AMERICAN HORSE Assignments (1)
STEP One
After carefully reading this story (teacher only hopes this might be the case!), think of the impact it has left on you, as a contemporary reader. In a few sentences, describe what this story seems to you and why that might be the case.
For example, When reading Erdrich's story 'American Horse' I had the feeling... I could see/understand...
posted by belag at Monday, September 17, 2007
22 Comments:
The story is a successful juxtaposition of Native American and White American culture. The Indians clearly value opposite aspects of life in comparison with white Americans. While the emphasis is on the spiritual and abstract matters in the Indian culture, the white Americans always strive towards the material entities.
Firstly, the social worker examines the house were the Indian family lives and notes only the physical, visible aspects of this living environment. The house may be poor and dirty, Lawrence and Albertine may look like bad influence on the child, but if Buddy feels at home and loves his mother (which is true) than the social worker has no right to take him away. Just that welfare programs are a product of white man’s philosophy.
Secondly, Albertine is strongly motivated to fight the officers by remembering a single act of her father symbolically giving her grace. This recollection sparks the flame inside Albertine a gives her the needed courage. It is an example of how Indians value abstract, immaterial ideas (part of their cultural relationship with space and time).
Although the story is short, it successfully shows how much white people value money, objects and appearance. It also shows that Native Americans value abstract entities, such as: spirit, memories, pride, grace, etc.
The chocolate bar in the resolution is just the sad conclusion to the story and in form of a symbol completely proves what I tried to say.
9:53 PM
awesome that you did this in advance, but it is something we are doing in class today.
7:37 AM
I don't like Louise Erdrich's "American Horse". I don't like the fact that once again an author is trying to criticize society due to its harsh treatment of Native Americans. Life is never fair. However, they must accept it the way it is. They are not the ones in power, and they should only sit and listen. Nothing more.
This story provokes nothing but anger in me. I'm not happy when someone unjustly criticizes my race. I know the world isn't flawless, but it's not the Native Americans who should tell me that.
Native Americans have to accept the way modern society functions once and for all. Otherwise, they will always be outcasts and nothing more.
8:43 AM
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5:25 PM
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5:26 PM
Teacher Bela, I am sorry I broke my promise and decided to write something today. I write this as an answer to yours (my fellow classmates’) reaction on my comment this morning. I hope I am not disturbing the structure of this activity by writing this explanatory comment.
I write this because I don’t want you to think of me as a racist. Race, ethnicity, and religion are of no significance for me. I value people for what they are, their opinions, their lifestyle, their view of the world… I don’t value people based on whether they are white or black or yellow, or whether they are Macedonian or Albanian or American. I am strongly against any type of prejudice. In fact, I even hope one day I might be able to have African Americans, Asians, or Arabs as friends. I don’t even mind homosexuals, unlike some of my classmates.
First of all, I’d like to explain about the “they should only sit and listen” part. Native Americans are not in power in the United States. The white Americans hold the power. Thus, the white Americans are the ones who dominate. They set the rules of the game, and the others (African Americans, Native Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and other minorities) have to try to follow them. They won’t do any good if they are simply complaining about their situation. Words cannot change their life, but action can. Thus, instead complaining about their hard life, they should listen to what the people in power say and try to adapt to ‘the game’ imposed by the whites. If everyone thought like me, there would be no munchmallows, apples, bananas, or coconuts. As long as the whites remain in power, the others would have to follow them..
Secondly, I think Social Darwinism explains the situation in American society nowadays, particularly ‘the Indian case’. Social Darwinism implies that only the fittest individuals in society would survive. The Native Americans obviously are not that strong, thus many of them are dying and entire peoples are on the way to extinction. However, if the Native Americans stopped thinking of the possible ways to rebel against the white oppressors, they would be able to survive. If they ever kill the rebel in themselves, the whites will become just “rulers”, not “oppressors”. Native Americans must understand it is not their game they’re playing. Life is a game, and it has its own rules. You either accept the rules and play the game, or become an outcast. Either you are in or you are out, nothing more.
Last but not least, I respect Native American culture. Yes, I don’t like them because they seem to me very primitive (it is a strong word, I don’t actually mean it, but I couldn’t think of a softer synonym). To conclude, I don’t like them because I think they do not fit in today’s world of capitalism, advanced technology, and industry. However, it has nothing to do with my opinion about this particular story. I told you, and I repeat myself, that I am strongly against prejudices. The reason why I don’t like this story is the fact that I comprehend it as a negative critique on modern society, dominated by whites. I’m not a white American, but I am a white Caucasian Balkans dude. Still, I hate when someone offends my race and my nationality. It hurts. That’s why I didn’t like Sherman Alexie, and that’s why I don’t like “American Horse”.
I hope we are all able to talk as adults, discuss, and resolve all the differences in a peaceful manner. I hope you don’t think I am a racist or anything like that. I just have a different view of the world. Take World History II, I guarantee it will change the way you look at everything around you.
5:35 PM
nope.never. i enjoy hearing you voice your thoughts and hope that my 'intrussion' at times, is seen as guidence rather than scolding. thank you for having a say.
12:17 PM
and i have had my share of history. and still do. but prefer to challenge my own taboos with taking even another look at the things i took as a given, such as my race, my class, my origins.
i sincerely hope you can do the same. never accept anything as a done deal.
12:19 PM
In fact, I DO see it as guidance. My thoughts may be impassive, but I am not a dreamer. I understand how painful the world is, and often there is no justice for all. The strongest always win. It is unfair, but that's the way things are.
11:42 PM
This story has crated a sense of awareness by showing me how the life of individuals is lived. And it makes me want to strive towards not being that way as the main character is in the story. The interesting thing in the story is that even threw all the trouble that is happening he still has a sense of humor. This makes me feel like I should be more like that even when Im not in the best of moods.
1:15 PM
I really enjoyed this story. There was something about it and i can't really describe what it was, but the connection between Albertine and Buddy was just so real in that sense of mother and child. To me, it sent the message of 'hold on to all things precious' and the way Albertine and Buddy connected was to me the most important and it had the greatest impact.
8:48 PM
It's an interesting story. After all the sad events that happen in the end of the story, that's not the end of it. It has an open ending which makes us wonder whether Albertine and Boddy might have the chance to be back together and live a happy life. As for the story, i think, Albertine feels a lot of pain and she cannot accept the fact that her son is taken away, even though, she knows they would come for him. She expresses her pain by turning herself into a criminal and attacking a police officer.
7:39 PM
This short story is a useful insight on the relationship between the ruling majority and the minorities from which the land and power were taken. It is interesting to see and to be aware that some bad things still go on including discrimination of people because they have less representation, but these people cannot just sit down and cry and hope that something will happen for them. I will use the Jews as an example; after being discriminated and killed for centuries, a massacre that had its climax in the Holocaust and being a group of people that still today is not well seen by many, these crafty people have managed to gain success through deep inter-religional ties and determination. Now, why wouldnt another ethnic group such as the native Americans be able to do the same? I think that they are using the wrong methods to approach their situation and that they should take an example from other situations in the past, not only theirs, to make the progress they need to become once again not a minority but a group that will be considered on the same level as the African-Americans, Asians, Latinos, and eventually even White Caucasians.
2:50 PM
Erdrich’s short story is a nice way to present to the public how the Native American people live and what they have to encounter in their everyday life. It clearly shows the hegemonic rule of the white people. The maternal relationship between Albertine and her son Buddy is very strong so when the social worker comes to take buddy, we feel very sorry for Albertine eventhough she deserves her son to be taken by being a drunk and a bad mother. The whole story is pretty suspenseful and this suspense never ends since we don’t get to see what happens to Albertine, whether se dies or she manages to take Buddy back.
5:32 PM
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8:57 PM
First of all, if we didn't know that this is a story about Native Americans, at the start of the story none of us would know that this is a story about that ethnic group. As I see it, this is done on such a way to equate this ethnic group to any other in the American society and to any society of the world for that matter: that they have same problems as anybody even though they have given an arm and a leg literally for the benefit of their country.
The traditional element that appears in the later parts of the short story, even though benevolent, take some stereotypical forms. But then again so does the behaviour of the white people. Stereotypical in a sense that they perform in a way one expects them to perform: the cop as a liminal figure, the cop with a desperate personal life, the Indian visions.......
Only my personal view...
8:59 PM
In order to better understand a group of people, I find it important to better understand where they are coming from. The American Horse family wasn't shown as being as middle class suburbia family but rather a poor family with a little plot of land to live on. Based on what they have become, it is far easier to see why they didn't like the white people. To the American Horse family, and probably most of the Native Americans in the reserves, the white people represented an oppression that went back hundreds of years.
1:30 PM
I like the story because of it's simplicity. everything that happens is part of everyday life today and is really common. that makes the reader to feel like reading a newspaper article. also I like the contradiction that Louise Erdrich makes between the different kind of powers. the story shows that the power of the pen and the paper might be much stronger than the physical power.
3:54 PM
Short story with a great meaning. The real status of the Native Americans is successfully represented in this story. The narration full of details makes me feel like i am part of this story, makes me visualize the situation. I learned many things and one of them is the position of the Native Americans in the society. But,from time to time i could realize the narrator's point of iew which is Native American. It makes you confused what is true and what side to favour. However,this is not the point of the story.
The story is based on a love between mother and son, and their hard position in this world known as 'Hegemony'
5:12 PM
Erdich's 'American Horse' is a story I can easily connect with. It is something we are all used to and or have experienced. There are some things in life which we really need, but someway or another, it either has to be taken away. It's fate; we simply cannot avoid it, nor do anything to stop it. This story really shows me the way. It acts as a sort of guide. In other words, after reading this story, it makes me think twice about my experiences, and about my decisions in the far future.
8:55 PM
Ok - just a thought:
in hegemony, no matter how much one group tries to gain power, and make a clean start for themselves, it all may go badly. There are too many external factors to control it. Hence, no matter the fight Albertine or Uncle Lawrence put in, in the end they may come out short-handed.
9:30 PM
I don’t like the short story “American Horse” because I don’t like the attitude that the narrator has towards the story. While reading it I had feeling that the narrator wants to show how terrible white people treat the Native Americans; although, by saying that Albertine is a drunker and not a caring mother he hides the preference towards Native Americans. The narrator wants to provoke sympathy from the reader towards the Native Americans. In my opinion the “conflict” between the Native Americans (American Horse family) and white people (the social workers) dose not influence the treatment that the family gets. If races are not mentioned in the story and the narrator is more objective toward the story, the reader will probably be on the side of Vicki Koob.
12:42 AM
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