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Catherine Maria Sedgwick's Argumentative Essay

1518 Words7 Pages

The predisposed notions that surrounded Native Americans were very much entrenched in to the American consciousness, but these writers present both an argument and an alternate perspective to these already established opinions; using their narratives to create a Native voice and identity. The interaction between both the White and Native characters in both novels illustrate these two radically differing ways of life and the reaction they have to each other. But the outcome of each novel leaves the reader questioning these accepted discourses, and not only the ones that surround the Native people but also the White settlers; fully disrupting and complicating the predominant Puritan ideology that existed at that time.

James Fenimore Cooper’s …show more content…

But the use of creating a revised history in turn engenders an emotional response; giving not only a protagonist role and voice to a Native, but to a female Native in the character of Magawisca, and in doing this Sedgwick offers a ‘different perspective on the “Indian …show more content…

As a character Digby is often derisive and mocking of the Natives, which is especially seen in his commentary on Magawisca and her ‘treacherous race’. He speaks exclusively of tactics and ‘their crafty way of listening’, embodying the dominant Puritan ideology, and the popular discourse regarding the treatment of the Natives, coinciding with official historical events. He regards the ‘race’ as ‘a kind of beast we don’t comprehend – out of the range of God’s creatures – neither angel, man, nor yet quite devil.’ The use of the collective pronoun ‘we’ shows an evident divide between the Native and White man, and in Digby’s eyes the need for one, in their unholy nature, being not only ‘out of the range of God’s creatures’ but also more animalistic in their ‘beast’ like nature. However, despite Sedgwick’s initial depiction of the Natives from the White point of view, the differences in opinion between Digby’s character and Everell’s shows a generational contrast, Everell describing how Digby has ‘caught the fear without taking its counsel’ which ‘does little credit’ to his ‘wisdom’, Sedgwick uses this effigy to undermine the accepted Puritan dialogue, and does so even more in Magawisca’s own reaction to the character of Digby. She is accepting of Digby’s contemptuous and insolent manner, and

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