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Winter In The Blood By James Welch: Literary Analysis

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Through the narrator’s journey, Welch presents an alienated individual wandering through life unanchored in order to highlight the deeper problem in having a fractured identity; ultimately, the novel emphasizes this fragmentation of the individual as a means to displaying how society has caused a literal identity crisis due to its marginalization of populations it has traditionally deemed inferior. In the novel, James Welch, dives into the complex themes of identity and isolation. In the life of Native Americans in the 1960s and 1970s, the novel explores the struggles faced by the nameless narrator as he lives life with a sense of self and the detachment of family and other things around him. The narrator has a sight of his identity and his …show more content…

Ultimately, the novel Winter in the Blood is a story of the narrator's journey toward his self understanding and the resolution of his Native American identity. Throughout the novel, the narrator struggles with his feeling of isolation and identity from his troubled past and his trauma. As the story continues Welch connects themes of the impact of colonialism, identity, and the feeling of belonging. This helps us connect to the narrator's struggles and his problem of feeling disconnected from everything. Welsh helps show how societal factors really put a struggle on people's day to day life. In the last parts of the novel, the narrator gets closer to his quest for self-understanding. He has a series of reflections that he comes to realize that the connection of the narrative of his people relates to his personal journey throughout his struggles. He confronts his past self and how the trauma of his father, brother, and mother leaving his life shows the experiences that have shaped his sense of self. It also helps him connect his relationship to his cultural heritage and how most have had some of the same struggles he

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