Rising From The Ashes: Breaking Intergenerational Barriers

Motunrayo Animashaun
Ms. Velovic
NBE3U1g
8 May 2023
Rising From the Ashes: A Memoir About Breaking Intergenerational Barriers
For centuries on end, the Indigenous have been put through an endless cycle of abuse, discrimination, and societal neglect. Jesse Thistle’s memoir, From the Ashes, is an encapsulating novel that highlights the troubles surrounding intergenerational trauma, and the significant impact that it has on an Indigenous man’s life, namely Jesse’s life itself. Throughout his life, Jesse undergoes a series of traumatic events such as, living in extreme poverty, suffering with the detrimental effects of substance abuse, and the gradual loss of his identity as a member of the Indigenous community. Although, the many challenges that

As Jesse describes the events he witnessed as a child, he explains, “The fridge had a few half-drunk beer bottles, an old light bulb, and a hardened turnip. Sometimes he’d go away for two or three days and leave us nothing” (Thistle 18). At this time, Jesse and his brothers, Jerry and Josh, were living with both their parents, and although they had been financially comfortable to a certain extent, they had to suffer from various forms of abuse from their father, which forced them to have to learn how to fend for themselves from an incredibly young age. Unfortunately, the concept of being raised in broken households, is common within the Indigenous populations in Canada, due to the trauma that has been passed down from generation to generation. In the article, “Intergenerational Trauma: Convergence of Multiple Processes among First Nations peoples in Canada,” it states, “It is further argued that the shared collective experiences of trauma experienced by First Nations peoples, coupled with related collective memories, and persistent sociocultural disadvantages, have acted to increase vulnerability to the transmission and expression of intergenerational trauma effects” (Bombay et al. 2009) With this in mind, the authors are emphasizing the social determinants

Thus, some members of the Indigenous, like Jesse, feel as though they are sealed by a fate in which they will be forced to stop trying to fight the same destiny that had been awaiting their ancestors, by numbing their pain through the use of substances. Given these points, Jesse’s addiction beginning to take a major toll on his mental health is yet another depiction of cross-generational trauma that he, and many other Indigenous peoples in Canada are fighting to