Post-colonialism and Identity

By Ally Dunlap -
In The Absolute True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie, Alexie includes many issues on the Reservation. One of the issues is loss of identity. Along with this, he includes the effects of post-colonialism.

Arnold grew up on the Reservation. Therefore, that was all that he had ever known before he started attending Reardan. Before Arnold starts to attend Reardan, one of his teachers, Mr. P, says to Arnold, "We were supposed to make you give up being Indian. Your songs and stories and language and dancing. Everything. We weren't trying to kill Indian people. We were trying to kill Indian culture" (Alexie 35). Arnold is surrounded by people on the reservation that are complacent. Complacency is contagious, and I am a strong believer that an environment shapes a person. Even though Arnold is surrounded by people who are complacent, he still has the courage to go to a new school off of the reservation and continues to unknowingly search for his identity.

Another big issue is post-colonialism. Arnold thinks to himself and says, "We Indians have LOST EVERYTHING. We lost our native land, we lost our languages, we lost our songs and dances. We lost each other. We only know how to lose and be lost" (Alexie 173). This is a sad reality; a sad reality that many people must deal with on a daily basis in real life. Post-colonialism is something that many may not speak of, but it is something that greatly impacts people. As seen in the book, this may also be another reason for the complacency of the individuals on the Rez. They may be discouraged and have lost hope. They may feel ashamed of their culture because that is what they have been taught or told to do, but diversity should be celebrated, and this is something that the people on the Rez are not told.

These two issues were very prevalent in the novel, and Alexie portrays the loss of identity and post-colonialism by creating characters like Arnold who struggled with these challenges and milestones during his adolescence.

Attached is one of my favorite drawings from the book. I think this comic is the perfect complement to my blog post because in the picture, Arnold is deciding which path to take.
http://deathbytsundoku.com/the-absolutely-true-story-of-a-part-time-indian/

Comments

  1. Carter McGillSeptember 8, 2019 at 7:24 AM

    I love how you point out the loss of identity due to post-colonialism. This is a huge issues that surrounds post-colonialism because of how in impacts Native Americans as a whole. Most of them were stripped of their culture which in turn, ruins the person they once were. This causes a lot of problems because it not only affects them but starts to affect the new generations to come as well. One of the strong points you had in your post was the fact that the environment can make or break a person. This book shows us that the environment on the reservation is extremely complacent as you stated, and makes the reservation a place were people tend to get stuck at for the rest of their lives. This is why it makes it hard on Arnold because he's so conflicted on if he should stay on the reservation or risk it all, and go to the new school to open up more opportunities for his life.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C
Read more