Native American Literature

GRAY WOLF'S DAUGHTER

BY HINOOK-MAHIWI-KILINAKA

"The girl's mother came, after a little while, to look on with the rest. As she passed a group of women she heard one tell the others that Gray Wolf's pretty daughter was going away to school. They all exclaimed with regretful voices, and one said: "Such a graceful dancer! Why does her mother let her go?"
Gray Wolf's wife thought her daughter was not as gay as she was used to be at such festivals, but to the mother's eyes she seemed more beautiful than ever. How could she let her go!"

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/etcbin/toccer-new2?id=HinGray.sgm&images=images/modeng&data=/texts/english/modeng/parsed&tag=public&part=1&division=div1

Reflection:

I chose this piece of literature because I feel that I can relate to the girl who has to leave her family. Although I have not left yet and I will not be as young as she, I still have to leave my family to go away to school in the coming years. I am looking forward to going away to school but I will miss my family terribly. This piece shows the difficulty that young Native American girls had to go through to get an education and because of that difficulty it gives a feeling of frustration for the girls and their families that they must leave. I feel sympathy for the family of Gray Wolf's daughter, letting her leave has made many other tribe members question them and their decision to let their daughter enter into the white mans world.

Dear Diary:

I am very excited to be going to school this week! However I can tell that my family, although they gave their permission, is having second thoughts of letting me go. I am really sad to be leaving all my family and friends and being able to dance in this last ritual is bitter sweet, I used to enjoy dancing and many think I am good but now I would just really like to focus on my studies, which many can not understand. Sometimes I really do not understand people in my tribe, why they do not approve of educating their daughters, it makes me sort of mad and I wish my family wasn't looked down upon now because of my decision to become educated. I just hope that they will put all of this behind them and that my family will one day be okay with me not being at home.

Sincerely,

Gray Wolf's Daughter

"Of Plymouth Plantation"

"Being thus arrived in a good harbor, and brought safe to land, they fell upon their knees and blessed the God of Heaven who had brought them over the vast and furious ocean, and delivered them from all the perils and miseries thereof, again to set their feet on the firm and stable earth, their proper element."

Reflection:
In coming to a new world the settlers had to establish a safe environment but the Indians made that very difficult. When the settlers first arrived they made the mistake of not building a protection system. By not building a system they left themselves vulnerable to the Indians, which they took advantage of.

Dear Diary:
We have just arrived to the New World and we are all very tired from our journey, we all give thanks to God for getting us here safely. We had lost many on the voyage over and are not so encourage seeing that it is fall here and there is no possibility for food. The natives are starting to become more courageous and have started attacking our people. We all are scared and I don't know if I can handle no one doing anything any longer. I know we killed many of them but this is getting ridiculous.

Bradstreet's Poems

“To My Dear Loving Husband”

Reflection:
This poem shows the love of a wife for her husband. It starts out with the wife sharing her deepest feeling for her husband, she compares her love to every other woman and says that no wife could lover her husband more. Although she shares with us her deepest feelings, toward the middle of the poem she back tracks, realizing that she might be reveling too much and does not
express her deepest feelings.

“By Night When other Soundly Slept”

Reflection:
This poem shows the faith in a woman seeking God in the darkness of the night while all others are asleep. She searches for him and when she finds him, he dries her tears and takes away her doubt and fear. After he is there for her, she wonders what she can do for him in return and realizes all she has to do is believe in him and do his will.

"Verses Upon the Burning of Our House"

Reflection:
This poem shows the despare of a woman who looses her house to a fire. Although she looses everything she held dear, she never once looses her faith in God and knows that he will always be there for her.

"Huswifery"

In the poem “Huswifery” Edward Taylor expresses his prayer for God’s grace through the use of extended metaphor, repetition and diction.

Reflection:
The poem “Huswifery” is a prayer of a man looking for grace from God. Taylor uses the metaphor of a spinning wheel to explain the process of him asking God for his grace. He tells us how devoted he is to being God’s servant, to use him as the Lord wills. He explains his transformation by comparing it to turning fuzzy wool into magnificent robes.

Slave Narrative

"I have often seen slaves, particularly those who were meagre, in different islands, put into scales and weighed, and then sold from three pence to six pence or nine pence a pound. My master, however, whose humanity was shocked at this mode, used to sell such by the lumps And at or after a sale, it was not uncommon to see negroes taken from their wives, wives taken from their husbands, and children from their parents, and sent off to other islands, and wherever else their merciless lords choose; and probably never more during life see each other! Oftentimes my heart has bled at these partings, when the friends of the departed have been at the water side, and with sighs and tears, have kept their eyes fixed on the vessel, till it went out of sight."

http://www.wsu.edu:8000/~dee/Equiano.html

Reflection: This passage reveals the harsh beatings and cruel treatments that slaves received. Although Equiano received many beatings, he learned how to block out the pain; he becomes numb to what is bestowed upon him. Unfortunately he had to start learning at a very young age, when he was 11 he was taken away from his family and was put to work. Personally, I would have never been able to handle that and I admire Equiano for being able to.

Revolutionary Period

"Give Me Liberty or Give Me Death"

by: Pactrick Henry

Reflection: Henry uses ethos, logos, and pathos to try to influence his audience. He uses ethos to try to make his audience believe he is credible in telling us of his experiences. With logos he uses logic to persuade the American people to start a war while at the same time he uses the effect of emotion to sway the reader. With emotion he uses rhetorical questions to make the reader think and decide what they feel about what he is writing.

Diary:

"The Crisis No. 1"

by: Thomas Paine

Reflection:

Diary:

Questions:
What do these men have in common?
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Can you see how because these men gave so much, we benefit?
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Can you make any connection/extension to today's political figures? How so?
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My Antonia

Mimicry:

Chapter 2/3
I CAN NOT RECALL arriving to my grandparents. After a 12 hour trip I was out of it and did not wake until late afternoon. I woke to find myself alone in dark small room for the blinds were drawn: there was only enough room for the queen sized bed and one oversized dresser. I went downstairs to find my Grandmother in the kitchen starting dinner, and Grandfather still at work. When she saw me her face lit up and she crossed the room to embrace me in one of her overly long hugs. She stepped back and said like she always did “My, how you look like your mother, it’s like I have my little girl home again!” She told me that I should go wash up and took me upstairs to get me a towel so I could take a shower. After I was washed and dressed I went downstairs and Grandmother asked me if I wanted to go shopping with her; I said “sure!” so we left.
When we arrived at the mall I found myself in aw at all the different stores and the diversity in people. After being there for a while we ran into her new neighbor Mrs. Rodriguez, she and her family of six just moved here from Mexico and you could tell this because of her broken English. She seemed very nice and Grandmother introduced us, telling her that I would be living with them. Mrs. Rodriguez was very excited by that news for she told me that she had a son my age and she was happy that he would have someone to talk to. The two women talked for a while but I excused myself and started to explore the different stores. I found myself entranced with the flashing lights and brilliant colors of many different stores that flew by as I walked down the different corridors.
Later that night Grandmother took me over to the Rodriguez’s to meet the rest of the family. As we rang the doorbell we could hear the children running around yelling at each other in their broken English, “You stop kick’n my!” “My did’n do it!” The door then opened and standing in its frame was a tall handsome boy about my age with short black hair, large brown eyes and tan skin. He smiled when he saw us standing there and opened the door wider, exposing a dark gloomy room with three little kids sitting on the floor. When we walked in, after he shut the door the boy turned around and looked at my Grandmother, “He Mrs. Man-o-loo-kas” Then he looked at me, “He my nam tis Diego, you name?” I replied “Hi, my name is Stephanie. It’s very nice to meet you”. He smiled then looked toward his siblings and said something in Spanish; they all immediately stood up and walked forward, all with huge smiles on their faces. “Dis tis Steponie” pointing towards me “and dis tis Mia” pointing to the smallest girl around the age of four, her jet black hair was in pigtails and her smile was missing two front teeth. “Dis tis Alberto” pointing to the youngest boy who was around the age of ten, he had hair just the same as the others, but much longer than his older brothers. “An dis tis Elena” pointing to the eldest girl who was probably thirteen, she was gorgeous and not like other girls her age, her skin was flawless which was framed with her long hair. I smiled and nodded at each of them who were all staring intently. Just then Mrs. Rodriguez walked in from the kitchen, we handed her the food that we brought, she took it with gratitude and said “Mooch good, mooch thanks! My bery sad to say dat we don’t hab mooch to eat, we been habin trouble findin jobs.”
Right after the introductions were given Diego grabbed my arm and took me outside; he started running towards the fields, which were directly behind the house. He sat down on a dry spot as did I. He pointed to me and said “Steponie” then he pointed to himself and said “Diego” he then started to point to random things saying their names in Spanish; I quickly caught on and said their names in English which he repeated. “Sun”… “sun” “sky”… “sky” “grass”… “grass” He was a very quick learner and I was very intrigued by his eagerness to learn. We staid there until the setting sun gave an orange cast on the fields around us, I was sad to see the day ending for I enjoyed being with my new friend. We both had an understanding of each other because we were both new to a strange place and it was nice to have a friend.
Soon we heard a mans voice calling “Diego, Diego!” I then realized that it was Mr. Rodriguez who must have just gotten home. We both rose and ran to the house where Grandmother and Mr. and Mrs. Rodriguez were standing by the front door. When we reached them Diego hugged his father and introduced me, “this is Stephanie!” By this time I had gotten him to at least say my name correctly. Mr. Rodriguez, although he smiled, he looked very sad, his eyes were sunken in and they almost looked dead. He said “Te-e-ach, te-e-ach my Diego!”

Interviews

How have you lived the American Dream?

Mr. Sugerik- “I think I am still in the process of accomplishing it. I don’t think I knew what I wanted until I was out of college I thought I knew what I wanted for my American dream, fame money, all them tangibles, big house, car, all that good stuff, I think as you go through life you start to define what it is. Education period, and I know that sounds corny because you’re in school but everything that I have been able to accomplish is because of my schooling. If I wanted to quit my job today, and go do something else, be a chef, I could go do it, because I have enough education, doors of opportunity pop open based on the more education you have. And sometimes that’s not fair. Sometimes, fairly or unfairly, the more education you get the more opportunities you get. You just cant sit back and think ‘Hm, I don’t know what I want to do’. I defiantly believe that with out education you cant have an American Dream.”

Mrs. Gallaher-

Mr. Gallaher-

Emerson

Nature

Reflection:
Emerson shows how the innocence of a child allows them to appreciate the beauty of nature and use it to their advantage. For example when it rains children see this as an opportunity to have fun playing in the mud but an adult only sees it as a burden to have to plan their day around the bad weather. He believes that only young hearts can truly see the innocence of nature while the adults are too evolved with their busy lives to take the time to appreciate nature. I find that it is true, that when you are a child you do find nature more appealing and you appreciate it a lot more for it provides you with your pass times; but when you become an adult you do not find nature as appealing and you do not take the time to appreciate the stars for example. When you are a child you are not worried about what is going on around you, you are just interested in admiring the stars and trying to find that one shooting star that might make you wish come true.

Diary:
I just read the essay of a transcendentalist, who just moved to town, and I was very moved by his word choice to describe how he felt about nature. No one these days seems to be thinking like him and I find it refreshing to read something so new and out there. I do know what he means about appreciating nature when you are a child, for when I was a child I used to sneak way from the farm any chance I got and go sit in the forest and I just pretend like I was apart of it, just another tree among many. Although now I find myself to busy taking care of my own children and homestead to be worrying about what is going on around me. I do wish though, that I was a child again so I might be able to see the innocence of the beautiful nature around me and appreciate it more than I do now. However, I am going to make more of an effort to slow down and just admire the beauty of what is around me. Thank you Emerson for making me realize what I have been missing for so long.