LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Sample Student Final Exam Answers 2002
Question 1 on Native American Literature & Culture

1. Native Americans qualify as a minority culture because of the fact that they initially did not voluntarily participate in the American experience by striving for the American “dream.” They were forcefully converted from their own lifestyle to that of Western society by the restriction of their cultural practices such as religious ceremonies and the use of their own language. (Not to mention the loss of their land.) Therefore, their involuntary participation in the American lifestyle defines them as a minority culture.

The NA cultural narrative of “Loss and Survival” is seen in each of the NA stories we have studied this semester. Handsome Lake tells how the devil (Columbus) came to America bringing cards, money, music, alcohol, and disease as tools to conquer Native people. The bombardment of these western influences successfully destroyed masses of native people. However, six hundred plus years later, Native Americans still exist. 

Zitkala-Sa wrote of her own experiences with western culture in the book American Indian Stories. Her story begins almost like an American dream story of the quest for “milk and honey” because she willingly leaves her home and family for the land of “red apples” and an education. She does not realize until it is too late to return home that the price she must pay for her education is the sacrifice of her spirit. She suffers humiliation when scrutinized by other white travelers on the iron horse, when she is tossed in the air like a “plaything” (50),  and when her own clothes are replaced with those of western society. The ultimate degradation is when the white women cut her hair plunging her into the category of cowards and mourners as her own culture taught her. She speaks of suffering these “extreme indignities” and the loss of her spirit but her spirit wasn’t really lost, it was temporarily reduced to a flicker. This is proven by the fact that she obtained an education and although she always felt an outsider whenever she returned to her reservation, she spent her adulthood working for the rights of Native Americans. She made a huge sacrifice, the loss of a solitary native culture, but she managed to utilize, and maximize, the western influences in her life by helping her own people.

In Lone Ranger, Sherman Alexie tells the story of Victor’s coming of age and his life upon a reservation. He talks of alcoholism, basketball, trouble with the law, friendships and his relationship with his father. The theme of survival begins in the first chapter after a hurricane when “[…] all the Indians, the eternal survivors, gathered to count their losses” (11).

Alexie effectively tells the Native American survival story by using the tool of storytelling. His book is composed of mini stories, with the emphasis on storytelling itself throughout. The main storyteller in the book is Thomas-Builds-the Fire, a friend who is constantly telling stories that “nobody wanted to listen to” (61) yet he “always had something to say” (61). Thomas told stories because he believed somebody would be able to learn something from them just as Alexie intends the reader of Lone Ranger to learn something about Native American culture. It is through the stories that NA culture survives.

Linda Hogan joins Handsome Lake, Zitkala-Sa, and Serman Alexie’s theme of loss and survival in her poem, “The Truth Is.” This poem speaks of a woman whose left hand is a Chickasaw hand and her right hand is a white hand. Her conflict over the loss of her NA identity is emphasized in the second stanza where she speaks of being “crowded together” (295). Also, in stanzas three and five her white hand speaks for the dominant culture and tells her to forget the past while her Chickasaw hand says, “you know which pocket the enemy lives in/…remember how to fight/…keep right on walking/…remember who killed who.

Here again, we see a NA struggling to balance between minority and dominant worlds, yet the struggle is non-defeating. The speaker survives, ending the poem with “Relax, there are other things to think about,” using another tool of NA narrative (humor) to switch from her hands to her feet.

Whether these authors use the dominant culture’s own language (Columbus, Eden reference of the “red apples”) or their own unique techniques, the message of NA loss and survival is clear. Each author appears to understand what N. Scott Momaday meant when he wrote, “Loss was in the order of things…,” meaning loss is part of the NA destiny. However, he also claims their narrative remains “unfinished.” I believe he is right. [TStJ]

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A minority is a group of people who involuntarily participated with the dominant culture and lack both the opinion (voice), or choice in the matter.  Native Americans were forced from their homes.  Killed in masses as if they were savage animals in the wild, the dominant culture took over their land and their lives.  Like the African Americans they had no choice where they were going to live, if they fought for their homes they were murdered.  The dominant culture has pushed the Native Americans aside and tucked the secret away into quaint reservations and quieted the masses.  They had no choice and no voice.  For these reasons and so many more Native Americans are considered to be minorities. 

Native Americans narrative is a continual story of “Loss and Survival”.  They lost their land and way of life, but they survived.  In fact, many narratives tell the story of how the “buffalo will return” and the dominant culture will fade.  The dominant culture often portrays the Native Americans as the – “Vanishing Indian” – a dying breed of wise, piece-pipe smoking people.  Although many are wise, this version is the dominant cultures over romanticized distortion of truth. 

The American Dream – hope of prosperity in lands and wealth – is the Native American’s Nightmare.  If the dominant culture gains land and wealth, what happens to the Natives?  Native Americans are known for their origin stories which range from how the rainbow and stars came along – to how the “white” man came to America.  One such story is Handsome Lake’s “How America Was Discovered”, which is a retelling of the Columbus story.  A man is said to visit his Lord (who is evil in disguise) in a “castle built of gold” and here he is given five things to make the Natives weak.  He was given cards to “gamble away their goods”, money to “make them dishonest”, a fiddle to make their women dance and their “lower natures to command them”, whiskey to make them do “evil” things, and blood corruption to take away their body strength.   The man took these devices and gave them to Columbus who then sailed off and discovered America bringing the things to the Natives.  This story shows how the dominant culture by attempting the Dream brought in things that weakened the Natives. 

The devices of cards and whiskey which the dominant culture brought to the “New World” with them are the same devices which the Native Americans are known for today.  Native Americans are known for some of the most famous casino, bar and gambling establishments. . . . [GH]

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