Summary Of Mammoths Of The Great Plains By Eleanor Arnason

Words of Wisdom In the novel, Mammoths of the Great Plains, by Eleanor Arnason the story of Emma’s experience with her Grandmother Liza, who through stories, dreams, visions, and experiences of family members, imparts to her knowledge and certain values in a process known as enculturation. Some of the first instances of personal teaching comes across through stories of hunters. Although the story is about mammoths, I believe there is an obvious lesson about who you choose to be in this world and why that is important. For me, in the story of the two hunters, Liza uses this to teach Emma the value of respect, your word, honoring that word, treating others the way you would want to be treated, and the damage it can cause if you choose the

The next examples deal with life’s obstacles represented by the struggle of living in a divided world, growing up, overcoming diversity, and creating a positive change. Liza is now telling Emma the story of her grandmother Rosa and her dreams with the Mammoths. In Rosa’s second dream they discuss how their plan is not working, and they need a new one. This for me was a lesson on overcoming obstacles and circumstances. When we have set a goal and our plan to achieve that goal does not work, we must accept the problem and focus on a different plan, but not give up on the goal. This is repeated in Rosa’s next vision, when the mammoth tells Rosa, “Don’t Give up! Persist! Think! Things must get worse before they get better.” also teaching Emma the value of commitment to create change in her world. Liza also says, “There are times, Emma when the best thing one can do is preserve” which is a very important survival mechanism when you are unable or incapable of the change or action to needs to take place. Liza then express that “Some people’s lives change dramatically, Emma, in a single moment, through a single decision or event” or in Liza’s case “through a series of small events and decisions”. Sometime we can only look back at people, choices, situations, and events as an afterthought, this tells Emma to live in the moment, cherish relationships, learn from experiences and value the effects these have on us, who they help us to become, and ultimately on our lives. The moral of these stories Liza explains to Emma is “do nothing lightly and be more mindful in