Tompson Highways Play: The Rez Sisters

The prescribed question that I have chosen is Power and Privilege: “How and why is a social group represented in a particular way?”

Over the course of E. Pauline Johnson’s life, which lasted from 1861 to 1913, the treatment and status of First Nations Canadians began to shift. While Pauline Johnson wasn’t as affected by the treatment and status of First Nations Canadians, due to her move off of the Six Nations Reservation because of her father’s death in 1884, she made gains for her people as she ascended to fame. Pauline Johnson made accomplishments for First Nations Canadians in her life and work, those included her poetry, acting, and lifestyle. Even after Johnson’s demise, her name and work lives on because of her talent and charisma.

On thursday night I went to see Jerry Finnegan’s Sister. The play had two actors which were Morgan Fox and Genevieve Craven. They played the roles as Brian Dowd and Beth Finnegan. Brian is in love with Jerry Finnegan's sister (his best friend’s sister) ever since a young age, but can never tell her. He is in the conflict of wanting to tell her, but his window is closing. As they like to call it “the point of no return.”

Hilary Weaver argues in her piece of writing; that identifying indigenous identity is complex, complicated, and hard to grasp when internalized oppression and colonization has turned Native Americans to criticize one another. Throughout the text, Weaver focuses on three main points which she calls, the three facets. Self-identification, community identification, and external identification are all important factors that make up Native American identity. The author uses a story she calls, “The Big game” to support her ideologies and arguments about the issue of identity. After reading the article, it’s important to realize that Native American’s must decide their own history and not leave that open for non-natives to write about. This is something

In comparison to the humour and separation of cultures, the relationship that is presented within both Wellpinit, and Reardan shows how the game brought together both communities. Within the passage the game is represented as a change of identity for Junior. Through Junior’s awareness of his intersecting characteristics, he was able to better acknowledge himself, and the differences between his indigenous culture and the dominant white culture. Through the overlapping of his race, class, and disability, this section of the passage focuses less on the similarities and differences but more upon the ‘connection that join them’ (Andersen & Collins 2013, p. 5). A dominant, yet challenging, sport, this game of basketball, metaphorically represents

Culture is something that is important to everyone. When a person goes from one place to another, the shock of the different culture can be considerably large on a person’s character and their identity as a whole. In Into the Beautiful North, Urrea illuminates cultural collision and its affect on character’s sense of identity through Nayeli’s naivety and her reaction towards how America truly is throughout her journey.

Marcus Garvey said, “People without the knowledge of their past history, origin, and culture is like a tree without roots.” For the citizens of Otter Lake, a fictional reserve set in Drew Hayden Taylor’s Novel Motorcycles and Sweetgrass, they are disconnected from their cultural roots. Much of the older generation is suffering psychologically from the effects of residential schools, where their culture was taken from them. The younger generations in return feel no ties to their past as they were raised by people who feelings towards it were conflicted as they spent years being abused and told that their culture was wrong. As an author, one of their main roles is to convey a message. Considering Drew Hayden Taylor is First Nation and of the

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. Throughout the novel, prejudicial comments directed towards Saul inflict a major impact on him and his teammates by confining their abilities, thus leading him into a troublesome mental state of mind.

In Philip J. Deloria’s book, Indians In Unexpected Places readers are provoked with questions. Why is there an Indian on an automobile? Why is she getting a manicure? Why is the young man in football apparel? Indians have been secluded into a stereotype of untamable and wild animals. However, Indians break the barriers of their traditional lives by being in more modern and “white” activities. They partake in “normal” activities to not only change their future, but to make their ancestors proud of their accomplishments. Through a variety of events in the early 1900’s, Deloria expands on what it means to be Native American by retelling their lives of, men grew from their reservation life, into competitive sports, the auto industry transformed how Native Americans traveled, and they also gained relevance in the fight to make themselves known in film, not always as a savage warrior, but also capable of love moving pictures.

Within the literary world, the sociological approach can be presented within a widely multiplying range of dystopian and other literary works. They can either be functionalist, conflict, or interactionist perspectives. The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, is a novel set in America, following a father and his son on a journey to the coast, however, it isn’t all pleasant. In a world of ash, destruction, and cannibalism, they must carry the fire, sacrifice, and love to survive each day on a dying planet. It is clearly apparent that the sociological approach is the most appropriate critical approach when examining The Road. First, the approach is used to determine the values being presented; Secondly, the approach is presented when researching the social environments within a literary work; Finally, The approach gives insight to a relationship between the society, its values, conflicts, and the literary characters.

Noel Pearson’s An Australian History For Us All and Margaret Atwood’s Spotty Handed Villainesses effectively explore the challenges faced when rectifying the consequences of the past on the present. This is achieved through the implementation of rhetorical techniques, including ethos, logos, and pathos, generating textual integrity. While Pearson uses the rhetorical triangle in order to shed light on the ramifications of past injustices towards Aboriginal Australians, Margaret Atwood employs it to showcase the complications derived from second wave feminism, and its impact on the portrayal of female characters in literature.

Overcoming a challenge, not giving up, and not being afraid of change are a few themes demonstrated in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Perhaps the most prominent theme derived from the novel is defying the odds, or in other words rising above the expectations of others. Junior Spirit exemplifies this theme throughout the entirety of the book. As Junior is an Indian, he almost expects that he will never leave the reservation, become an alcoholic, and live in poverty like the other Indians on the reservation—only if he sits around and does not endeavor to change his fate. When Junior shares the backstory of his parents, he says that his mother and father came from “poor people who came from poor people who came from poor people, all the way back to the very first poor people” (11). He knows that if his parents were not born into poverty, his mother would have gone to college, and his father would have become a musician. Additionally, on page eleven Junior says that his parents “dreamed about being something other than poor, but they never got the chance to be anything because nobody paid attention to their dreams.” Junior believes that he is trapped in this “circle” of poverty, and his dreams will be ignored just as his parents’ dreams had been. However, after Junior launches an old geometry book across a classroom, and it hits his teacher, Mr. P, in the face, Mr. P realizes something substantial about Junior: He has fought since his birth, beginning with the

Despite the fact that all residential schools have closed, what thousands of aboriginal children experienced remain both terrifying to those who hear the stories and relevant to Canadian society. Glen and Lyna are two residential school survivors whose lives were greatly impacted by the government’s attempt to eliminate aboriginal culture. For example, “the system forcibly separated children from their families and “even siblings rarely interacted.” Consequently, the family ties between Glen and his family severely weakened through his years in residential school, making it difficult for him to find comfort in family even when he started his own. As a result, when Glen struggles with alcoholism, instead of confiding in family, he is driven

Native Americans in Canadian society are constantly fighting an uphill battle.After having their identity taken away in Residential Schools.The backlash of the Residential Schools haunts them today with Native American people struggling in today 's society.Native Americans make up five percent of the Canadian population, yet nearly a quarter of the murder victims.The haunting memories of Residential Schools haunt many Native Americans to this day.With them commonly been known to attempt to drink away the horrors they have faced.Thomas King brings up these problems in his written work having written books like Medicine River and short stories such as Not The Indian I Had In Mind and Borders.Throughout these stories, Thomas King uses stereotypes such as will and Louise 's romance that seems like it 's going to become this generic love story yet becomes nothing more than just a friend with benefits to bring up the themes of Belonging, Performing Identity and Family issues.

In his book the Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, Sherman Alexie portrays a teenage boy, Arnold Spirit (junior) living in white man’s world, and he must struggle to overcome racism and stereotypes if he must achieve his dreams. In the book, Junior faces a myriad of misfortunes at his former school in ‘the rez’ (reservation), which occurs as he struggles to escape from racial and stereotypical expectations about Indians. For Junior he must weigh between accepting what is expected of him as an Indian or fight against those forces and proof his peers and teachers wrong. Therefore, from the time Junior is in school at reservation up to the time he decides to attend a neighboring school in Rearden, we see a teenager who is facing tough consequences for attempting to go against the racial stereotypes. The decision to attend a white school is a tough one and Junior understands that for him to survive and to ensure that his background does not stop him from attaining his dreams; he must battle the stereotypes regardless of the consequences. In this light, race and stereotypes only makes junior stronger in the end as evident on how he struggles to override the race and stereotypical expectations from his time at the reservation to his time at Rearden.