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Summary Of The Book 'Black Elk Speaks'

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In the book Black Elk Speaks the main character Black Elk started to tell his life story to the John G. Neihardt. Black Elk spoke of his early life and how “The Grandfathers” spoke to him telling him things like, take courage and he now has a cup that gives life. He then goes on and talks about his first major accomplishment which was killing a buffalo at the age of ten. Some of his childhood stories were told too. When he and other kids would play they would do things like, cut off the uppermost portion of a flagpole which resulted in Redcloud talking peace into the soldiers with words of wisdom. There was a remarkable story about an old man with dry lips that showed him how to spearfish. Black Elk had failed to do this and made the old man laugh which resulted in his dry lips cracking and bleeding. …show more content…

The daughter refused because she wanted to be bought like a woman. Black Elk talked about when they moved camp to stay away from the soldiers and that they found “yellow metal” that was useless to them. There was a chief that would sacrifice himself for the good of his people and did not have many horses like most chiefs would. The soldiers had to lie to him to get him to a point that was suitable to kill him and the age of 30. A quote from Black Elk about a fight with the Wasichus. The quote is, “I made up my mind that, small as I was, I might as well die there, and if I did, maybe I’d be known.”(78) At this point in the book a theme I have picked up on is that you do not have to be selfish and you will learn from your mistakes. A major idea seems to be that children will be children and violence is not always the solution to problems. Most of the characters in the book so far are people who taught him something or children that he would play

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Black Elk Speaks, is a personal narrative that tells a story about Black Elk who is a medicine man of the Lakota tribe; the book is narrated by John Neihardt and is twenty-five chapters long. Black Elk mostly talks about the visions he had when he was a young child. Black Elk explains to Neihardt that he had his very first vision when he was five years old and he says that he saw two men appeared in the sky singing a sacred song (Black Elk Speaks p.17). The second vision that Black Elk tells Neihardt about is a very detailed one that takes place when he falls ill for a few days. The vision that he had involved him seeing a highly detailed symbolic message from his ancestors.

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Day 1 setting: the setting is all four bears are on the endless ice because one of there friends said there journey isn't over yet so they are going on a journey but have no idea were they are going. Day 2 Day 3 plot: now the white bear and small brown bear are continuing the journey. But the black bear and large brown bear are going back to land because they are not meant to travel the ice. So two bears left the journey.

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The main idea of this entry is about the stereotypes that come along with racism. Also, Brent Staples wants his readers to realize how much colored people sacrifice from their normality in order to fit in with society, in hopes of not being attacked or offended. The author proves this in his entry by mentioning ‘innocent’ behaviors, such as singing Beethoven, that he did in public in order to relief those surrounding him from danger. Moreover, the author compared hikers to the country’s bears in order to provide readers with a valid connection between black and colored people. In addition to that, Brent Staples uses flashback as one of his techniques when sharing with us his encounters with white people, this gives readers an idea of how

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Golden Line: “I am still a little afraid of missing something if I forget that, as my father snobbishly suggested, and I snobbishly repeat, a sense of the fundamental decencies is parceled out unequally at birth.” “I am still worry about losing a philosophical idea if I forget that, as my teacher dramatically suggested, and I eagerly learn, everybody is different and created with different strength and weaknesses at birth.”

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I love the visual images that Black Elk gives when he talks about the village or war party made up of all the different nations. The number of people that must have been there in order for you to not be able to see all of the tepees that were in the valley is truly astounding. That would have been an amazing place to be. I would have loved to see how all of the people intermingled, and interacted. There might have been a very large intermixing of families at the event.

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Olaudah Equiano and Black Elk have a great number of things in common and a great number of things that they do not have in common. The ideas that are going to be the commons are what their similarities are, what traits they share, and other ideas that describe what they have in common together. The ideas they do not have in common will be talking about more personal, life-changing/telling, and other information that describes what they do not have in common. talking talk about the story of both Black Elk and Olaudah Equiano share times when it was hard to get through and what their purpose was to be there and why they became who they are and how they connect to the quote “We exist by storytelling- by relating our situations-and the test of

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Never Cry Wolf by Farley Mowat is a non-fiction story about naturalist Farley Mowat, on an expedition to find out why so many caribou were being killed. Mowat’s superiors believed that wolves were killing the caribou. He spent almost a year investigating the wolves’ way of life focusing on a small pack made up of two males and a female with her pups. Mowat camped near their den and observed their eating and hunting habits. He observed that wolves rarely ate caribou and when they did, it was the weak and sick ones.

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Modernity has been mainly characterized by its imperialistic policies and colonizing endeavors, which while creating the current legal organization of the world have largely marginalized the many indigenous groups who originally occupied the conquered lands (Andrews and Walton 600). Although post-modern societies have seen an increase in the awareness of these matters, American-Canadian author Thomas King has dedicated his work to throwing light on issues still not tackled. In his short story “Borders”, King tells the adventure of a Blackfoot mother and her child, who try to cross the border to the U.S. but refuse to declare their nationality. It is through his masterful choice of narrator and the careful depiction of the mother’s struggle to maintain her Blackfoot identity that the author conveys the many difficulties First Nations face in their effort to keep their heritages alive.

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In his 1995 essay “The Trouble with Wilderness,” William Cronon declares that “the time has come to rethink wilderness” (69). From the practice of agriculture to masculine frontier fantasies, Cronon argues that Americans have historically defined wilderness as an “island,” separate from their polluted urban industrial homes (69). He traces the idea of wilderness throughout American history, asserting that the idea of untouched, pristine wilderness is a harmful fantasy. By idealizing wilderness from a distance, he argues that people justify the destruction of less sublime landscapes and aggravate environmental conflict.

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The perception of wilderness can be problematic. One of the most prominent points that Cronon made in his evaluation is the ideology that wilderness is an illusion to escape reality. This perception can be ambiguous because it segregates humanity from nature, by establishing the idea that wilderness is separate from everyday life. Also, Cronon calls attention to the issue of dividing the land and calling it wilderness. The issue of this isolation is that it disintegrates humans and nature, rather than bringing them more in unity.

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In the poem What Shall He Tell That Son by Carl Sandburg, the author is imparting advice onto his son about the contradictory nature that is present in the world by using figurative language, apprising his son through the poem by giving him instructions on how to live life. In the poem, Sandburg is trying to relay the importance of being not only robust, but pliable as well, as both are necessary in life. He is conveying contrasting wisdom by informing his son that life is hard, so he in turn must be a rock, be resilient like steel, but that life is also soft loam and that his son must go easy and be gentle, so that both might serve him. Sandburg is also saying that desire and a rich soft wanting count in life, but that the want of too much

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The quote adds an element of humor to his speech, which also made the audience laugh. The speech was divide into tree main parts about his personal life experiences in which he found motivation. The first

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She was excited as I to begin this new hunting experience. Near the Canadian border wildlife was abundant in many different forms and we were hoping to shoot a large black bear. I had only heard stories of bountiful black bear hunts and I was finally able to experience one of my own and make an everlasting memory. Arriving to the cabin hours later, it was nearing mid afternoon. We had planned to go bait and scout the woods before dark.

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So finally one of his major lessons in this book is that we need to persevere the negative social pressure that we all face in our daily

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In Thomas King 's autobiographical novel, The Truth About Stories takes a narrative approach in telling the story of the Native American, as well as Thomas King 's. The stories within the book root from the obstacles that the Thomas King had to face during his years in high school and his post-university life. These stories are told in a matter that uses rhetorical devices such as personal anecdotes & comparisons. "You 'll Never Believe What Happened" Is Always a Great Way to Start is about the importance, potential, and dangers of stories, specifically those of creation stories and how they can shape a culture, with the aim to share King 's urgency for social change with his readers King 's informal tone, lighthearted jokes, and effort to make his writing follow the style of native oral tradition as closely as possible, all help the reader understand the type of narrative he believes would be most beneficial for the foundation of a society. His unique style allows for the use of personal anecdotes and requires that he breaks the proverbial fourth wall to communicate with the reader directly, to create the conversational feel of the oral tradition.

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