Humor and Sentiment

I enjoyed the discussion this week about humor. I agree that humor has a way of softening the delivery, while still sending a message. However, the debate was over whether or not the message is compromised in any way because of humor. I think invariably the message is going to be altered slightly, but the basic idea is still there. Humor not only makes the message more accessible for the reader, but in a way also makes the burden of presenting the information more conceivable for the author. I've always thought there was a fine line between laughing really hard and crying. It makes sense to me that such emotional, heavy issues can also be flipped into humorous stories. I agree with what Gina said in class, about how you'd go crazy if you didn't find some redeeming value in such terrible situations.

The two short stories we read for Thursday were very emotional and both had a theme of the difficult task of self identity in the face of multiple cultural influences. I related to them so well and I think there is a universal element to these stories than anyone can connect to. In the story "The Warrior" I first thought of Ralph as a tragic character, someone who could not quite live up to the way of life that he wanted for his family. While that fact is tragic, he was actually an inspirational character. He may not have been able to live the way he wanted, but he passed on traditions and important messages onto the younger generation. To me, this is very much survivance, to resist, "not to become what everyone else is." (197) and to pass along important messages to the young. The hobos throughout the story seemed to parallel the struggles of natives. Hobos too had previous lives, they had homes and roots. Hobos, like natives were hit by some unfortunate life circumstances and are forced from their former way of life. The situation reminds me of the phrase, "I don't care where you go, but you can't stay here."

Old Lady Week

I found the Greg Sarris piece, "The Woman Who Loved a Snake" extremely thought provoking. in particular, it made me reconsider how I was approaching the readings we are doing in class. It also really solidified the issues that arise when we read select texts and learn portions of a particular culture. It's easy to fall into the mindset that you think you have a good grasp on what that culture "is about." I think on a level, people know that they really don't, but as Gina said in class, we take so many things for granted, we forget limitations to understanding. "The Woman Who Loved a Snake" makes me want to go back and read Lucy Thompson more carefully to reconsider how I was interpreting the information before. The piece made me think about the function of oral tradition and how writing down oral stories is far different that telling and listening to a story. The essence of somethings simply cannot be captured fully when transfered from one medium to another.

The other piece we discussed in class was "Poor Sarah." I do not think that Boudinot wrote the story because I feel the overall tone of the story is from a woman's perspective and voice. However, I do think that it is significant that Boudinot elected to publish this work. Because of what we've previously discussed about Boudinot, I think he selected the piece because on some personal level, he identified with Sarah, wanting so badly to be accepted by whites. I also think that Boudinot selected the story because he believed there was wide appeal to a white Audience. It portrayed Indians in a deeply sympathetic light and showed that Indians can be just as, if not more pious and understanding that white Christians. This is why I think Boudinot selected this piece for a white audience. However, as evidenced by our class discussion, there are a number of ways to interpret the intention and effect of the piece. I understand why Boudinot would have chosen the piece for a white audience, but I cannot imagine being a native reading the piece and feeling good about it's message. In fact, reading it as a native, would have a completely opposite meaning to that of a white reader. Rather than encouraging Christian conversion, it would serve more as a cautionary tale to resist white influence.

Most depressing week yet

This week we watched the documentary "We Shall Remain: Wounded knee". As we were told and as I had expected, the film was very powerful. It's certainly one thing to sit in a classroom and hear about these injustices and quite another to see footage of people dying. Even though we were warned about how current Wounded Knee was, I was struct by how contemporary the footage was. The clothing styles were so similar to what we wear today, and I still see some of those car models from the film on the road today.

Previous to this film I had never heard of AIM. This is especially shocking to me as I am also currently taking a history class about American political and social movements. AIM seems to fit in as a movement just as well as the other civil rights, feminist, anti-war...etc movements. I pondered as to why whites were almost more inclined to discuss deals with the blacks than with Indias. Then I read the article "We aim not to please" by Mary Brave Bird. She explained that, "The blacks want what the whites have, which is understandable. They want in. We Indians want out." (112) This act of defiance, or survivance is a critical point for AIM.

I also thought it was particularly interesting to read another piece for the perspective of a native woman during this movement. There were a few things that I was surprised by by in this reading. Indian women were very involved throughout the movement. And some wielded considerable influence. Brave Bird describes one outspoken woman confronting goverment officials, "Enough of your bullshit...This is our building she told him. Then she gave him the finger. And in the film, we saw a woman pushing for the progression of the movement. We see a people backed into a corner, left with little choice. And echoing some of the philosophies of the other movements at the time, sometimes violence was necessary.