Thursday, September 11, 2008
"Indians must and will be Indians..."
While I was reading the new book I was amazed how easily Mary was adapting to the new lifestyle. The Indians had killed her whole family and still she was able to overcome that and become one of them. That's why I was a little surprised by her statement that "Indians must and will be Indians..." (p.85) She claims that any attempt to "civilize" Indians would fail and that it's practically impossible for them to adopt another culture. I thought that was interesting because at the same time she had no problem adopting their culture. Was she implying that their traditions are "stronger" than hers? Was she right about that? A lot of years have passed since then but the Indians have really managed to preserve a big part of their heritage so maybe there is a little truth in what she said.
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4 comments:
Sort of along the same lines, I was surprised at her tone early in the book when describing the killings and rituals: almost indifferent and without any real sense of purpose or opinion. I think that this "indifference" is testament to the friendliness of the Indian culture, and the fact that this culture's civility completely smashed any sort of preconceptions she had about the Indians.
I might be overinterpreting, but this voice of Mary reminds me of the tone of Stein in the last book we read. Stein also intentionally avoided revealing the inner part of her life as well as her deeper part of her thoughts and feelings.
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