Passion As A Means To Escape Trauma is something that affects everyone. It is something that can weigh down our souls and minds. In Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse, the main character Saul Indian Horse has experienced an intense amount of trauma and discrimination. He experienced years of family losses and had to endure the painstaking experience of attending residential school. However, throughout these challenges, Saul manages to find escapes with passion in many different aspects of his life. Through Saul Indian Horse’s eagerness to overcome trauma, Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse conveys how passion can relieve pain from abuse and discrimination. Saul uses his passion and care for his family to ease his pain. From the beginning of …show more content…
It allows him to break free from the torment and abuse he experiences at the school and in the past with his family. The game provides Saul with a sense of identity. He notes that “on the ice, [he feels] free” (22). Saul only sees hockey as a game, not something competitive or violent. He uses hockey to get away from problems that seem to follow him everywhere. The vile and tormenting experiences that Saul has to endure along with the stripping of his culture and identity, propel him to want to find a way to escape. Hockey is the only way Saul is able to get rid of those experiences, in turn, it allows him to fully immerse himself in the game. This passion for hockey continues as Saul grows into an adult and as he starts to take hockey more seriously. However, as Saul becomes familiar with the people he is up against, this passion starts to become a way that he takes out his anger and frustrations. He faces grotesque amounts of discrimination and racism from his teammates. As Saul tries to go pro, the white players on his team make his life as difficult as possible. Saul forgets the reason he started playing hockey.“[he] began to skate with deliberate intention of shoving [his] skill up the noses of those who belittled [him]” (164). Once Saul stops playing hockey and goes through a period of self discovery, hockey returns to him. He recognizes that hockey is not a battle ground. It is a passion that he is able to get lost in and deal with any hardships he has and will