ipl-logo

Black Elk Speaks Book Report

521 Words3 Pages

Black Elk Speaks, is a personal narrative that tells a story about Black Elk who is a medicine man of the Lakota tribe; the book is narrated by John Neihardt and is twenty-five chapters long. Black Elk mostly talks about the visions he had when he was a young child. Black Elk explains to Neihardt that he had his very first vision when he was five years old and he says that he saw two men appeared in the sky singing a sacred song (Black Elk Speaks p.17). The second vision that Black Elk tells Neihardt about is a very detailed one that takes place when he falls ill for a few days. The vision that he had involved him seeing a highly detailed symbolic message from his ancestors. During the vision Black Elk learns from one of his Grandfather 's that …show more content…

From my understanding of what I read Black Elk seems to be destined to help lead his people, but he either lacks the confidence to do so or he is afraid to do so. Thinking about the struggle Black Elk is going through when it comes to acting on his visions I believe that Black Elk, like myself had a problem taking action in situations that needs you to. For example, when Black Elk recovered from his illness people were still noticing that he was acting strange (almost like he was still sick), but the reason for that was because he was holding in the visions he had just had. I personally have had moments in my life that I needed to do something that scared me and instead of talking to someone about it I bottled it in and my friends and family noticed that something was wrong with me. I really did enjoy reading Black Elk Speaks and I do believe that this is a reading assignment that you should assign in the future. This story teaches the readers about Native American history and it also allows the reader to connect with Black Elk because he talks about some of the inner battles he faced which is something most people can relate to. In conclusion, I believe that Black Elk Speaks is a great book and it teaches the reader a lot of Native American history, and it also makes the reader look at themselves and mirror and think about past

Show More
Related
753 Words | 4 Pages

As he grows up he has no choice but to identify himself as an American because of the way that the country was changing. The Ottawas slowly became involved with the American government as they signed more and more treaties. “March 28th, 1836, a treaty was signed at Washington, not with the free will of the Indians, but by compulsion” (Blackbird 23). From this statement it can be assumed that Blackbird is not happy with how the Indians are treated even though they are Americans themselves. Blackbird also describes in his book the intermingling of white culture into his tribe through weapons, liquor, and language.

Read More
451 Words | 2 Pages

I chose the book Black Hearts by Jim Frederick because it was recommended to me by First Lieutenant Smaldone. He had to read it as course material during his training at TBS (The Basic School). Officers go to TBS following Officer Candidate School where newly commissioned officers learn to lead and inspire fellow Marines. Black Hearts is a non-fiction story about the 502nd Infantry Regiment’s deployment to a region south of Baghdad, Iraq and it’s breakdown of leadership, morale, and discipline. The Unit was known as “The Black Heart Brigade.”

Read More
1483 Words | 6 Pages

There are multiple scenarios in which a society can collapse, communities will fall, and new ones will be formed. A bombing inside of a city is one such scenario that can cause a disruption within society. The book Tribe by Sebastian Junger explains multiple situations about how communities can change and how that change will impact the people within the community. Junger also examines the lives of people even after they are out of the conflicts that they were in before, such as victims of PTSD. Tribe does not focus on only one community because every person is part of a multitude of communities based off his/her beliefs.

Read More
457 Words | 2 Pages

To lose their power, their homes, and their land. They were suffering greatly from everything that the Wasichus were doing to them. “I know now what this meant, that the bison were a gift of a good spirit and were our strength, but we should lose them” (30). Even during the great vision, Black Elk saw that he would not only lose the bison, but the strength of his tribe that went along with the bison. Through the duration of Black Elk’s trip to and from Europe, diseased, Bison and Elk were thrown overboard which also symbolized the tribe’s pain and suffering throughout the third and fourth ascents seen in the great

Read More
866 Words | 4 Pages

Character Analysis Essay Throughout the story, The Things They Carried, written by Tim O’Brien, the author presents Kiowa as a complex and intelligent troop by using multiple indirect and sometimes confusing quotes like, “The earth is slow, but the buffalo is patient…” (O’Brien 35). It is for these mystical and spiritual quotes/characteristics why I chose to write this essay over him. I found some of these characterizations through the character’s thoughts, his actions/what he says, and what others say about him.

Read More
541 Words | 3 Pages

In the speech, Black Hawk shifts from first person to third person “We set up the war-whoop, and dug up the tomahawk; our knives were ready, and the heart of Black Hawk swelled high in his bosom, when he led his warriors to battle.” Black Hawk say he led in the noble fight as a team. Black Hawk switches between first and third person to tell the Indians that he has done everything to save his people, but now that he’s a prisoner, it’s time for them to take . In the third person, Black Hawk states “ He is satisfied. He will go to the world of spirits contented.

Read More
746 Words | 3 Pages

Our narrator is physically mortified in the "Battle Royal" chapter and promptly starts a mortifying discourse on the force of lowliness - mortification and fear play their part, and experience unusual changes all through, as confirm by Bledsoe's strategic maneuvers, and by our storyteller's administration and control of different groups to which he is bound. In the story there are some blind and half-blind figures. The leader of of the brotherhood, a.k.a Brother Jack had a glass eye, in chapter 16 he referred black people as one eyed mice in his speech.

Read More
996 Words | 4 Pages

Allen Dwight Callahan’s The Talking Book: African Americans and the Bible connects biblical stories and images to the politics, music and, religion, the book shows how important the Bible is to black culture. African Americans first came to know the Bible because of slavery and at that time the religious groups would read it to them instead of teaching them by letting them encounter it for themselves. Later the Bibles stories became the source of spirituals and songs, and after the Civil War motivation for learning to read. Allen Callahan traces the Bible culture that developed during and following enslavement. He identifies the most important biblical images for African Americans, Exile, Exodus, Ethiopia, and Emmanuel and discusses their recurrence and the relationship they have with African Americans and African American culture.

Read More
504 Words | 3 Pages

The passage begins by alerting the reader of the she-wolf’s death, witnessed by a man referred to by “he”. In the second paragraph of the passage, the man makes a fire, which is supposed to get him through the night. Contrary to the darkness, the light of

Read More
923 Words | 4 Pages

Also, with the help of Ootek, a local Eskimo he was able to understand how wolves communicate and hunt, and he saw that these wolves were not a tremendous threat to the caribou. This book gives the reader a view into the life of these wild animals and how they all work together in their unique environment. Mowat had many doubts, but he slowly understood the truth about wolves. He also spent time following the wolves as they hunted and he examined their techniques. Mowat even experienced close up encounters and the wolves did not treat him like a foreigner.

Read More
1257 Words | 6 Pages

As technology has advanced, so has society’s access to said technology. In turn, ethical dilemmas arise, one of those dilemmas being the ethics of prenatal testing and selective abortion. Author Marta Soniewicka writes her academic journal, “Failure of Imagination: Disability and the Ethics of Selective reproduction,” to examine and dismantle leading arguments in the the discussion. With esteemed credentials, Soniewicka uses pathos and logos to strengthen her position that human life cannot be diminished to utility like facts and that all human nature must be taken into account. Marta Soniewicka attended the Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland where she earned her Doctorate of Laws.

Read More
1820 Words | 8 Pages

‘Ck’o’yo magic won’t work if someone is watching us” (Silko, 230). Tayo relates to this image of a half-wolf half-man because he believes society sees his native roots as animalistic. Through this story Tayo discovers the power of Native American mythology and its ability to stand up to evil and sometimes even white culture. While Tayo is learning the culture’s traditional stories he is also healing slowly by becoming more enlightened about himself and understanding more of his cultural background. Tayo is getting closer to completing the ceremony because all of these traditional stories are intertwining together.

Read More
406 Words | 2 Pages

Although this novel included a telepathic gorilla, it presented many problems present in today’s society. Ishmael was an avid critic of the hunting and gathering lifestyle. A problem Quinn had with this lifestyle was the tendency to overhunt. For example, he says “when animals go hunting—even extremely

Read More
705 Words | 3 Pages

In the novel of the Call of the Wild, Buck tried to adapt to his new and difficult life. He was forced to help the men find gold; he experienced a big transformation in him. At the end, he transformed into a new and different dog. Buck went through physical, mental and environmental changes. In my essay, I talked about how Buck was like at the beginning, what he changed into, and how he was forced to adapt his new environment, and underwent these changes.

Read More
658 Words | 3 Pages

He goes on to show how different white men and Native Americans are; by how they collect food by hunting, where they choose to live is not in the same place for long periods, and although white men have everything they did not have the right to take away liberty.

Read More

More about Black Elk Speaks Book Report

Related Topics

Open Document