"strange" and the feelings of Displacement Amongst Native Americans
What is democracy? If looked up in a dictionary, one would find that the literal meaning is government by the people, exercised either directly or through elected representatives (Democracy); or, simply put majority rule (Democracy). However, though we refer to ourselves as a democracy, are we really so? Is America a true democracy? Though there are many elements to our government that are democratic, the answer to these questions is no.
On strange, Scarlet "has taken on the beliefs of her lovers, and on another level, those of her country. But, she's begun to question them (Amos). Scarlet is lucky. Many Americans do not begin to see the degree to which they have taken on other peoples beliefs. There are many people in this country who listen to and read only the mainstream media and seemingly become brainwashed by what they are reading or hearing. They take on everyone elses beliefs and ideals, without stopping to question them. Scarlet is beginning to question those in power; she questions their motives and their actions. She is beginning to see that we do not live in a true democracy.
How can we have a government that is supposedly democratic and not listen to a great many of the repressed peoples of our country? How can we take land for our own selfish purposes, and not consider the original inhabitants of this land?
Throughout Scarlets Walk, there is a major theme of the government taking land, which seemingly did not stop once it started. However, it is not just about the land. Homes, villages, and lives were taken away with the land. There was no respect, let alone any action by a government by the people, for the people (Democracy).
After years of unnecessary violence, Native Americans were forced to live on reservations and function in a society that misunderstood them. Native American children were sent to American schools in an attempt to Americanize them. Some children were even sent to schools specially designed to churn out Native Americans as normal American children, under awful conditions and horrible treatment.
To truly understand the depth of the feelings running through the native peoples, one must turn to the literature written by some of these people. Literature is a key part of our history. With stories, songs, and other various works, the facts of our history begin to come alive, and we can start to understand what it was like to live during the time that the story takes place.
Because of the displacement of the Native American people, many of them, to this day, have feelings of resentment toward the white people. Much of the literature written by Native Americans reflects this. Moreover, much of the literature focuses on this theme of displacement; of Native American people feeling out of place among whites as a result of being completely misunderstood.
One story that greatly reflects this feeling of being misunderstood and out of place is E. Pauline Johnsons short story The Moccasin Maker. Not only does Johnson feel misunderstood because she is Native American, but also because she is a woman. She begins the story by saying, They account for it by the fact that I am a Redskin, but I am something else, too I am a woman (Kilcup 508).
In the story, the narrator, Esther, speaks of the first grief of her life (Kilcup 509), when she was sent away to a school run by a Christian missionary. When she arrived, they stripped her of her Native clothes, saying that she was now a little Christian girl and must dress like all the white people at the mission (Kilcup 509). Not only was she stripped of her Native garb, she was stripped of her culture. She was taught English, her next serious grief (Kilcup 509), because any child in the school caught speaking in their native tongue would be punished.
Understandably, Esther feels out of place and alone in a world that does not understand her. She longs to be home. She says, Night after night, I would steal away by myself and go to the border of the village to watch the sun set in the hills" (Kilcup 510). She wants to be in a place with her own people, culture, and customs. She does not want to learn these foreign tongues, customs, and ways of life. She wants to reclaim what was stripped from her.
Although she runs away at the end of the story, back to her fathers lodge, the experiences at the mission still haunt her. She says, I dream nightly of the horrors of the white mans hell. Why did they teach me of it, only to fling me into it? (Kilcup 513). Why did they teach her the white mans religion if they never viewed her as good enough to ever enter the gates of the white mans heaven? No matter how much they taught her, they still saw her as different, as barbaric.
Esther was not the only one to be looked at as barbaric; all Native Americans were seen as savages. No matter how kind or gentle, or cold and mean, a Native American individual might have been, he or she was still seen as less-than-human. Many people have died in what some call the Native American Holocaust. This makes it even more important for everyone to pay attention to the stories of those who have survived. Maybe children in American school systems need to learn less of Christopher Columbus, and more of the horrors that he caused, and the stories of all the brave individuals who survived them.
The music of strange takes on a very slow, somber tone. Using a keyboard during the verses and the piano during the chorus, Amos creates a very calming song along with the slow and steady drumbeat. The song creates the feeling that Scarlet has just begun her journey; she cannot stay in one place, with one person, for very long. She must keep moving; she says, [its] strange / what I will leave behind / you call me one more time / but now I must be leaving (Amos).
On strange, Scarlet "has taken on the beliefs of her lovers, and on another level, those of her country. But, she's begun to question them (Amos). Scarlet is lucky. Many Americans do not begin to see the degree to which they have taken on other peoples beliefs. There are many people in this country who listen to and read only the mainstream media and seemingly become brainwashed by what they are reading or hearing. They take on everyone elses beliefs and ideals, without stopping to question them. Scarlet is beginning to question those in power; she questions their motives and their actions. She is beginning to see that we do not live in a true democracy.
How can we have a government that is supposedly democratic and not listen to a great many of the repressed peoples of our country? How can we take land for our own selfish purposes, and not consider the original inhabitants of this land?
Throughout Scarlets Walk, there is a major theme of the government taking land, which seemingly did not stop once it started. However, it is not just about the land. Homes, villages, and lives were taken away with the land. There was no respect, let alone any action by a government by the people, for the people (Democracy).
After years of unnecessary violence, Native Americans were forced to live on reservations and function in a society that misunderstood them. Native American children were sent to American schools in an attempt to Americanize them. Some children were even sent to schools specially designed to churn out Native Americans as normal American children, under awful conditions and horrible treatment.
To truly understand the depth of the feelings running through the native peoples, one must turn to the literature written by some of these people. Literature is a key part of our history. With stories, songs, and other various works, the facts of our history begin to come alive, and we can start to understand what it was like to live during the time that the story takes place.
Because of the displacement of the Native American people, many of them, to this day, have feelings of resentment toward the white people. Much of the literature written by Native Americans reflects this. Moreover, much of the literature focuses on this theme of displacement; of Native American people feeling out of place among whites as a result of being completely misunderstood.
One story that greatly reflects this feeling of being misunderstood and out of place is E. Pauline Johnsons short story The Moccasin Maker. Not only does Johnson feel misunderstood because she is Native American, but also because she is a woman. She begins the story by saying, They account for it by the fact that I am a Redskin, but I am something else, too I am a woman (Kilcup 508).
In the story, the narrator, Esther, speaks of the first grief of her life (Kilcup 509), when she was sent away to a school run by a Christian missionary. When she arrived, they stripped her of her Native clothes, saying that she was now a little Christian girl and must dress like all the white people at the mission (Kilcup 509). Not only was she stripped of her Native garb, she was stripped of her culture. She was taught English, her next serious grief (Kilcup 509), because any child in the school caught speaking in their native tongue would be punished.
Understandably, Esther feels out of place and alone in a world that does not understand her. She longs to be home. She says, Night after night, I would steal away by myself and go to the border of the village to watch the sun set in the hills" (Kilcup 510). She wants to be in a place with her own people, culture, and customs. She does not want to learn these foreign tongues, customs, and ways of life. She wants to reclaim what was stripped from her.
Although she runs away at the end of the story, back to her fathers lodge, the experiences at the mission still haunt her. She says, I dream nightly of the horrors of the white mans hell. Why did they teach me of it, only to fling me into it? (Kilcup 513). Why did they teach her the white mans religion if they never viewed her as good enough to ever enter the gates of the white mans heaven? No matter how much they taught her, they still saw her as different, as barbaric.
Esther was not the only one to be looked at as barbaric; all Native Americans were seen as savages. No matter how kind or gentle, or cold and mean, a Native American individual might have been, he or she was still seen as less-than-human. Many people have died in what some call the Native American Holocaust. This makes it even more important for everyone to pay attention to the stories of those who have survived. Maybe children in American school systems need to learn less of Christopher Columbus, and more of the horrors that he caused, and the stories of all the brave individuals who survived them.
The music of strange takes on a very slow, somber tone. Using a keyboard during the verses and the piano during the chorus, Amos creates a very calming song along with the slow and steady drumbeat. The song creates the feeling that Scarlet has just begun her journey; she cannot stay in one place, with one person, for very long. She must keep moving; she says, [its] strange / what I will leave behind / you call me one more time / but now I must be leaving (Amos).
