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Indian Horse Sparknotes

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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

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211 Words | 1 Pages

In Shema Khan’s essay, “I was a Teenage Hijabi Hockey Player”, Khan exposes us to her relationship with the game of hockey. She provides readers with relatable memories, as both a fan and a player, and punctuates her stories with the view from a Muslim woman’s perspective. Khan excitedly reminisces about some of her earliest encounters with the game, describing the electric nature of hockey in 1970’s Montreal. Her love of the game continued into her post-secondary schooling; she even spearheading the formation of a women’s house league at Harvard. Throughout her recollections, Khan expresses her thrill at successfully encouraging others to join her on the ice, no matter their skill level, so that they too could experience the joy of the

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1216 Words | 5 Pages

Saul states, “In the spirit of hockey I believed I had found community, a shelter and a heaven from everything bleak and ugly in the world” (Wagamese 90). Thus, hockey serves as an escape route for all the emotional turmoil that Saul has gone through, and he uses the hockey spirit as a tool to facilitate his healing

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641 Words | 3 Pages

People encounter many obstacles in their lifetimes, obstacles that are too arduous to overcome by themselves. They must find a way to get through these difficulties, and there is always something, or someone, that helps keep them sane through these hard hours. To Saul Indian Horse, the main character of Richard Wagamese’s novel Indian Horse, that obstacle is St. Jerome’s Residential School and the very element that kept him sane was hockey. In the residential school, Saul is abused both mentally and physically, witnessing the continued deaths of his Indian classmates. Fortunately, Saul was able to keep himself sane through hockey.

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3669 Words | 15 Pages

Indian Horse In the book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul gains relationships through community. The Kellys provide Saul a place to call his home and they create a bond beyond just the billet family. Secondly, The land around Saul gives him a sense of family, the land is full of life to encourage Saul to not give up and he's not alone. Lastly, hockey offers Saul love and a feeling of worthiness that he is lacking while being at St. Jerome's Indian Residential School.

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863 Words | 4 Pages

Azya Edris ENG3U1 Mr. Houston May 10, 2023 The Reclamation of Cultural Identity in Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese The novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese portrays the reclamation of cultural identity as a means of healing and empowerment, exploring the devastating legacy of residential schools, the significance of cultural traditions, and the power of storytelling in fostering resilience and identity formation. Through the development of resilience and self-discovery, reconciliation with cultural identity, and overcoming addiction to find redemption,

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1114 Words | 5 Pages

Through the Medicine Wheel, we are reminded of our lifelong journey that is continuous upon birth and living through youth, adulthood and senior years. In Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse, the protagonist Saul experiences many obstacles which shape and develop his character. Saul’s life can be divided into more than the four stages of life to better understand his journey. Saul’s Life with His Family The time Saul was able to spend with his family was very short due to the effects of the white men.

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1188 Words | 5 Pages

The detrimental and unfair categorization of people by race, gender and more, commonly known as discrimination, affects many in society both mentally and emotionally. Many instances of this act of hatred occurred among Aboriginal and Native Canadians in the 20th century. However, for a little Native Indian boy stepping onto the rink, this is the norm that surrounds him. Saul Indian Horse, in Richard Wagamese’s “Indian Horse”, faces discrimination head on, where his strengths for hockey are limited by the racial discrimination from the surrounding white ethnicity. Consequently, this racism draws him into a mentally unstable state, where he suffers heavy consequences.

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829 Words | 4 Pages

Author Richard Wagamese conveys a message in his novel Indian Horse displaying the idea of sacrifice. Specifically how people must sacrifice belonging for survival. Wagamese uses Saul 's experiences, choices and general story to express this message. Throughout Saul’s life he is forced to make sacrifices for himself and the people around him in order to survive, his isolation is what gets him through. Everyday people see the reproductions of community and how surviving isn 't an easy thing.

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1014 Words | 5 Pages

Imagine living in a world where the government works to erase your cultural identity from you and your people. Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, follows the story of Saul Indian Horse, a young Anishinaabe boy who navigates through a racist, unjust system while pursuing his dream. Along the way, he gets put into a residential school where they work to remove his indigenous identity from him which leads to an internal struggle. To overcome this struggle he must return to his indigeneity; this is demonstrated by Saul reconnecting with his ancestors, re-embracing his native language in the form of prayers, and taking part in rituals important to his culture. In order to fully heal as a person, Saul must return to a missing piece of himself, his

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964 Words | 4 Pages

Initially, when Saul starts playing with his hockey reserve team, he experiences his first encounter with racism. While Saul is enjoying the game, he is suddenly kicked out of the team and remarks to Mr. Leboutiller the reason behind this is “‘because I am an Indian, isn’t it’ ‘yes’, he said” (Wagamese 91). At this moment, Saul is a victim of exclusion at a young age and recognises; not only in the residential school are Indians victims of discrimination due their appearance, culture and differences, but also outside of the residential school. Through his first encounter with exclusion, he slowly notices the segregation that surrounds him resulting in mental abuse because he becomes very cautious. After Saul leaves the residential school to live with the Kelly’s, he begins to play with the Moose.

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747 Words | 3 Pages

First, in the novel Indian Horse, the main character, Saul, forms relationships with his community allowing guidance and support after his time at a residential school called St. Jerome. Saul discovers people who treat him well while directing him through the challenge of dealing with the remaining trauma experienced at St. Jerome. Saul is introduced to a family who refers to them as the Kelly family; they consider him part of their community. Saul makes use of their relationship to cope with the struggles of enduring trauma and develop as a person. Fred Kelly states “We all wanted to go out and find you, but we know we couldn’t.

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859 Words | 4 Pages

The book focuses on a young boy named Arnold Spirit who shows persistence and bravery as he defies all odds and strides towards a happier more successful life than his parents and ancestors before him. Arnold is a bright, inspiring young boy who grows up with little fortune and is destined to continue down the path of a poor, misunderstood Indian. However, his fate changes for the better when a spark lights the fire inside of him to strive to pursue a better, more flourishing life as he makes an extraordinary decision to transfer to an all-white school for a worthier education. However, the drastic change of schools puts a burden on his family to get him to school as well as leads to extreme bullying from not just kids at his new school but also from his fellow Indians in his hometown. In The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, I learned that it doesn 't matter what your situation is and what you are expected to accomplish in your lifetime or what standards have already been set for you because you can be whoever you want to be with hard work, ambition, and confidence.

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801 Words | 4 Pages

Having played ice hockey for the fifteen years and counting, I have been an observer to all the beauty that this game has to offer. From the peaceful quiet of getting prepared to play, to the sudden rush of emotion and energy of putting on the helmet. From that moment, that I step on the ice the adrenaline pumps through my body uncontrollably and my heart begins to race. The sweat begins to pour down my face like I am in the middle of a rain storm. Every time a goal is scored the crowd erupts in a simultaneous rumble that brings joy to anyone on the team.

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1094 Words | 5 Pages

Hockey plays fast and physically on skates and you need to acquire fast speed and agility and high thinking to play and succeed. Hockey demonstrates toughness and a strong body physically and you need to be mentally tough as well as you play at higher

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