LITR 4332: American Minority Literature

Student Poetry Presentation 2004

"Lakota Sister / Cherokee Mother,".

by Victoria Lena Manyarrows

Unsettling America, 286-287

Reader: Sherry Mann

Respondent: Amy Sanders

Author Background Information

Victoria Lena Manyarrows was born April 1956. She received her master’s degree in Social work in 1993 at San Francisco State University. In addition, she received some art education and received Astraea National Lesbian Action Foundation Emerging Writers Award in poetry in 1994.

From a personal statement, she explained that her “work reflects [her] background and work as a Tsalagi / Eastern Cherokee Italian lesbian woman.” She also states that she writes to “not only release the worlds inside and give [herself] a voice, but also to encourage and educate, share and affirm the experiences of those who may read, visually enjoy and /or listen to [her] work –and who also have voices to be heard.”

Course Objectives

Objective 3-Cultural group’s relation to time:

Forgets the past- she [the mother] learned to deride/ deny/ trying to become a modern woman/ not a mountain woman

Objective 4-To register the minority dilemma of assimilation or resistance

Resistance-the straightest hair, the warrior spirit

Assimilation-example from objective 3

Literary Terminology

POINT OF VIEW (FIRST PERSON NARRATOR)

The I-narrator may be part of the action or an observer. As readers, we cannot know or witness anything the narrator does not tell us. We therefore share all the limitations of the narrator. This technique has the advantage of a sharp and precise focus. Moreover, you feel part of the story because the narrator's 'I' echoes the 'I' already in your own mind"

FREE VERSE

A fluid form which conforms to no set rules of traditional versification. In this case, the free in free verse refers to the freedom from fixed patterns of meter and rhyme.

See “Lakota Sister/ Cherokee Mother, p. 286-287

Interpretation from a previous student presentation

Simone stated from a 2002 poetry presentation that “ ‘Lakota Sister/Cherokee Mother’ shows the struggle faced by many minority families. The mother figure seems to want to move forward with time, where the daughter seems to be moving backward toward more traditional roots. This difference causes a struggle between the two. “

My interpretation

This poem is about a minority relationship between a mother and a daughter in conflict based on their decision to either resist or assimilate. The daughter wants to resist the dominant culture and appreciate that she is a mountain woman from the east and the south. The mother assimilates to the dominant culture, the modern culture. She doesn’t want to connect with her history. The daughter feels isolated because the mother denies her as her daughter. The mother wants to move on to become a part of the modern culture and continue to deny her heritage and culture.

Questions

1.      What is the impact of using free verse in this particular poem?

2.      Other than what I mentioned in my examples for objective 3, how does this poem relate to objective 3—Cultural group’s relation to time? Is there a key word in the objective? (hint: perhaps it’s a word used in the poem)

Objective 3

To compare and contrast the dominant “American Dream” narrative—which involves voluntary participation, forgetting the past, and individuals or nuclear families—with alternative narratives of American minorities, which involve involuntary participation, connecting to the past, and traditional, extended, or alternative families.

Tabular summary of contrasts between the dominant culture's "American Dream" narrative and minority narratives (still Objective 3)

3.      What do you think is the significance of the title, Lakota Sister/ Cherokee Mother?

4.      Is there anything else that strikes you about this poem?

Bibliography

http://www.sla.purdue.edu?WAAW/Corinne/Manyarrows.htm