LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Poetry Presentation 2000

Reader: Mary Arnold

Respondent: Vickie Bookout

"Dear John Wayne"

By Louise Erdrich

Unsettling America, pp. 54-55

  1. Biographical Information

    Born in 1954 in Little Falls, Minnesota, Karen Louise Erdrich grew up in Wahpeton, North Dakota, where her German father and Chippewa mother taught at a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school. She received her BA from Dartmouth College in 1976 and her MA from Johns Hopkins University in 1979. Although she has published two volumes of poetry, she is best known for her works of fiction. In 1981, she married writer Michael Dorris, who collaborated with her in her novels. Erdrich’s fiction and poetry explore how Native American’s contact with white culture invariably brings on such factors as "alcohol, Roman Catholicism, and government policies to tear down the Indian community; tradition and loyalty to family and heritage work to counteract these forces" (http://www.britannica.com/bcom/eb/article/9/0,5716,106489+1,00.html)

  2. Course Objectives
    1. Objective 1a: Involuntary Participation in Dominant Culture
    2. Objective 3b: Native American Indian alternative narrative: "Loss and Survival"
  1. Angles of Interpretation
    1. The Bear symbol
    1. west and introspection
    2. Hopi vision of the world’s end
  1. Question of Style
    1. Allusion
    1. Manifest Destiny
    1. Metaphors
    1. "horizon of teeth"
    2. "hordes of mosquitoes"
  1. Discussion Questions
    1. Why do you think Erdrich used John Wayne in this poem?
    2. How does this poem reflect the quote in the biographical information?
  1. Additional Sources
    1. The Mythology of Native North America. David Leeming and Jake Page, University of Oklahoma Press: Norman, 1998.
    2. http://www.ne.jp/ashahi/stellar/scenes/seiza_e/umi.html
    3. http://pantheon.org/mythica/articles/b/bear.html
  1. Class Discussion

The class discussion of "Dear John Wayne" focused on Erdrich’s use of various symbols and suggestions of what the symbols stand for. Everyone agreed that John Wayne was used to represent the opening of the west and manifest destiny since he is the quintessential American cowboy, the premier Indian fighter. Sylvia raised an interesting point that John Wayne’s face was described as "pitted" to represent the fact that the whites have destroyed the "land that was once flesh" (Erdrich, 55).

We also discussed the meaning of "hordes of mosquitoes" at length. Phyllis commented that the blood-sucking mosquitoes seem to represent the white settlers. Nancy said that the word "hordes" indicate that the settlers are of endless numbers and no matter what they [Indians] do, they cannot hold back the settlers, just as mosquitoes cannot be held back. Jared brought up an interesting point, one that I had not thought of. He likened the "slow-burning spirals" (smoke-screen) to the passage in Black Elk Speaks in which the Lakotas set fire to the grass to hold back the soldiers. But the "smoke screen" only slows them down (like mosquitoes) and the soldiers keep on coming after them.

Professor White commented on one of the points I brought up in the presentation; namely, the bear being a symbol of the Native American apocalypse beliefs. He said the Native Americans believe that they do not have to fight the whites, because eventually we will destroy ourselves. The Indians only have to wait and survive, and then the world they once knew (no whites and lots of buffalo) will return to them. Erdrich’s poem alludes to this belief in many passages; such as, SAC missiles. Professor White also commented on Erdrich’s use of the Pontiac, which was named after an Indian leader in the Midwest.