Analysis Of Dear John Wayne By Louise Erdrich

Dear John Wayne" by Louise Erdrich is a powerful poem that reflects on the history of colonization and the treatment of Native Americans by settlers. The experience of going to a drive-in movie theater and watching John Wayne films, which frequently portrayed Native Americans in negative roles, serves as the inspiration for this poem. The poem is narrated from the point of view of a person who is thinking back on the influence that these films have had on them and the way in which they have been influenced by their understanding of history and the world. The speaker and their friends are sitting on the hood of a Pontiac while they watch a drive-in movie. They are surrounded by smoke from the spirals that they are using to ward off mosquitoes. The poem starts with a description of the drive-in movie. However, in spite of their best efforts, the mosquitoes still find a way to get through the

The drum brakes, which served as a warning that there would be no peace between the two groups (Line,12). The arrows are depicted as a cloud of death that descends upon the settlers, who die in a tragically beautiful way, as if they are slipping back into the pages of history. The white clouds begin to turn blue, and the crowd begins to cheer as the image of John Wayne's face moves over them to represent the success of the settlers (Line,18). The speaker contemplates the scarred land that was once flesh, thinking about how each wound is a guarantee that the conflict will continue so long as people continue to put up a fight against it. The speaker also makes a comment about the blindness of the heart, pointing out that while the eye can see a lot, the heart cannot see nearly as much, and that death renders people owners of