LITR 4332: American Minority Literature
final exam 2008 sample answers

Copy of final exam

essay on American Indian literature: (creative option).
Apply another course objective to American Indian Stories and Love Medicine.

Mary Anne Kane

Creative Option 

Native American in an Anglo World

The main purpose of Objective 6: Minorities and Language is to be able to teach the reader to look at the minority writers’ and speakers’ experiences with literacy, as well as how those experiences influence both literature and language, in order to understand the writings of minorities better.  Objective 6a teaches the reader how to see literacy as not only the main code of modern existence, but as a key or the way to empowerment.  Objective 6b shows the reader how all speakers and writers use literary devices, such as the narrative and figures of speech, to bring their materials to life for the reader.  In American Indian Stories and in Love Medicine, Zitkala-Sa and Louise Erdrich both illustrate these aspects of Objective 6 fluently in their writings.  Zitkala-Sa and Erdrich show through their stories how literacy is a very important key when it comes to empowerment.  They also use many literary devices to bring their stories to a more personal level to the reader.

In American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa shows how education is important, but is also a factor that will forever change the traditional influences the old people have over the newer, educated young people.  The author’s mother expresses her concerns for her daughter and the cross-roads she will be facing with education when she says, “She will need an education when she is grown,…This tearing her away, so young, from her mother is necessary, if I would have her an educated woman.…But I know my daughter must suffer keenly in this experiment.”  As Veronica Valdez stated in her Literary Style Presentation on October 21, 2008, “The mother knows that even though her daughter will ‘suffer keenly in this experiment’ she will need an education.”  It is as if she is reluctant to allow her daughter to pursue this education because she knows that there will also be hardships along with the “gift” of the white man’s education.  Her mother knows that some education is important, but does not want her to get too much education because it also means her getting further and further away from her roots.

The author has a hard-driven desire to continue with her schooling…much to the chagrin of her mother.  Her mother knows from her son’s experience that the white man’s education does not ensure success in this world.  When she tells the author of her brother’s losing his job, the reader can see that she places no faith in the white man’s ways.  “…has he not told you that the Great Father at Washington sent a white son to take your brother's pen from him? Since then Dawee has not been able to make use of the education the Eastern school has given him.”  Her fears and ideas of the white man’s education have come to fruition for her family.  She sees no need for her daughter to give up any more of her time, or her life, to the dreams she has of education.  The reader can easily see the crux of the dilemma.

In American Indian Stories, Zitkala-Sa uses her innate sense of story-telling to weave her memories into a nice package the reader can associate with.  When reading the story of her first attempt at being a hostess, the Indian culture is seen and understood to be something the young and the old adhere to.  The Indian culture of hospitality was something Zitkala-Sa learned as a child, watching her mother welcome guests into her home.  This hospitality also extended to the guests who entered the home.  Zitkala-Sa described the coffee grounds, “heated” over dead ashes, and of serving Wiyaka-Napbina a piece of unleavened bread.  She goes on to say that “neither [her mother] nor the warrior, whom the law of our custom had compelled to partake of my insipid hospitality, said anything to embarrass me.”  Wiyaka-Napbina graciously accepted the muddy warm water and the small piece of unleavened bread the child had placed before him.  There was no attempt to shame the child on the part of either her mother or their guest.

In Love Medicine, Louise Erdrich also writes about education in her book.  Albertine Johnson used education as a means to escape from her mother and the relationship they had.  She lived far away from home, in the white man’s world, and was going to school to become a nurse.  “…my classes were done, and although I still had not forgiven my mother, I decided to go home.  I wasn’t crazy abut the thought of seeing her, but our relationship was like a file she sharpened on, and necessary in that way.  So I threw a few books and some clothes in the backseat of my Mustang.” (11)  Albertine goes back home and back to her family’s ways when she goes home after the semester is over, and she is not looking forward to how things will be at home.

Erdrich also writes about King Howard Kashpaw, Jr. and how he used education as a way to show his independence and that he could be different from his father.  His teacher told Howard’s mom, Lynnette, that her son was very bright and asked him if she taught him how to read.  Lynnette responded that he must have learned it from watching Sesame Street (330).   In essence, neither she nor King, the boy’s father, would have actually taught their son how to read.  He must have learned it from all of the television he watched.  Then, when his new teacher gave him the choice of names he’d like to be called, he chose the name that would distinguish him from his father.  He did not want to be known as King or as Junior…he wanted to be called Howard.  When asked about this, King said, “He won’t claim his dad no more....He’s too good.” (344)  Howard would rather be called by his white name than by his Indian name so that he could put some distance between himself and his father, and possibly, his native American heritage.

In another story, Erdrich writes of an old Indian woman named Rushes Bear.  When it came time to send her children to school, Rushes Bear allowed Nector to attend the government school.  She hid her other son, Eli, so he would not attend school.  Nector learned the white man’s reading and writing, while Eli learned the ways of the woods.  In many people’s minds, this difference could have been what determined the lucidity of the minds of the two men in their old age.  Nector’s mind left him early and Eli stayed sharp (19).

When it comes to narratives, Erdrich is a master.  One of her stories is of a man named Lipsha Morrisey.  Lipsha tells of his gift of Love Medicine in a story about his Grandma and Grandpa.  His Grandma asks him to use his Love Medicine to make Grandpa fall in love with her again.  Lipsha thinks that since geese mate for life, if he uses the hearts of two geese, Grandpa will fall in love with Grandma again and they will be together for the rest of their lives.   Unfortunately, Lipsha failed to shoot two geese and ended up buying two turkeys from the store.  Before he took them home to work his medicine, he tried to get a priest and a nun to bless them.  When they wouldn’t bless the turkey hearts for him, Lipsha blessed them himself.  Grandma had no problem with the idea of eating the hearts of the love birds and ate the heart of the female without even cooking it.  She then prepared the heart of the male for Grandpa to eat.  When he didn’t want to eat it, Grandma ended up hitting him in the back to make him swallow it, making him choke to death.

A week after Grandpa was buried, Grandma said that Grandpa had come back to her.  It was then that Lipsha confessed that the hearts he had used in the Love Medicine were not the hearts of geese, but of store-bought turkeys.  As he explained the situation to Grandma, he said, “Love medicine ain’t what brings him back to you, Grandma.…He loved you over time and distance, but he went off so quick he never got the chance to tell you how he loves you, how he doesn’t blame you, how he understands.  It’s true feeling, not no magic.  No supermarket heart could have brung him back” (257).  Erdrich told the story of how the love they had shared is what overcame death…not the gift of his Love Medicine.

In Narratives of Ethnicity:  Native Americans and Mexican-Americans, written for the Final Exam in 2005, JM writes that “Government and missionary schools were the vehicle for assimilation of Native America’s youth into the dominant culture through literacy.…However, this technique of luring children into the schools causes them to be alienated from their families, thus it strikes at the heart of traditional culture.  It was a painful rift, and when the children returned to their families, they were torn as to which culture was the correct on to model their own lives after.  Literacy was a useful outcome in this situation, but the children lost their sense of tradition.”  This is a very astute observation on the part of JM.  There are many examples of this situation in the texts used in this class.

JM goes on to say that “Native Americans are traditionally an oral culture.  There was, until recently, very little activity that resembled written texts.  All the stories told were from an oral tradition.…Native Americans, in order to preserve their history, have had to adapt and began to transcribe their oral traditions into the written word.  Since then, oral traditions have disappeared.  Therefore, literacy is a valuable tool that has allowed part of Native American culture to survive.”  JM has summarized the good and the bad of literacy in Native American culture.  It is good that they are able to record their traditions in writing; yet, the oral traditions have decreased dramatically at the same time.

What I’ve learned through this essay about Objectives 6a and 6b, American Indian Culture and literature is that the Native American writers we read in class are master storytellers.  Both Zitkala-Sa and Louise Erdrich tell stories of how the white man’s education had varying effects on their people.  For some, the education changed their lives for the better.  Literacy can be a tool used to enable the people who obtain education.  The way that both of these authors use narratives to bring the characters and the stories to life is incredible.  These stories can make the reader feel like they are a part of the story.  This is what only the best storytellers accomplish…and the works of Zitkala-Sa and Louise Erdrich fulfill this requirement easily.

Sarah Wells

Creative Option

Native Americans: Assimilate or Resist?

            Native Americans have experienced many sufferings since the dominant white culture took over America. Unlike African Americans, who were brought over from Africa, the Native Americans already had land rights in America when the white men arrived. Basically, the Native Americans were invaded by the dominant culture, thus resulting in involuntary participation. Because of this, Native Americans must decide whether or not they want to join the dominant culture or resist it.

            According to Objective 3, immigrants join the dominant American culture, while minorities remain separate from it. Deciding whether to assimilate or resist the dominant culture is something that is witnessed in much of Native American literature. The girl of American Indian Stories shows examples of both assimilation and resisting. When she is first presented with the idea of going to school, she is very willing to go with the dominant culture. When her mother originally did not say yes to her going with the missionaries, she responded by saying “Oh, mother, it is not that I wish to leave you, but I want to see the wonderful Eastern land” (43). She has never seen the land where the dominant culture resides, but she thinks that it must be beautiful. She knows that the dominant culture has more land and more money so she thinks that it will be a pleasant place to go to. This shows that she very badly wanted to become a part of the dominant culture.

            However, after the girl of American Indian Stories actually sees what life in the dominant culture is like, she decides that she does not want to assimilate as she originally thought she did.  Once there, she finds that she is not allowed to play in the orchards and eat red apples as she originally thought she would be able to. When the school tells her that she must cut her hair, she is unwilling because it is against her Indian traditions. She had been taught that “only unskilled warriors who were captured had their hair shingled by the enemy” (54). She responded to this by saying, “No, I will not submit! I will struggle first!” (54). She feels that having her hair cut will symbolize that she has been  imprisoned by the dominant culture. She now shows that she would rather resist the dominant culture than assimilate to it.

            The issue of assimilating or resisting is evident in Love Medicine as well. A prime example of a Native American assimilating to the dominant culture is King marrying a white woman, Lynette. When he marries her, he completely leaves behind his native culture. He moves off the reservation and into city. Then when he and his wife returned to the reservation to visit his family who have not assimilated, “they drove up to the front steps in their brand-new sports car” (15). King’s “World’s Greatest Fisherman” hat is also a form of assimilation. He wears it because he knows it will make him well-liked among the dominant culture. His wife Lynette confirms this by saying, “They think the world of him down in the Cities. Everybody knows him. They know him by that hat. It’s his number one” (36). King is a good example of a Native American who will do whatever it takes, including abandoning his roots, in order to assimilate to the dominant culture.

            Gerry Nanapush is the complete opposite of King. He tries to resist the dominant culture as much as possible. He does this through evading arrests and breaking the law. He does not feel that he needs to submit to the laws of the dominant culture. Every time Gerry is placed in a penitentiary, he managed to find a way to escape. For example, “greased with lard once, he squirmed into a six-foot-thick prison wall and vanished” (200). By doing this, he is showing that he will not be detained by a culture other than his own; “He boasted that no steel or concrete shitbarn could hold a Chippewa” (199). Gerry proved to be proud of his heritage and used the things he learned as an Indian to help him escape from the dominant culture.

Tanya Partida

Extended Families in Love Medicine

In reading Love Medicine by Louise Erdrich, I found that applying objective 4a was relevant to the story and the lives of characters. The objective states that “minority groups place more emphasis on ‘traditional’ or ‘community’ aspects of human society, such as extended families or alternative families, and they mistrust ‘institutions.’ The dominant culture celebrates individuals and nuclear families and identifies more with dominant-cultural institutions or its representatives, like law enforcement officers, teachers, and bureaucrats.”

The issue of the nuclear and extended families was the most dominating in the story, and, in my opinion, became the very essence of the novel. As I read through the story, I initially found the family relationships dauntingly confusing. I as read further, however, I became resigned to my frustration. The intricate web of family lineage certainly reinforces the ideas of the minorities and their views on families, as suggested in objective 4a, and it is what makes the novel so compelling. Erdrich’s story shows how the Native American minority, just as other minorities, do tend to concentrate of the ideas of extended families and community.

We can see this with the interaction of between nuclear and extended family members and with additions to family members. The adopted characters such as June and Lipsha form an important part of the family structure. The quarreling family members, aunts, uncles, cousins, brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers, grandparents, creates a sense of internal family conflict. What I found interesting were many different families came together through the years and the conflicts that arose between them. Different family names (the Kashpaws, Morriseys, Nanapush, and Lazarre) all come together to their form their own society. Although each family does put much focus on the extended and community family, there is also a sense of a need to detach.

As the older generations begin to assimilate they begin to find a need to create their own family unit. This is also heightened by the constant quarrelling that occurs between the families as a whole, which shows that although minorities tend to put much emphasis on their extended families is does not necessarily mean that they will get along. We can see this early in the novel with King, who is told by his wife Lynette that he behaves differently when he is around his family. The way the novel progresses, it takes us through each family’s experiences and shows how the family lines become intermingled with each other and how if affects each character and the entire communal family.