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Alcoholism In Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

1074 Words5 Pages

Indian Horse, a severe painful yet beautiful novel by Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese, concerns Saul Indian Horse, a former hockey star undergoing treatment for alcoholism. Saul chronicles his life story as a means of identifying the source of his addiction. His autobiography is a familiar vehicle for conveying the novel’s plot. At the same time, it demonstrates how knowing your own story can heal a broken spirit. In the novel by the protagonist Saul Indian Horse faces many battles throughout the duration of his life. In the beginning he is removed from his family and culture and put into residential school, one of Canada’s darkest corners. While attending residential school Saul faces many tragic experiences, these include abuse, rape, dehumanization, …show more content…

His hours were consumed with training and practicing which soon lead him to be good enough to get him a pass out of residential school. Fred Kelly came and brought Saul to his home on a reserve in Manitouwadge. Saul then played for the Moose, the town team. All the boys on the team were First Nations just like Saul, just a lot larger in size. The other Moose used their size to better Saul, making him work harder than he ever has to get the puck and skate the play. Eventually Saul was the star on the Moose, they started playing against tougher town teams. The town teams belittled the Moose, whether they won or lost spitting racist comments at them and abusing them. Eventually all of the hate that hockey originally took away for Saul came swinging in a full force through hockey. Saul feels like he has lost everything. He can no longer escape the hate so he turns to a bottle hoping to drown out and dim down all the hateful things anyone has ever said to …show more content…

Saul used to read books during the late nights until he fell asleep. He got in a big fight which made him feel guilty and the reasons to all abuse that he faces at the school. That’s when he was introduced to alcohol the gateway to relieve his pain that burnt in him every day and night. He meets Ervin sift who helps him with his alcoholism, Ervin was his best friend at the time and they discussed what they could have done in the future. Saul is enclosed that he didn’t want to share his past with Ervin and he left. His alcoholism got way worse that he would have dies if he had not changed his ways. He goes to an Ojibway centre, the New Dawn where he receives lots of help with his addiction and most of all tell his

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Wagamese uses the setting in Indian Horse to depict the mood in the story mirroring the way Saul is feeling with the descriptor words of the setting all while thickening the plot. The attitude of the novel is guided by how the setting is described. “The walls were sickly green. At every landing were doors of frosted glass so the light was pale and gave

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Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese Research Paper

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Saul has continuously been targeted physically in and out of St. Jeromes and this accumulation leads him to angriness. Also, the underneath of an iceberg is dangerous, suggesting that the Saul fears his identity. In addition, Wagamese shows how the lasting trauma of St. Jerome's forces Saul to isolate and cope with alcohol. Wagamese shows the impact trauma has on Saul’s mental health. Saul is faced with discrimination and he finds a way to cope, as he says, “In alcohol I found an antidote to exile.

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Saul states, “In the spirit of hockey I believed I had found community, a shelter and a heaven from everything bleak and ugly in the world” (Wagamese 90). Thus, hockey serves as an escape route for all the emotional turmoil that Saul has gone through, and he uses the hockey spirit as a tool to facilitate his healing

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641 Words | 3 Pages

Using hockey as an outlet, Saul escapes the horrendous influence of the school and copes with the many atrocities he faces and ultimately reclaims his true self. For Saul, hockey became a means in which he can escape the abuse from St. Jerome’s. For example, when Father Leboutillier learned of Saul’s interest and skill in the game, the both of them became closer, in which Saul describes Father Leboutillier as a father figure. Saul quotes, “Father Leboutillier was my ally. When the nuns

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The detrimental and unfair categorization of people by race, gender and more, commonly known as discrimination, affects many in society both mentally and emotionally. Many instances of this act of hatred occurred among Aboriginal and Native Canadians in the 20th century. However, for a little Native Indian boy stepping onto the rink, this is the norm that surrounds him. Saul Indian Horse, in Richard Wagamese’s “Indian Horse”, faces discrimination head on, where his strengths for hockey are limited by the racial discrimination from the surrounding white ethnicity. Consequently, this racism draws him into a mentally unstable state, where he suffers heavy consequences.

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Saul’s life at St.Jerome 's was hell, everywhere he looked there was agony and heartbreak. “We lived under constant threat. If it wasn’t the direct physical threat of beatings, the Iron Sisters or vanishing, it was the dire threat if purgatory, hell…” Page 80. As a result hockey became an escape for Saul, something so pure that helped Saul cope with the nightmare his life became.

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While Saul tries to practice with the other recruits he again feels neglected and alienated because he is Indigenous, but this time he has already experienced all this harassment before, he’s learned from his past how to deal with this verbal and physical assault and come out on top, and this is exactly what he achieves with using his talents to shut down his bullies. This awareness did not stick with Saul however, the constant harassment and racism he received from players, fans, and journalists were sickening, rather than stating Saul was an excellent hockey player the papers characterize him as “the Rampaging Redskin.” Comments like this drove Saul further away from being able to control his anger and emotions correctly, instead, he started playing like a “cheap goon,” throwing out slashes, being more aggressive than he has ever been, and sometimes trying to pick fights with other players, becoming a player he never wanted to be, resulting in him being kicked from the team. The next time he went back to hockey was his journey back to St. Jerome’s after leaving his rehabilitation called the New Dawn Center because of his alcohol addiction that came after the NHL, while at St. Jerome's he goes into a shocking fact that Father LeBoutillier was sexually abusing Saul while he was at this school, Saul starts to recall to the abuse and racism he endured as a child and

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It is shown through a quote from the novel "The game of hockey connected me to the spirit of my ancestors, to the land and the water, and to all the native people who came before me" . This quote shows how hockey is a rediscovery of his cultural identity. Through his journey in hockey, Saul realizes that the game is not just a sport but a way to connect with his Ojibwe roots. When Saul steps onto the ice the game becomes something that links him to his ancestors, and the land. The game becomes a symbol of resilience and cultural survival, Saul carries forward the legacy of his ancestors.

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964 Words | 4 Pages

Initially, when Saul starts playing with his hockey reserve team, he experiences his first encounter with racism. While Saul is enjoying the game, he is suddenly kicked out of the team and remarks to Mr. Leboutiller the reason behind this is “‘because I am an Indian, isn’t it’ ‘yes’, he said” (Wagamese 91). At this moment, Saul is a victim of exclusion at a young age and recognises; not only in the residential school are Indians victims of discrimination due their appearance, culture and differences, but also outside of the residential school. Through his first encounter with exclusion, he slowly notices the segregation that surrounds him resulting in mental abuse because he becomes very cautious. After Saul leaves the residential school to live with the Kelly’s, he begins to play with the Moose.

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1139 Words | 5 Pages

“Bruises fade, but the pain lasts forever” (Christina Kelly). This compelling quote depicts the horrifying side effects of abuse. In the gripping novel titled “Indian Horse,” author Richard Wagamese successfully informs readers about the severely unfair conditions in which the Native Indians were treated. Through Saul’s terrifying experiences in the Residential school and hockey tournaments, readers can effectively identify the purpose of the novel – treating someone through any kind of abuse can leave them with long lasting pain, and memories that will haunt them forever. There were numerous incidents at the residential school regarding physical abuse, and after effects that followed.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

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2034 Words | 9 Pages

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