Fleur is unpopular on the reservation, and some gather to throw her out. In the summer of 1920, she leaves on her own accord for the town of Argus. Noticing a steeple, she walks straight to the church and asks the priest for work. He sends her to a butcher shop where Fleur works with the owner's wife Fritzie, hauling packages of meat to a locker. Fleur gives the men a new topic of conversation, particularly when she begins playing cards with them.…
Maxine Hong Kingston’s memoir the “ Woman Warrior” has a very alluring writing style. Her beautifully written words drag readers into the abyss of fable and reality. Nevertheless, to many her writing style may seem unnerving and difficult to pinpoint, and can make one question the ability to fathom English ! Consequently, readers are pulled into the paradox between words and meaning. Kingston’s memoir is like no other writer, her words are a graceful dance that swing the reader along for the ride. Her diction is the dance in motion: throughout the book, she says words that mean much more than a mere definition. For example, the use of the word “ghost” is used to convey not just a supernatural phenomena, but an outsiders…
A Review of “A Tapestry of History and Reimagination; Women’s Place in James Welch’s Fool’s Crow.” Barbara Cook. The American Indian Quarterly. Volume 24, Issue 3. Fall, 2000. Pages 441-453.…
The movie Pans Labyrinth, opens with a young girl named Ofelia. She is lying down and appears to be dead as blood beings to run back up her nose. The viewer can acknowledge that the third person narration during the beginning of the film is the faun. Ofelia meets the faun when she enters the labyrinth, from there he gives her three tasks to complete before the moon is full. Ofelia is warned about the faun from Mercedes.…
During the seventh to nineteenth century, the Cherokee underwent a time of gender and cultural change. In her well-written Cherokee Women: Gender and Cultural Change, 1700-1835, historical professor Theda Perdue rewrites the history of the Cherokee people both by placing women at the center and by examining their gender roles. Throughout the novel, Theda Perdue successfully argues previous narratives and offers a different reading of history. In order to support such an alternate history, the author offers a detailed timeline of the events that created a substantial shift in the gender roles of the Cherokee between the years of 1700 and…
“A Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson” is a personal account, written by Mary Rowlandson herself about her eleven-week captivity by the Indians, which not only gives the readers a first person perspective of life in captivity, but also an insight to Rowlandson’s views of the Indians. When first reading this narrative, one would think that the main purpose is to simply tell how horrible her experience in captivity was, and how it had changed her. However, that is not the main purpose of her narrative. In fact, her captivity changes neither her Puritan value nor her view towards Indians. Throughout the narrative, she unapologetically, and continuously compares them to animals—and even Satan—for not being Puritans.…
Another function of dreaming in these texts would be a reflection of the characters true desires, in this case a longing to be accepted and loved. Isabelle Marie does not feel loved and accepted. Her mother…
Winch’s novel not only explores May’s search for the people from whom she is descended, but it also shows how European settlement has resulted in a dislocation and decimation of a race, it’s lore and it’s lifeblood. The narrative explores two worlds, that of mays childhood enriched by knowledge of all that has been handed down to her, culturally and spiritually, and the ugly world beyond this where she encounters the dangers of a society from which the indigenous population or outcasts seek to escape. Only at the end of her journey is may able to integrate her experiences to find a place of acceptance where she…
The orphaned Felicite is treated badly in her youth, first by a cruel master and later by jealous fellow servants. Disappointed in love at age 18, she leaves her neighborhood to become cook and general servant for a widowed mother, Madame Aubain. In that position, she lives a life filled with duty, devotion, and affection. Flaubert tells the story in a simple manner which emphasizes the value of Felicite’s humble life.…
In his classic literary work, The Faerie Queene, Edmund Spenser brilliantly weaves a number of themes together to communicate complex moral, political, and cultural meanings. The first book alone characterizes this incredible complexity. He leads the reader through Redcrosse’s journey to reunite with Una, from one dangerous setting to another memorable character, in interrelated cantos. Two such scenes in Book one poignantly demonstrate a theme Spenser portrays throughout The Faerie Queene: false appearances. At the end of canto eight, after Una meets a significantly weakened Redcrosse in the dungeon of Duessa’s castle to show the effects of living under false pretenses, false Duessa’s showy façade is stripped away to reveal her true ugliness. Spenser utilizes colorful imagery to depict her appearance before and after the revelation—from her wrinkled skin to her disgusting stench. Her deceptive front illustrates the duplicity and impurity of the Catholic Church in contrast to the nobility and purity of victorious Una and Arthur. Removing Duessa’s regal, gaudy clothes undoubtedly signifies the removal of the deceptive mask of the Catholic Church.…
The passage begins with “Sheer hatred came up in her”, which establishes her vengeance towards the woman, and “the woman without a face” creates a sense that she does not see the humanity, the expressions, the feelings of the woman, also displayed in her hatred of the Laghaans, despite her husband murdering one of them, she still can not see them as human or sympathize with them, people are either with Fiela, or against her.…
Throughout the entire book of “Pocahontas and the Powhatan dilemma” the reader will be left shocked from discovering the real essence of the Native American culture. By unfolding many mysteries related to the English men-Powhatan relationship, Camilla Townsend intends to give the readers an awareness of the great plethora of lies written by the English people about the Native Americans that has been instilled in popular culture. The problem with all of this is that the author herself has failed to give an accurate account of history due to three main reasons.…
He claims the ballad only makes sense on a metaphorical lever, on which the elf-knight “appears as a response to the heroine's erotic yearning” (ibid). Thus, the whole ballad becomes a lesson about sexual self-discovery and sexual power. Lady Isabel is still naive in the beginning, when she lives in her “childhood condition of family and home” (ibid), and oblivious to the danger connected to her desire. Both the elf's and her own magic represent male and female sexual power. Syndergaard's reading is conclusive, but the dismissal of the narrative's literal level is unnecessary. Characters in ballads or fairy tales often act in ways that are not entirely believable by modern standards, or fall for seemingly obvious tricks. Furthermore, an elaborate scheme or lengthy struggle does not suite the compact narrative mode of the ballad.…
As the central character and protagonist, Arletta finds herself sandwiched between her foster sisters on a car trip, with Jackson Rapier at the helm and wife by his side as they end up exploring ‘by providence’ an absolutely authentic Cherokee trading post, as the author put it elsewhere, in a “John Wayne movie and TV reruns of The Lone Ranger” version of Indian culture. Riley uses a clever literary device in the choice for the name of the foster family, as a rapier is in fact the name for a short sword…and this family does indeed live up to this as it relates to their antagonistic jabs at American Indian culture. Through gross ignorance, indifference or a lack of intelligence, or maybe all three, they are indeed the perfect antagonists . You realize from the very beginning that Arletta is in a ‘stuck’ position, with this family that does not care to listen to her and lives exclusively in their own world, incapable of sensitivity to others beyond their own preset cultural bias.…
In the film ‘Pan’s Labyrinth,” the director Guillermo del Toro juxtaposes the real and imaginary worlds during the time of the Spanish Civil War. The protagonist of this film is a 11-year-old girl named Ofelia who reads fairy tales and believes that everything she reads is real. The film focuses on Ofelia’s struggle to live in the fascist world of her stepfather, Captain Vidal. While she travels to Vidal’s house with her mother, Ofelia encounters an insect who then leads her to a clandestine labyrinth behind Vidal’s house which is inhabited by a stunning faun who hails Ofelia as a Princess. In order to become a Princess, Ofelia must perform terrifying…