Analysis Of School Days Of The Land Of Red Apples By Zitkala-Sa

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Zitkala-Sa describes her life experiences and memories that express serious disagreements between culture and assimilation along with Native American religion and Christianity. A good example of how Zitkala-Sa assimilated to Quaker tradition is “School Days of an Indian Girl” specifically the first chapter “The Land of Red Apples”. Throughout the text the reader witnesses Zitkala-Sa’s literary techniques that make the reader sympathize with the character and become more invested in the text. Zitkala-Sa’s work exposes the flagrant abuse of depriving an adolescent of language, culture, religion and recognizable surroundings. The text goes on to explicitly tell the story of how Zitkala-Sa returned to her former home and becomes depressed due to …show more content…

An example of this technique being used would be when the author is describing what it was like to arrive at the missionary school. “We were led toward an open door, where the brightness of the lights within flooded out over the heads of the excited palefaces who blocked the way.” (Zitkala-Sa) Here we see an example of descriptive writing by a description of the Quaker people and the room’s setting. Zitkala made this text to be seen from the eyes of a child, in order to achieve such a goal she implemented the use of vivid imagery and descriptive …show more content…

Writing this story through the eyes of a child makes the reader engaged and easily enticed by the author. Zitkala is aware of this method and uses it to make the white culture seem wrong and confusing. “A rosy-cheeked paleface woman caught me in her arms. I was both frightened and insulted by such trifling. I stared into her eyes, wishing her to let me stand on my own feet, but she jumped me up and down with increasing enthusiasm. My mother had never made a plaything of her wee daughter.” (Zitkala) Here we see Zitkala being frustrated with this strange women that grabbed her. From the reader's point of view there seems to be nothing wrong with this action, however once the reader understands Zitkala’s point of view the reader feels sympathetic towards her. Causing, questioning in the white culture. An example would be when a women frightens Zitkala with a picture of the devil showing crude imagery of how terrifying it is. By writing the story from the viewpoint of a little girl this causes the reader to question white culture and tradition. Zitkala’s skilled literacy and storytelling ability helps her create a strong and eloquent text that speaks for countless