Don T Pass Me Sparknotes

Eric Gansworth offers us all a powerful reminder of the complex challenges Indigenous youth face, coming to terms with their struggles. Don’t Pass Me By by Eric Gansworth follows the issues of race, identity and belonging through the experiences of his characters. How going to a predominantly white school affects visible minorities and their different personas watching the emotional tolls of feeling an outsider has on them. The short story explores how each character adopts to fit into a world that often treats them as lesser while also speaking on the impact of systemic racism on the lives of visible minorities and the ways in which individuals choose to cope with these challenges.

This short story allows us to take a peek into the thoughts

Strangers would know exactly where I was from. I have a big hawky Indian nose, thick lips, and long black hair tied back in a sneh-wheh, now past its second summer.” (Gansworth p. 39) For those, Hubert for example, blending in isn’t as simple as a straight line. For those whose features are clearly Indigenous with brown skin and eyes, long black hair, and noses resembling those of a bird's beak they stick out like a sore thumb, polar opposites to those of their white counterparts. “Hayley Sampson's dad was white, so people said she had half-Indian blood, which I thought was bizarre. Did she bleed different colors depending on where she got cut? This half blood allowed her to almost cover up any visible trace of us.” (Gansworth p. 40) Others had a simpler time fitting in, but this could also lead to larger identity crisises. With the added fact that Hayley is half-white, her native features are evidently diluted. This allows her process of camouflage half as difficult as others. Her skin paler, nose less prominent, and lips thinner she sustained those more Eurocentric features while still having a balance of those strong Indigenous features which

The struggle for identity is pushed by those around you and in the case of these Indigenous youth are being heavily influenced by both their culture and who they are but also by their white peers and will to fit in. ““How come you let those guys talk like that?” she asked, pretending she hadn't chosen to be deep under-cover, like cop show heroes trying to spy on criminals in their hideouts. "I was the only Indian there," I said, and it was out before I could slam my big skut-yeah shut. “I just meant. . . guy! I was the only Indian guy there.”” (Gansworth p. 46 ) In the case of Hayley she is stuck in herself, with identities from both races intertwined in one, she struggles to really fit into either one perfectly. Too native for the white kids but too white for the native kids. This interaction between her and Hubert really portrays her internal battle. He doesn't see her as fully Indigenous accidentally letting it slip to her that he doesn’t see them as equal when it comes to race. She understands she's different and in part ignores him at school, fitting in with the white kids, but the second she's back on that bus to the Rez it becomes clear to her that she isn’t really herslef. Forever stuck between two worlds. Hubert on the other hand doesn’t get the luxury of switching between the two, hes very obviously Indigenous