Alienating And Stressing The Wild Thomas King Summary

Alienating and Suppressing the Wild

Thomas King's A Short History of Indians in Canada introduces the effects of colonialism and bias that is established on indigenous peoples' reputation through the use of satire. King's play on major metaphors and animal depiction of indigenous people paints an image of an abhorrent and gruesome history. Through moments of humour, King makes references to racial profiling, stereotypes and mistreatment as being historically true. Thomas King utilizes industrialization versus the natural world to incorporate the effects of colonialism and how representing indigenous people as birds made them the spectacle of the civilized world. The colonizer dominance and power imbalance are evident and demonstrated often

Through prominent symbols in the short story such as buildings and concrete, the indigenous population is illustrated as drunkards and alcohol abusers. Despite the Native Canadians being genetically allergic to alcohol, they still consume it to provide temporary happiness and fight oppression. Daily life becomes unbearable due to marginalization, "Most of them are just stunned, says Rudy." (Thomas King 63). This statement is subliminal as it is used for King to hint at the reservation system. However, marginalization did not just entail land, but also their culture. "The live ones we tag, says Bill. Take them to the shelter. Nurse them back to health. Release them in the wild." (King 64) explains the idea of residential schools and how the colonizer culture successfully broke up indigenous families and assimilated children into the settler culture. The culture clash between the Native Canadians and colonizer population was a problem to the western society and was unfortunately solved by the attempted termination of the indigenous culture. Once again, Thomas King portrays indigenous people by stereotypical means. The "wild" refers to them as being animals, savages and uneducated along with tagging them, similarly how hunters tag animals to keep track of them possibly due to them being a threat to society. All these effects of colonialism have caused

This is ironic since Thomas King uses satire and humour to mock the colonizer population. King characterizes the Native Canadians as victims of disdain such as "Looking for some excitement?" (King 62), "Thought you'd enjoy that, sir, says the doorman." (King 64), and "It was spectacular." (King 64). Through these quotes, watching indigenous people "fly" into buildings was considered entertainment and their death was considered a "spectacle". This passage demonstrates power imbalance as only indigenous people are dying and suffering in A Short History of Indians in Canada. The Native Canadians death is turned into a bird-watching activity as Bill says, "Holy! Says Bill. Holy! Says Rudy. Check the book, says Bill. Just to be sure… A Navajo! Don't normally see Navajos this far north." (King 63). Moreover, King utilizes this quote to tie in with a previous statement that indigenous people are nomadic and migratory. He specifically portrays the Navajos as a rare type of birds that were never seen before in Toronto. It correlates to them being driven out of their home by the colonizers and hints at the reservation system as they have no permanent abode. The colonizers continue to be bewildered by the indigenous culture as Bill says, "Some people never see this, says Bill. One of nature's mysteries. A