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Indian Horse Sparknotes

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Indigenous Canadians have four times the risk of experiencing severe trauma than other Canadians (“Indigenous People”). The story Indian Horse explores various traumatising circumstances Indigenous people face and examines their effects. In Richard Wagamese’s novel, Saul’s inability to escape the difficulties of his past demonstrates that unprocessed trauma can derail one’s life. Throughout early childhood, his family life exposes him to mental illness and loss. Later, he represses the atrocities of residential school, building inner conflict and self hatred. Finally, the racism Saul experiences throughout his hockey career crushes his dreams and sends him spiralling. These trauma inducing experiences direct Saul to isolation and alcoholism, …show more content…

From a young age, Saul is surrounded by traumatised adults. When describing his life in the bush Wagamese writes “the spectre lived in the other adults too, [...] but it’s most chilling presence was in my mother” (Wagamese 9). The word spectre, means haunting presence, but Saul uses it to describe his parents’ emotional states. They experienced the loss of their identity and children to residential school. Saul characterising this as ‘chilling’ is significant because it demonstrates how he and his parents are disconnected and their inability to care for Saul. As a child, Saul can not understand their neglect is not his fault, so this damages his emotional state. The behaviour of adults around him, such as isolation and alcoholism exposes him to the toxic coping mechanisms which he adopts in …show more content…

Following her death on the way to Minaki, Saul realises how alone he is, stating “[Naomi was] frozen to death saving me, I was cast adrift on a strange new river” (42). Saul understands that he has lost any connection to his old life. The phrase “cast adrift” conveys Saul’s feelings of detachment from his culture and family and the imagery of the river emphasises the sensation of being swept away. This loss is extremely traumatic for Saul as Naomi, the final remnant of his family, is gone. Saul’s early childhood imparted grief that he was never taught to face as the adults in his life could not face their own. As a result, he carried these emotions into adulthood, where they were detrimental to his

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