Summary Of Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

Dhishan Das Ms. Ahluwalia NBE3U0 May 10, 2024 Indian Horse: A Path Towards Reconciliation and Unsilencing the Trauma The deep scars of historical injustice often persist, and while physical wounds may heal, the psychological and emotional trauma leave a permanent mark on generations of families. Through the powerful lens of literature, it is possible to confront these painful truths in order to work towards the lasting search for healing and reconciliation. This painful history is reflected in Richard Wagamese's novel Indian Horse, in which he draws upon his own family's experiences to create a powerful literary exploration of reconciliation and the reclamation of identity. Richard Wagamese's childhood experiences were unsettling, especially

To begin with, Richard Wagamese uses descriptive diction to explore the consequences of residential schools and the distressing impacts they continue to engrave on Indigenous families, which powerfully conveys the traumatic realities of this historical injustice. Wagamese’s writing illustrates the cruel and dehumanizing treatment that Indigenous children were subjected to at residential

This connects back to the author himself, Richard Wagamese, who inherited trauma from members of his family who were accustomed to going to residential schools. (Lederman, 2017) Wagamese’s vivid use of language to display the abuse and cultural oppression Saul experiences at the residential school, which mirrors the traumas endured by Wagamese's own family members who attended residential schools. In one of Wagamese’s essays, he describes the emotions of his family by stating, “Each of the adults had suffered in an institution that tried to scrape the Indian out of their insides, and they came back to the bush raw, sore and aching,” (Lederman, 2017). By depicting and having Saul undergo the same dehumanizing treatments at the fictional St. Jerome’s residential school, Wagamese describes this trauma repeats across generations of Indigenous families. The descriptions of abuse could be inferred to be from Wagamese’s own familial history, demonstrating that the impacts of residential schools remained in effect long after the schools themselves