Slash: The Outside Within

One thing I found interesting in the reading of the novel Slash was the similarity of the concepts from The Outside Within, of the Blacks being the outsiders and how they are let into the houses but society keeps them as outsiders within the community. The instance being different because in this case the Indians are not being treated as slaves but still as outsiders. In the novel they are forced to go to the town school if they want to get education further then grade 6. They are stereotyped by the white people as there one group and not for there individual ideas or actions. Immediately upon arrival at the school they are left as one group when placing the children in classrooms, the principle coming to speak to them and telling them “You Indians are lucky to be here. We’ll get along just fine as long as you don’t steal from the other kids. I want you all to wait here while the nurse comes to check your heads and ask you some questions.” (P.8-9) These kids are stereotyped before they even get to school and are bullied and held back in society because of it, looked at as trouble makers who drink all day. They can attend this white school but are treated terribly by the them and not taken care of equally to the others, in the novel there

They feel uncomfortable in their daily lives going to the town school. A quote from Tommy in the first chapter of the book says, “Another thing we never told them is how we always felt, like we just weren’t good enough to mix with the white kids.” His dad telling him before his first school year started that the kids would treat them poorly, make fun of them for how they dressed and how they looked but this warning could not help what they were going