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Alcoholism In Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

1074 Words5 Pages

Indian Horse, a severe painful yet beautiful novel by Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese, concerns Saul Indian Horse, a former hockey star undergoing treatment for alcoholism. Saul chronicles his life story as a means of identifying the source of his addiction. His autobiography is a familiar vehicle for conveying the novel’s plot. At the same time, it demonstrates how knowing your own story can heal a broken spirit. In the novel by the protagonist Saul Indian Horse faces many battles throughout the duration of his life. In the beginning he is removed from his family and culture and put into residential school, one of Canada’s darkest corners. While attending residential school Saul faces many tragic experiences, these include abuse, rape, dehumanization, …show more content…

His hours were consumed with training and practicing which soon lead him to be good enough to get him a pass out of residential school. Fred Kelly came and brought Saul to his home on a reserve in Manitouwadge. Saul then played for the Moose, the town team. All the boys on the team were First Nations just like Saul, just a lot larger in size. The other Moose used their size to better Saul, making him work harder than he ever has to get the puck and skate the play. Eventually Saul was the star on the Moose, they started playing against tougher town teams. The town teams belittled the Moose, whether they won or lost spitting racist comments at them and abusing them. Eventually all of the hate that hockey originally took away for Saul came swinging in a full force through hockey. Saul feels like he has lost everything. He can no longer escape the hate so he turns to a bottle hoping to drown out and dim down all the hateful things anyone has ever said to …show more content…

Saul used to read books during the late nights until he fell asleep. He got in a big fight which made him feel guilty and the reasons to all abuse that he faces at the school. That’s when he was introduced to alcohol the gateway to relieve his pain that burnt in him every day and night. He meets Ervin sift who helps him with his alcoholism, Ervin was his best friend at the time and they discussed what they could have done in the future. Saul is enclosed that he didn’t want to share his past with Ervin and he left. His alcoholism got way worse that he would have dies if he had not changed his ways. He goes to an Ojibway centre, the New Dawn where he receives lots of help with his addiction and most of all tell his

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