Angeline Boulley’s novel, Firekeeper’s Daughter, explores a multitude of themes beyond its framework. Once the reader peels behind each layer of the novel, they will discover ideas of racism, colorism, injustice, murder, suicide, drug abuse and much more. Boulley claims that this novel is not just a thriller, but it’s “a deeper journey, at its heart.” Angeline Boulley, an enrolled tribal member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, is a storyteller who writes about her Ojibwe community in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. Much of what Angeline Boulley writes in Firekeeper’s Daughter is inspired by her own life, even the main protagonist of the novel, Daunis Fontaine, is a character initially based on herself. Throughout the novel, numerous …show more content…
In the novel, Grant Edwards, a prominent white man, is implied to have assaulted Daunis at Shagala. While the scene is non-graphic, it is triggering and jarring because it was unexpected. However, this scene provides powerful commentary on the mistreatment of Native women that happens today. Murder and sexual assault rates are significantly high in Native women across the United States. Many of these assaults are committed by non-Native white men, who are rarely reported and prosecuted. Angeline Boulley highlights such an important topic that connects a bigger issue: the murdered and missing Indigenous women epidemic. While touching on issues circulating the Native community, Boulley also incorporates traditional Ojibwe names, terms, and practices into the novel. As an individual who is not Indigenous, the Ojibwe customs and philosophies are explained in detail, and learning about Indigenous culture became an experience that was highly cherished. To learn more about the world gives an individual a new perspective and allows them to appreciate the differences and celebrate them. An identity is the beliefs, memories, characteristics, and relationships that create one’s sense of self. Daunis experiences racism, colorism, and microaggression within both of her communities. It is learned in the novel that identity goes beyond race and ethnicity; experiences also make a person
William Xue Ms. Bartlett English 9A 10 May 2023 Chapter Ten Essay This passage from the novel Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng explores the complex relationships and tensions between two families, the Richardsons and the Warrens, in the seemingly idyllic town of Shaker Heights, Ohio. In this passage, Ng uses details, imagery, and repetition to portray Mrs. Richardson as threatened by Mia and her judgmental attitude toward Mia, revealing the theme that people’s judgment and attitude toward others are driven by a sense of threat.
The shock of the explosion becomes the first of many incidents against the black community that Davis experiences, impacting her own prejudices against white people, “White people’s hatred of us was neither natural nor eternal. She knew that whenever I answered the telephone and called to her, ‘Mommy, a white lady wants to talk to you,’ I was doing more than describing than the curious drawl. Every time I said ‘white lady’ or ‘white man’ anger clung to my words” (Davis 79). Davis’ experiences with the bombing of a member of her local community changed her view of white people and moved her towards her eventual activism and work to help other black people in her community. Anger clings to Davis as she continues to see how the world seems to be stacked against her, just because of the color of her skin, and the institutions she once followed seem to be doing less to protect her rights, naturally leading to the exploration of new ideas and movements to find community and
This “unattended wound” illustrates that numerous people in the Native American community experience intricate and challenging lives, not just the characters within the novel. Further, Orange writes how Jacquie questions that the people around her often appear to be filled with confidence and a lack of self-doubt, but “Jacquie can’t remember a day going by when at some point she hadn’t
The story takes place at a time in the 1900s where racism still exists. Mama is the provider of the family. Mama’s younger daughter Maggie was severely burned in a house fire when she was a child. As a result of that incident, Maggie is a nervous and maladjusted girl. Maggies appearance from the fire hides her generous personality.
Literary Analysis: Parable of the Sower by Octavia Butler Throughout the Parable of the Sower, we follow Lauren Olamina; a young, strong-willed, black women living amongst others within her gated community, Robledo. The story begins in post-apocalyptic year 2024, hearing firsthand experiences of the times, on account of Lauren’s journal entries. These entries allow us to further analyze how these experiences shaped both Lauren; before and after the raid, and the community she builds moving North. In this analysis, I will be looking at key events within the story that provide detail on the theme of inclusion and exclusion and how this inevitably coincides with the theme community and the importance of it throughout the story.
Fires of jubilee is a book written by Steven B Oats, a well known writer who has written many books and his style of writing makes his book popular which has earned him many honorable awards. In this well written interesting book, Oats concentrates on the story of a slave who wanted to be free right from childhood. By using Turner as his main character, Oates creates a lot of pity on the predicament of slaves in the hands of their controlling masters. He frequently uses the word "n-gg-r" to stress the contempt under which Nat Tuner labored, or the word "darkie" to indicate how even the best of whites spoke patronizingly of blacks slaves. There are different occasions in the book where Nats’ life takes unfortunate twists.
Monkey Beach is an adaptation of “Queen of the North,” both written by Eden Robinson. The texts both touch on the theme of intergenerational trauma within Indigenous communities. Through the lens of different main characters, however, Monkey Beach approaches the topic differently through its portrayal of the transmission of trauma. In “Queen of the North,” the transmission of intergenerational trauma is most clearly seen through Josh reenacting trauma onto Adelaine. In contrast, as a novel, Monkey Beach offers a more nuanced depiction of the methods of intergenerational trauma transmission, such as the loss of Lisamarie's cultural identity.
Tracey Lindberg’s novel Birdie is narratively constructed in a contorting and poetic manner yet illustrates the seriousness of violence experience by Indigenous females. The novel is about a young Cree woman Bernice Meetoos (Birdie) recalling her devasting past and visionary journey to places she has lived and the search for home and family. Lindberg captures Bernice’s internal therapeutic journey to recover from childhood traumas of incest, sexual abuse, and social dysfunctions. She also presents Bernice’s self-determination to achieve a standard of good health and well-being. The narrative presents Bernice for the most part lying in bed and reflecting on her dark life in the form of dreams.
The objective of Story is to remind indigenous youth to grow by being given specific information in crucial periods in time of North American Indigenous history, and having the duty of passing on those stories to others when they reach adulthood. Cherie Dimaline employs oral history to relate the storyline to real-life events. “ We suffered there. We almost lost our languages. Many lost their innocence, their laughter, their lives.
This parallel timeline demonstrates the connections between past and present disasters as well as the long-lasting effects they have on individuals and communities. The masterful use of literary elements such as vivid imagery, symbolism, and narrative structure demonstrates the devastating effects that trauma has had on the protagonist's identity and the greater Indigenous community. In order to help the reader better understand the terrible repercussions of generational trauma on Saul Indian Horse's identity and the greater Indigenous community, Richard Wagamese skillfully employs the evocative power of images to clearly convey the painful experiences the protagonist, Saul Indian Horse, endures. Saul's terrifying voyage is brought to life for the reader by Wagamese through the expert use of imagery, which also reveals the severe psychological effects of trauma on Saul.
This quote proves how Daunis’s Grandma is ignorant of the Ojibwe side of her identity. Implying that Daunis shouldn’t associate herself as being Indigenous is extremely harmful. This causes deep struggles within Daunis’s cultural identity as her grandma does not accept her for who she is. She is essentially discouraging Daunis’s Indigenous roots, where she came from, and her only sense of connection to her late father, as he is no longer present in Daunis’s life.
In this novel, she writes about the members of the Chippewa Tribe and how they have had to live and adapt to this new environment caused by colonialism. Lousie integrates this idea of colonialism and change by turning it into trauma for many of the characters in the book and each character she writes about has a different response
Fires plague the family on the Gold Coast because of their involvement in the slave trade. Akua, a descendant of Maame, experiences psychological damage from the curse of fire. At a young age, she has dreams of a fire woman burning two children, “In her dreams the fire was shaped like a woman holding two babies to her heart. The firewoman would carry these two little girls with her all the way to the woods of the Inland and then the babies would vanish, and the firewoman’s sadness would send orange and red and hints of blue swarming every tree and every bush in sight” (Homegoing). When Akua becomes pregnant, these dreams manifest into her reality, and she becomes obsessed with fire, and the villagers call her a crazy woman.
In her essay, “Where I Came from is Like This,” the author Paula Gunn Allen effectively utilizes ethos, logos, and pathos to convince her audience, women studies and ethnic scholars, of her claim that the struggles of American Indian women have had with their identities. Gunn Allen uses all three modes of persuasion to describe the struggles of American Indian women. She uses ethos to strengthen her credibility, logos to logically explain the issue, and pathos to emotionally explain the struggles of American Indian women have had with their identities. With ethos she tells us where she is from and how she got her information, which makes her more trustworthy and believable.
For Cheryl, she embraces her Metis culture and heritage. “‘I wish we were whole Indians’” (40). Throughout her time at school, Cheryl reads history books about Metis people and historical figures such as Louis Riel. She would also passionately write on what she thinks about the Metis people. At university, she writes a piece which points about the crucial effects white people have brought along in North America.