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Indian Horse Sparknotes

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Passion As A Means To Escape Trauma is something that affects everyone. It is something that can weigh down our souls and minds. In Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse, the main character Saul Indian Horse has experienced an intense amount of trauma and discrimination. He experienced years of family losses and had to endure the painstaking experience of attending residential school. However, throughout these challenges, Saul manages to find escapes with passion in many different aspects of his life. Through Saul Indian Horse’s eagerness to overcome trauma, Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse conveys how passion can relieve pain from abuse and discrimination. Saul uses his passion and care for his family to ease his pain. From the beginning of …show more content…

It allows him to break free from the torment and abuse he experiences at the school and in the past with his family. The game provides Saul with a sense of identity. He notes that “on the ice, [he feels] free” (22). Saul only sees hockey as a game, not something competitive or violent. He uses hockey to get away from problems that seem to follow him everywhere. The vile and tormenting experiences that Saul has to endure along with the stripping of his culture and identity, propel him to want to find a way to escape. Hockey is the only way Saul is able to get rid of those experiences, in turn, it allows him to fully immerse himself in the game. This passion for hockey continues as Saul grows into an adult and as he starts to take hockey more seriously. However, as Saul becomes familiar with the people he is up against, this passion starts to become a way that he takes out his anger and frustrations. He faces grotesque amounts of discrimination and racism from his teammates. As Saul tries to go pro, the white players on his team make his life as difficult as possible. Saul forgets the reason he started playing hockey.“[he] began to skate with deliberate intention of shoving [his] skill up the noses of those who belittled [him]” (164). Once Saul stops playing hockey and goes through a period of self discovery, hockey returns to him. He recognizes that hockey is not a battle ground. It is a passion that he is able to get lost in and deal with any hardships he has and will

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Indian Horse In the book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul gains relationships through community. The Kellys provide Saul a place to call his home and they create a bond beyond just the billet family. Secondly, The land around Saul gives him a sense of family, the land is full of life to encourage Saul to not give up and he's not alone. Lastly, hockey offers Saul love and a feeling of worthiness that he is lacking while being at St. Jerome's Indian Residential School.

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First, in the novel Indian Horse, the main character, Saul, forms relationships with his community allowing guidance and support after his time at a residential school called St. Jerome. Saul discovers people who treat him well while directing him through the challenge of dealing with the remaining trauma experienced at St. Jerome. Saul is introduced to a family who refers to them as the Kelly family; they consider him part of their community. Saul makes use of their relationship to cope with the struggles of enduring trauma and develop as a person. Fred Kelly states “We all wanted to go out and find you, but we know we couldn’t.

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The detrimental and unfair categorization of people by race, gender and more, commonly known as discrimination, affects many in society both mentally and emotionally. Many instances of this act of hatred occurred among Aboriginal and Native Canadians in the 20th century. However, for a little Native Indian boy stepping onto the rink, this is the norm that surrounds him. Saul Indian Horse, in Richard Wagamese’s “Indian Horse”, faces discrimination head on, where his strengths for hockey are limited by the racial discrimination from the surrounding white ethnicity. Consequently, this racism draws him into a mentally unstable state, where he suffers heavy consequences.

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Saul’s life at St.Jerome 's was hell, everywhere he looked there was agony and heartbreak. “We lived under constant threat. If it wasn’t the direct physical threat of beatings, the Iron Sisters or vanishing, it was the dire threat if purgatory, hell…” Page 80. As a result hockey became an escape for Saul, something so pure that helped Saul cope with the nightmare his life became.

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His support fosters Saul's development of resilience, allowing him to endure the challenges he faces. Through their relationship, Saul discovers his worth and reclaims his indigenous identity, embarking on a journey of

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Initially, when Saul starts playing with his hockey reserve team, he experiences his first encounter with racism. While Saul is enjoying the game, he is suddenly kicked out of the team and remarks to Mr. Leboutiller the reason behind this is “‘because I am an Indian, isn’t it’ ‘yes’, he said” (Wagamese 91). At this moment, Saul is a victim of exclusion at a young age and recognises; not only in the residential school are Indians victims of discrimination due their appearance, culture and differences, but also outside of the residential school. Through his first encounter with exclusion, he slowly notices the segregation that surrounds him resulting in mental abuse because he becomes very cautious. After Saul leaves the residential school to live with the Kelly’s, he begins to play with the Moose.

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The book focuses on a young boy named Arnold Spirit who shows persistence and bravery as he defies all odds and strides towards a happier more successful life than his parents and ancestors before him. Arnold is a bright, inspiring young boy who grows up with little fortune and is destined to continue down the path of a poor, misunderstood Indian. However, his fate changes for the better when a spark lights the fire inside of him to strive to pursue a better, more flourishing life as he makes an extraordinary decision to transfer to an all-white school for a worthier education. However, the drastic change of schools puts a burden on his family to get him to school as well as leads to extreme bullying from not just kids at his new school but also from his fellow Indians in his hometown. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I learned that it doesn 't matter what your situation is and what you are expected to accomplish in your lifetime or what standards have already been set for you because you can be whoever you want to be with hard work, ambition, and confidence.

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Using hockey as an outlet, Saul escapes the horrendous influence of the school and copes with the many atrocities he faces and ultimately reclaims his true self. For Saul, hockey became a means in which he can escape the abuse from St. Jerome’s. For example, when Father Leboutillier learned of Saul’s interest and skill in the game, the both of them became closer, in which Saul describes Father Leboutillier as a father figure. Saul quotes, “Father Leboutillier was my ally. When the nuns

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Journey Of Saul In Wagamese's Indian Horse

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Hockey arouses Saul’s interest in doing something fulfilling once more. He develops a sense of purpose. The narrator states, “Father Leboutilier brought me hockey books and answered all my questions. His passion for the game was contagious” (Wagamese 58). Thus, hockey gives Saul the chance to start healing emotionally.

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