Character Analysis: Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

Growing Up Young

Loss of innocence is when one is unaware of evil surrounding them especially in children of a young age. Saul remembers his traumatic past experiences and feels better when he talks it through with someone. In the novel, Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese, Saul is stripped of his innocence, which in turn makes him more violent and causes him to turn to alcohol to cope with and escape from his troubles. Loss of innocence at a young age can forcibly take away one’s dreams, ultimately leading to a life of negativity.

Hockey was the only source Saul was able to rely on, but with all the racism and his traumatic past, he is unable to pursue his passion for hockey. First, Saul starts to react to others when they are a threat to

When Saul plays the game fairly and all of a sudden when he gets hit, he fights back, “As we were skating back to our bench the Knights center slashed me behind the knees and I fell to the ice. There was no whistle. The crowd howled. My teammates even laughed. He was seated on the Knights bench by then and I skated over lazily. They all looked at me and made faces. I flipped my right glove off at the last second and drove my fist right into his face. I fought three of them before they hauled me off the ice. That was the end of any semblance of joy in the game for me” (Wagamese 165). Saul cannot continue with everyone being rude to him, he then finally lets out his rage and then gave up on the game. Saul wants to change his path and want to start working in Manitouwadge. When Saul return to Manitouwadge, he talks to Virgil and about how he does not want to play hockey big time, “‘I just want to play the game, Virg. I can’t do it with all that bullshit getting in the way.’ [He] nodded. ‘So what are you going to do now?’ ‘Go to work, I guess’ ” (171). Saul does not want to play the game because of all of the nonsense he gets from his games and Saul is now connecting to his past and how Father Leboutillier abused and took his innocence with hockey. He

Saul believes that alcohol is an antidote and this antidote allows him to be a different person than what he already is. Saul talks about how alcohol is the best choice, “In alcohol I found an antidote to exile… Amid the slaps and pokes and guffaws that greeted them, I discovered that being someone you are not is often easier than living with the person you are. I became drunk with that. Addicted” (181). Saul thinks that alcohol is an escape route to forgetting his memories but really it is worse because alcohol just makes one to think about the more depressing parts of life. Saul had given up all hope and drinking is just making it worse for him. Saul is found wasted and sleeping by Erv, “I was tired of my life, really tired, and I lost my ability to hold things together. I hung around the draft joints cadging drinks and hoping for a break. I was at a table in the corner of a workingman’s bar, almost passed out, when someone shook my shoulder” (182). It looks as though Saul wants to end his life, in the beginning all he did is play hockey but now all he does is drink. Saul’s only company before Erv was drinking and starts to miss it when he is with Erv. Saul talks about how he was so addicted he just had to get some, “The bleakness and I were old companions by then, and the only thing I knew was how to drink” (186). Saul is addicted to alcohol so much that he needs it to function