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The Theme Of Racism In Indian Horse By Lawrence Hill

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The Shared Topic of Racism in What are you, Anyway? and Indian Horse
The short story: What are you, anyway? by Lawrence Hill and the novel: Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese both show racism through conflicts. “‘So you’re mixed?’ Mrs.Norton says. ‘You’re a mulatto!’” (Hill 3) Mrs.Norton calls Carole a “mulatto” after probing about Carole’s racial background and finding out that Carole’s father is black and Carole’s mother is white. “Mulatto” is a slur that dehumanises and marginalises a child with one parent that is Black, and one parent that is White. In What are you, anyway?, the use of derogatory and racist language used by Mrs.Norton that is directed towards Carole shows the Norton couple’s discriminatory attitudes towards people with a mixed race. This clearly shows that the Norton couple is racist …show more content…

Racism is also shown in Indian Horse, as the protagonist, Saul Indian Horse, faces racism in society. “A cartoon in one of the papers showed me in a hockey helmet festooned with eagle feathers, holding a war lance instead of a hockey stick.” (Wagamese 164) Saul successfully joins the Marlboros, scores excellent goals, and becomes famous in the hockey fields with newspapers writing about him. Instead of treating Saul like other hockey players, the newspaper drew Saul as a stereotypical cartoon character for indigenous people, with eagle feathers and war lances. Newspapers are widely read at the time in the settings of this book, so it serves as a symbol for society. Papers are platforms for sharing news and opinions, thus allowing citizens to be informed about social events. They are very important aspects of society as they give people a sense of community and diversity. The eagle feather and the war lance used to represent

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Shatter the Indian, Save the Man Indian Horse, a novel by Richard Wagamese is a heartening story about a boy named Saul Indian Horse who attended residential school. This novel brings a depressingly believable story of a 1960’s residential school to life, through Saul, an Ojibway boy from northern Ontario. Saul’s character evolved through the challenges that he faced in his adolescent and adult life such as feelings of neglect, abuse and fault due to the gruesome environment that no young child should be in no matter they’re ethnicity. Firstly, Saul began to feel overwhelmed by the system even before he started to attend St. Jerome’s.

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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.

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In Indian Horse, Saul encounters racism both within and outside the residential school, facing discrimination and prejudice due to his Indigenous heritage. “They took to more insulting name-calling and swearing at me. Even when they took to pushing me and tripping me and swiping at me when I passed, I'd just level a blank look at the offender and keep on with the work” (Wagamese 174). The novel underscores the dehumanizing effects of racism and its profound impact on an individual's self-worth. Similarly, Sufferance confronts the issue of racism through the characters, particularly First Nations individuals, who are constantly subjected to discrimination and prejudice.

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794 Words | 4 Pages

Words can be presented in many ways that can encourage us, or destroy us. Racism and discrimination are prominent themes in the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. Saul Indian Horse has endured name-calling throughout his entire life, entrenched from his time at residential schools. He was made to suffer, and this suffering lasted throughout his hockey career until he grew tired and turned to alcoholism. Saul encounters racist comments throughout the novel that alter his future in hockey, rooting from the time he was asked to leave his first town team, to the abuse endured by white players, and finally when he retaliated.

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In Lawrence Hills “So What are you, Anyway?” the worst part of the story was the Nortons ignorance. This is first seen with Mr.Norton's misuse of slurs. Mr.Norton explains to Carole race using her doll as it was “ a Negro doll.”. Him using negro instead of black is ignorant because even in the 1970’s , the word negro would be considered highly offensive.

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1032 Words | 5 Pages

One of the earlier examples of cultural imperialism and marginalization is when Saul is kicked off of the town hockey team, “‘It's because I'm Indian isn't it?’ [...] ‘Yes.’ He said. ‘Do they hate me?’ , ‘They don't hate you Saul’, ‘Well, what then?’

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1086 Words | 5 Pages

Sherman Alexie states, "There are all kinds of addicts, I guess. We all have pain. And we all look for ways to make the pain go away." Everyone experiences pain at some point, but people look for different ways to escape it. In the novel "Indian Horse" by Richard Wagamese, the protagonist Saul Indian Horse, an Anishinaabeg boy, witnesses how his family got destroyed by white people.

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Discrimination is a widely known problem faced in society today, affecting thousands of people mentally and emotionally. In the 2013 published novel, Indian Horse, by Richard Wagamese, Saul Indian Horse encounters several day to day racist comments and discrimination as he first steps into the hockey rink. Throughout the novel, Wagamese teaches the readers, that racial discrimination can abuse and affect one into either gaining a ruthless and tempered behaviour, or pushing them to a psychological state of mental torture and isolation. In the duration of all this, Saul must prove himself to be mentally and emotionally strong, as he is first exposed to the substantial amount of racial discrimination made by the domination of white people in his

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Racism is the belief that humans are to be divided into separate and exclusive biological groups, called a “race.” It exhibits hate and spreads negative stereotypes surrounding all individuals within a race. People with racist beliefs presume a hierarchy system in which they are superior, thus allowing them to have dominion over those they deem inferior. Similarly, in the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul, a Northern Ojibway member of the Fish clan, encounters incessant racism on white ice. Throughout the novel, the racism Saul endures restricts his thriving hockey career.

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1869 Words | 8 Pages

Racism and abuse is like an evil shadow that never stops following an individual throughout their life. A person who experiences this evil shadow is Saul Indian Horse, where the oppression, racism and abuse have followed him throughout his life along with the circumstances he faces. Indian Horse, published in 2012, depicts the hardships in the life of Saul Indian Horse resulting in struggling with prejudice, generational trauma and oppression. In Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse, the hardships, obstacles and devastating struggles Saul has to face at St. Jerome’s plays a significant role throughout the novel. Saul’s experiences with oppression and trauma in playing hockey result in detrimental impacts on his life, suffering through intergenerational

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Indian Horse: The Racism that destroys, but creates Saul Hockey is a national sport that unites one another. From the Montreal Canadiens to the Vancouver Canucks, children and adults find excitement in the game. In the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul Indian Horse encounters racism in his hockey career and with society. Saul attempts to bear the stereotypes set on him, which destroys him and thus, Saul struggles in attempt to reconcile mentally, physically and spiritually.

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2034 Words | 9 Pages

Racism has been present in society since forever, maybe even the very first day that two men of different races met. Racism is defined as “the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races.” Usually racism is a belief that a person with a certain race has better abilities,  attributes and skills. If this belief is to distinguish as superior it can have tragic events occurring between two types of groups. An example of two types of groups that have separated into an image of rivalries fueled with competition are the ‘Whites’ and the ‘Indians’, as shown in the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, where the devastating effects of racism and discrimination are evident in the protagonist Saul Indian Horse, for his spirit is nearly broken all together by them, most notable in how he was forced to live in a cruel Residential school, he endured taunting in the hockey world, and bullying in the work force, affecting a lifelong struggle with severe depression and alcoholism.

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1393 Words | 6 Pages

Although “Say Yes” begins with an ever so carefree mood, it quickly takes a turn when the question of interracial marriage is “somehow” brought up. At the surface, this short story seems as though the argument is purely over the

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1350 Words | 6 Pages

(pg.3). This quote shows just how the questions were affecting her. The Norton’s were asking her questions that she had no idea how to answer because she was unsure of what they meant. The questions made her feel uncomfortable and hurt, however, they kept asking Carole about her race. Another example of racism in this short story is how close minded Betty is towards the idea of mixed children in this world.

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671 Words | 3 Pages

The story represents the culmination of Wright’s passionate desire to observe and reflect upon the racist world around him. Racism is so insidious that it prevents Richard from interacting normally, even with the whites who do treat him with a semblance of respect or with fellow blacks. For Richard, the true problem of racism is not simply that it exists, but that its roots in American culture are so deep it is doubtful whether these roots can be destroyed without destroying the culture itself. “It might have been that my tardiness in learning to sense white people as "white" people came from the fact that many of my relatives were "white"-looking people. My grandmother, who was white as any "white" person, had never looked "white" to me” (Wright 23).

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