Summary Of Indian Horse By Richard Wagamese

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Indian Residential Schools is a horrible event that happened from the 1840s until the 1990s. From these past mistakes in judgement, the education system has added curriculum to bring more knowledge to the event. By doing this we read “Indian Horse” by Richard Wagamese which is a fictional novel based on true events. It is about an Ojibway boy who experienced the hardships before, during, and after the Indian Residential School. The importance of learning the past is to ensure that this can be prevented in the future, to recognize what happened, and to help those affected by Indian Residential Schools. The importance of knowing Saul’s story is because it allows students’ knowledge to grow about Canadian history. First Nations had traumatic …show more content…

Substance abuse was one of the struggles Saul had to overcome on his journey to discovering himself. He turned to alcohol when he felt lost and wanted to forget. The reason for this is because of the traumatic experiences he witnessed at St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School. It allows them to ignore the problem they’re avoiding for a short amount of time, then to only drown themselves in more alcohol or drugs. However, can have negative effects if it is done often. These negative effects include organ failure, brain damage, psychosis, and death to name a few. Specifically to alcoholism since Saul chose alcohol to escape is kidney failure and brain damage (cerebral cortex - problem solving and decision making, hippocampus - memory and learning, cerebellum - movement and coordination). Although it is hard to recover from substance abuse certain programs are available to help recover, such as the New Dawn Centre in “Indian Horse”. Another presentation that relates to “Indian Horse” and Saul is psychogeography. Psychogeography refers to the influence of the geographical environment on the mind and behaviour. When someone is happy or content with the geographical environment it depends on the memories associated with that environment. For example, Saul saw the “bush” as home since all of his family had been raised there. While St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School was associated with negative memories. These could be the sexual, physical, and emotional abuse Saul experienced at the school. These presentation brings knowledge by connecting it to the text the real after effects of what these Indian Residential Schools have caused. The pain that the First Nations have went through without being recognized for so