evil which overtook the minds of many ignorant people in a shameful part of American history. It is not a coincidence that Sa describes Wiyaka's defeat as coming when he rode in to the hills after his ponies. I suppose Native Americans did use ponies, but when I think of ponies, I think of American westerns where the cowboys are riding ponies. Then the ponies in Sa's picture might be a representation of this white Western movement and the impact it had.
The last part of this quote says that since Wiyaka was overtaken by this evil among the hills, he cannot stay away from the hills. This to me seems like a idea or theory that once you leave your culture to join the white man, you can never return. Or at least, you will not fit in again.
Sa's own experiences later in the story after leaving for the Quaker schools and returning for visits, indicate a similar idea. She never really feels the same closeness with nature as she did when she was younger, living on the reservation.
The unanswered in all of this is still whether or not the price of assimilation and acculturation is too high, too low, or just right. Should she have maintained her family and ethnic traditional ways, rebuking all else, or is it good to embark on adventures in to other worlds even if it means never fully fitting in either place?
Eng. 48b
Dr. Scott Lankford
"'Pity the man, my child. I knew him when he was a brave and handsome youth. He was overtaken by a malicious spirit among the hills, one day, when he went hither and thither after his ponies. Since then he cannot stay away from the hills,' she says." Page 1014, 1st paragraph
This quote is the quote of Sa's mother advising her to have pity on Wiyaka-Napbina, a man who Sa is not very fond of and even a little frightened by perhaps. Her mother tells her of a time when Wiyaka was brave and handsome, before he was overtaken.
What strikes me here is the metaphorical hills in the passage. Later down the page, we read that they are making coffee with water from the Missouri River. Missouri of course has literal hills, but also, compared to mountains, they are just little stumps. Sa publishes this work in 1900 and a little over 60 years later, Martin Luther King writes a speech using mountains and hills as metaphors for high and lowly people. In fact, he specifically criticizes the hills of Missouri, where there was a huge amount of oppression and racism against blacks. I wonder if he didn't read Sa. Who knows?
What I do know is that both King and Sa perceive the Missouri hills to possess a "malicious spirit" as Sa puts it. In this story, it is a spirit which overtakes a member of their tribe, but in a broader sense, an evil which overtook the minds of many ignorant people in a shameful part of American history. It is not a coincidence that Sa describes Wiyaka's defeat as coming when he rode in to the hills after his ponies. I suppose Native Americans did use ponies, but when I think of ponies, I think of American westerns where the cowboys are riding ponies. Then the ponies in Sa's picture might be a representation of this white Western movement and the impact it had.
The last part of this quote says that since Wiyaka was overtaken by this evil among the hills, he cannot stay away from the hills. This to me seems like a idea or theory that once you leave your culture to join the white man, you can never return. Or at least, you will not fit in again.
Sa's own experiences later in the story after leaving for the Quaker schools and returning for visits, indicate a similar idea. She never really feels the same closeness with nature as she did when she was younger, living on the reservation.
The unanswered in all of this is still whether or not the price of assimilation and acculturation is too high, too low, or just right. Should she have maintained her family and ethnic traditional ways, rebuking all else, or is it good to embark on adventures in to other worlds even if it means never fully fitting in either place?
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