Cottagers And Indians Sparknotes

Maya Huntley Mr. Beattie NBE 3U1 April, 9th, 2024 Finding a Purpose in Cottagers and Indians Cottagers and Indians, by Drew Hayden Taylor perfectly depicted that in many cases, when people experience tragic, life-altering events, they try to find a cause they care enough about to fight for; Hoping to find a purpose and a reason to wake up in the morning. This play follows one of the main protagonists, Arthur, as he plants manoomin for his daughter Marie. Planting manoomin was a way for Arthur to cope after experiencing the tragic loss of his only child. This can be shown when Maureen is confronted by Maureen about being selfish; he explains that. “We’ve never had all those diseases when we ate wild meat and manoeuvring. I’m doing this for Marie.

We can infer that she has a negative connotation towards giving in, as shown when she says, “That means giving in,” because she does not mention it in a positive light. Based on the quote, we can infer that for her, giving in means losing and that she did not try her hardest to fight. By continuing the wild rice fight with Arthur, it is her way of redeeming herself and finding a purpose to continue fighting. We can see this with the repetition of the word acceptance. Maureen relates acceptance to giving, which to her is not a good thing. In the play, both Maureen and Arthur refuse to give up the fight, even though, in the end, you can see Arthur has clearly won. Maureen: “I need to fight. That is what makes me wake up in the morning.” Arthur: “I didn’t want to tell Ms. Poole that, basically, the cottagers had already lost the war.” (59). In this quote, it is evident Maureen’s main goal and purpose is to continue fighting after losing her husband, as she mentions that being her only source of life when waking up. Thus, in turn, she fuels her main argument with Arthur. Although, ironically, Arthur is in a similar situation, and these mindsets