Did you know that an estimated 4000 to 12,000 died on the Trail of Tears while trying to relocate for assimilation? The Trail of Tears was one of the biggest relocations in history. This was only one step in the many that it took for the American Indian to become fully assimilated into the American culture. The forced assimilation of American Indians was to be regarded with as a huge event which could be paired with the events of assimilation of the girls in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves.” In the story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by wolves you can see the visible evidence that the girls are becoming more and more assimilated into human culture. The short story “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” and the forced assimilation
In the article of the Creek Indians, Christina Snyder portrays her thoughts on slavery and how Europeans, Natives, and African Americans all had their different point of view on slavery. Some traditions included holding captives then sending them free after their laboring was done. While others used captives as rewards or punishment because of the kinship system they tried to tie into slavery. Throughout the article Creek Indians went into rebellion with the Americans to fight for lands while starting new traditions into slavery mixing up political views and religious views all around the South. This started the the cycle of power until it was ended in 1756.
The following journal is over the short story “St. Lucy’s Homes for Girls Raised by Wolves” written by Karen Russell. There is a strong pack of 15 wolf- girls, who are sent to St. Lucy’s. They are sent by their parents because they are convinced by the nun’s that they are sending their children to have a better life. They are told that the wolf- girls will be made into naturalized citizens of human society. In the process of doing so, the wolf- girls are having to adjust to a new environment. The girls had a hard time adjusting throughout the 5 stages of the program. They were given new names, new scents, new language, new clothes, and many others new ideas to adjust to. While adjusting, the girls often felt depressed, isolated, and uncomfortable. In the beginning they wanted to run away from St. Lucy’s as fast as they could because it was extremely difficult. But they felt as if they had no one or nowhere to run back to. Within St. Lucy’s there was a lot of competition among the students. They always wanted
The Sapphires illustrates the ways in which the stolen generation continues to have repercussions against the indigenous community. The stolen generation was a period of time where children were violently snatched from their families and forced into houses and institutions that lied, abused, and humiliated them. When the children were taken away, relationships were ripped to shreds as the children lost their sense of belonging alongside their beliefs. This loss in connection left unresolved conflicts and impaired relationships that by the time they reunited years later, the resentment towards each other had built and the argument was brutal enough for the relationship to become inrepairable. The Europeans brainwashed the childrens
Karen Russel’s narrator, Claudette in the short story “St. Lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves” has a guilty hope that she fails to adapt to her new human culture and exhibits her instinctive wolve traits showing that Claudette has not successfully adapted to the human culture. Claudette wishes to adapt to the human culture but has a difficult time accepting it. The St. Lucy’s home for girls raised by wolves is for girls to learn the human culture. The faster the girls go through the stages, the faster they have adapted and accepted their new culture and can be released. While Claudette acts as if the human culture is growing on her and she acts like a good student it is only because of the school’s expectations. Claudette wants to return back to her wolf culture so she pretends to have
Helena, one of the main characters of this Shakespearean comedy, expresses her thoughts on love through a soliloquy. This soliloquy is written in verse and in “iambic pentameter” - five unaccented syllables, each followed by an accented one - as the rest of the play is, but with the characteristic that it rhymes. The soliloquy is composed of “heroic couplets” - rhyming verse in iambic pentameter- in opposition to “blank verse” - unrhymed iambic pentameter- which is the predominant type of verse in the play.
During the American Colonial period, the primary focus of colonists was to establish their own settlements in order to survive in the new continent. However, many of them believed that it was their responsibility to Christianize and civilize Native Americans. The educational institutions they established became the forerunners of the boarding schools which arose later in the 19th century both in the United States and in Canada (Stout 1). The aim of these schools was to resolve the so called “Indian-Problem” and to assimilate American Indians by separating Native children from their families and teaching them the American or the Canadian way of life (Trafzer, Keller and Sisquoc 14). Children in boarding schools were taught to be ashamed of and to reject their cultural heritage, ancestors and spiritual traditions (Chansonneuve 43). Moreover, boarding schools were usually underfunded, which had a negative impact on numerous aspects of school life and on the health of children (Daniels, 151). Therefore, with their harsh discipline and poor living conditions, boarding schools had damaging effects on Native people’s lives, and they contributed to many of the problems Native Americans have to face the present-day both in the U.S. and in Canada.
Most people do not have to remind themselves of things like not chewing on their shoes or being shunned, but in “St. Lucy’s Home for Girls Raised by Wolves” by Karen Russell, Claudette is forced to worry about both, along with many more. Through Claudette’s journey she is faced with several obstacles and challenges that test her commitment and determination to become “civilized and ladylike, couth and kempt” (237). Claudette makes the transition from wolf to human girl by beginning to act more civilized with a changed mindset and separating herself from the pack.
Indian Boarding schools were created in the 1800s to “Kill the Indian, Save the Man.” They achieved this by transforming the natives looks, culture, language, and teaching them a certain way so they would be able to function in a “european society”. Indian boarding schools taught students both academic and “real world” skills, but they did so while ripping the indians from their culture.
The nature of these boarding schools was to assimilate young Native Americans into American culture, doing away with any “savageness” that they’re supposedly predisposed to have. As Bonnin remembers the first night of her stay at the school, she says “I was tucked into bed with one of the tall girls, because she talked to me in my mother tongue and seemed to soothe me” (Bonnin 325). Even at the beginning of such a traumatic journey, the author is signaling to the audience the conditioning that she was already under. Bonnin instinctively sought out something familiar, a girl who merely spoke in the same “tongue” as her. There are already so few things that she has in her immediate surroundings that help her identify who and what she is, that she must cling to the simple familiarities to bring any semblance of comfort. Furthermore, many children like Bonnin had to say goodbye to their language, their religion, their traditional clothing, even things as trivial as their long hair. These elements were markers of a different culture that was not the predominant culture they were expected to be a part of now. Recalling an early incident in which her hair was sheared off abruptly, Bonnin remarks “and now my long hair was shingled like a coward’s…. now I was only one of many little animals driven by a herder” (Bonnin 326-327). In her upbringing, long hair was a symbol of bravery and power. Someone with short hair was considered a coward and had deserved to lose this symbol of respect. With this in mind, one can see how despicable this event was for Bonnin. Instead of being able to identify herself with something as simple as her community’s hair traditions, now Bonnin is unrecognizable. Bonnin speaks to this loss of self when she mentions being a part of a group of animals led by the herder. There is no individuality in a
Who is the single greatest writer of American literature? Furthermore, what text upholds said writer as the greatest? Most people would argue that perhaps Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, or even William Faulkner are top candidates for the title of the greatest writer in American literature. However, how many people would nominate a woman? How many people would nominate an indigenous woman? Not many people would argue that Zikala-Sa’s “The Soft-Hearted Sioux” qualifies her as the single greatest writer of American literature.
Native Americans’ social structure was very different from the way Anglo-American’s believed was the correct way for men and women to live. This created a major conflict as the Anglo’s begin to press on the Natives’ land. Anglo-American’s believed that the best thing for the Natives’ was to be assimilated and transformed into their way of life. The Anglo’s intervened into the Natives’ life with a Civilization Program, removal and reservations, and boarding schools. The ramifications had lasting negative effects on the Natives’ gender roles.
There are many things that influence how one portrays or performs race. Race is something that cannot be easily, psychically changed, but it is such an important part of one’s identity and can be manipulated based on ever changing surrounding forces. People perform race even within their specified “race” because of the influences of other races around themselves.
Losing someone is inevitable. Because of that inevitability, people find it hard to move on and forgive. Because of that inevitability, conflicts rise and when comfort and unity is needed, it is not there. Because of that inevitability, people are influenced to do things, whether negative or positive, to ease the pain that they know they have to endure. Just like this, Saints at the River is also conflicted in a similar way. The characters in the novel experience losses which connects them and influences their actions: Luke with the Tamassee, Allen and Herb, and Maggie who experience loss, but unlike the others.
t Lucy’s Home for Girls is a safe haven for werewolf girls to learn how to change into better humans through a curriculum taught by the home’s nuns. Claudette, a student at St Lucy's Home For Girls, follows the nun’s curriculum closely, but sometimes she strays from it. This short story written by Karen Russell follows three werewolf girls as they learn about and adapt to their new way of living as humans, all of them heading in separate directions. In the beginning of Claudette’s journey, everything is new and different. She shortly learns that hard work is crucial to adapt to her new way of life and that from that point onward the stakes will be high. As Claudette progresses forward, she begins to realize she needs to go her own way to succeed. When she finishes her time at St Lucy’s she fulfills her journey.