Preview

Black Elk Speaks and Autobiography

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
653 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Black Elk Speaks and Autobiography
AUTOBIOGRAPHY

Over the 10 weeks I have been learning about what an autobiography is and other things as well. (In my opinion, an autobiography entails someone’s life story from the time they can remember up until present day, and is written and edited by that person). During this course I was assigned to read several passages, and I was trying to determine whether or not they were autobiographies. One passage that comes to mind is by author V. S. Pritchett, Writing an Autobiography. After reading this I had a better understanding of what an autobiography should entail. The last passage that I read caught me by surprise because I really had to concentrate on key phrases, or sentences that helped me understand that it was an autobiography. John Neihardt, the author of, Black Elk Speaks, could be interpreted as something else rather than an autobiography, because Black Elk didn’t write it. Black Elk told the story to his son Ben Black Elk. Who then translated It in English to John Neihardt, and his daughter to record.

After doing research on line about the book Black Elk Speaks, I noticed that there was a lot of controversy about the author of the book. Which entailed whether or not the book actually was written word for word that came out of Ben Blacks mouth? The primary argument made is that Neihardt, being the author and the editor, was able to exaggerate or change some parts of the story. He did so to make the story more palatable and marketable to a white audience in the 1930s. When I was reading through this book I found myself questioning numerous times, whether or not this truly was an autobiography or if it was something else. (I say this because throughout the book there are other tribe members that I know that an autobiography is one’s life story written by the author, and is narrated by them as well. I now know that there can be exceptions to that rule because of the circumstances of language barriers, or being illiterate, I also



Cited: V. S. Pritchett: “Writing an Autobiography,” reprinted from Page 2, ed. Francis Brown. (New York: Holt, Rhinehart & Winston, Inc., 1969). Copyright by V.S. Pritchett. Reprinted by permission of Harold Matson Co., Inc. HTTP:// en.Wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Elk_Speaks

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Sometimes to feel one’s pain, one must put themselves in their shoes and see the world through their eyes. Personal observations or experiences can help a reader better understand an argument and sometimes help relate the writing to the readers own life. Christina Boufis and Barbara Ehrenreich both use personal observations and factual data to write their reports. In my opinion I believe the use of personal observation/or experience really helped both of these author’s in writing their reports. The use of factual information is always important when writing to convince an audience but using one’s own personal experience in the mix helps a reader relate to the story, keeps the reader interested, enriches and deepens the experience for the reader. Therefore I will write throughout this essay on how both author’s personal observation helped strengthen their writings.…

    • 1179 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Memoir

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The whys and wherefores for writing a memoir are diverse and vast. Some aim at leaving legacy to their successors while others do it to share wisdom. One’s awareness of the purpose for writing a particular memoir presents an emotional power for doing the job. Since everyone wants to leave a good legacy, it is extraordinarily difficult to tell the dark side of the story. As a result, not all things presented by the authors are true.…

    • 576 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    John Neihardt writes this biography because Black Elk came to him with the purpose of showing Americans both physical and emotional pain they’ve inflicted on them in desire to expand the United States. This biography isn’t only for sorrow; it’s of great appreciation to the Native Americans because this is the first of their stories that is actually being documented. Having written by a white man is of great importance because through this biography the readers see that Black Elk is hostile toward white men.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Elk Summary

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Black Elk talks, about a personal story, that has different characteristics of several genders. biography, testimony, and history. However, the black elk is contains of 25 chapters, which discovered black elk's early life. The story draws the black elk as a savior and glorified man that has all the power, which ensured to him since he was young. It recorded the shift of the Sioux nation from previous reservation to reservation culture,because of their engagement in the war of Little Bighorn. Black Elk provides evidence to the price where human struggle that the Sioux paid for the westward extension of the US. As an appreciation, it graves the passing of innocence and free American Indian and the current cultural rescission.…

    • 569 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Essay on Black Elk Speaks

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages

    In the article, Black Elk Speaks with Forked Tongue, Couser is giving his opinion on how he thinks that Neihardt was in actuality suppressing the Lakota way of life and Black Elk’s story. His opinion is backed by some good points from the text and as well as other scholars who have the same opinion as himself. Couser does believe that Black Elk Speaks is a well written book and he even respects and commends Neihardt in his attempt to honor Black Elk, “before detailing the short comings of Black Elk Speaks I would like to acknowledge the considerable efforts Neihardt made to honor Black Elk’s narrative” (Couser). Couser then dives into the idea that this book as an autobiography should be a thing of the past. I think Couser then gets carried away with an opinion about how Black Elk was being censored and the truths were kept secret. Couser’s argument is good but his tactic and tangent near the end could have been left out; it does not hurt the argument but it also is too absurd to help the argument as well.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Multiple autobiographies provide stories about motivational life events that can move the audience. For example, in the autobiography, An American Life, it gives the life story of Ronald Reagan showing the amount of hope and inspiration that he gave throughout his presidency which gives off the same effect through the readers. In Ronald Reagan’s book it mentions his help in ending the Cold War, which many Americans felt insecure about. In the end the American people felt safe due to Ronalds help in ending the war. Also, he improved troop sizes in America which contributed to the safety and power of America. In these situations that felt hopeless to many, he always pushed for the good of the people and their safety. Biographies like this inspire the audience to do all they can in effort to succeed in what they do.…

    • 515 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    How true are the stories that are told in an autobiography? Nancy Mairs would say that each person has their own way of looking at an event. The autobiographies of Black Elk and Oishi Junkyo bring up many questions of truth and subjectivity. These autobiographies show that personal accounts are subjective and language, memory, the motives of the writer/translator, make autobiography that much more subjective.…

    • 1109 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    ANCA was working in coordination with a network of offices, chapters and supporters throughout the United States and affiliated organizations around the world, such as The United Nation, to help Armenian families leave all communist countries around the world to get freedom, destining America. In 1948, the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, Article 14, which declares, "Everyone has the right to seek and to enjoy in other countries asylum from persecution." I was sad that I was leaving the place where I was born, but inside in my heart I was feeling happy for the new life that I will face soon. Finally we received our visas to leave the country. In order to reach our destination which was the United States, we had to stop in the city of Beirut, Lebanon as a refugee in 1968 and then we flew to our final destination which was New York in December, 1969.…

    • 1472 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    William Zinsser's Memoir

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages

    William Zinsser has advice for writing memoirs. “Be yourself”, “speak freely”, and “tell your own story” (Zinsser, 2, 4, 6). It applies to many different memoirs.…

    • 342 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Willam Zinnser Analysis

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages

    In “How to write a memoir” Willam Zinnser gives advice for memoir writers. He writes about how to “Be yourself “, “Speak freely”, and “Tell your own story”…

    • 405 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    first-person point of view : narration of a story by one of the characters, using the first-person pronouns I and me…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Often times, personal experience has an impact on a person’s future. These experiences may hold a big value in life. For example, in One Writer’s Beginnings by Eudora Welty, she recalls early experiences of books and reading that had a great impact on her life. Specifically, Welty uses informal language to convey how her early experiences shaped her life. Welty describes Ms. Calloway in an exceptionally detailed and abstract way.…

    • 320 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Two examples of autoethnography are: Personal narratives are stories about authors who view themselves as the phenomenon and write evocative narratives specifically focused on their academic, research, and personal lives. Narrative ethnographies refer to texts presented in the form of stories that incorporate the ethnographer's experiences into the ethnographic descriptions and analysis of others. Here the emphasis is on the ethnographic study of others which is accomplished by encounters with the writer and those he is…

    • 553 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Spencer Chilton Manrodt’s autobiography, Saga of an Educated Vagabond, he shares his life story into something that we can all read and imagine. I believe that his motivations for writing an autobiography would be to share his life story with later generations such as myself (since he is my 3rd cousin). In order to pass down the life of a football star that was later dragged into the tragedy of war, he wrote a manuscript that was later found in a trunk in the basement after his daughter’s death in recent years. “No one must limit himself to one character. With each change in environment, embellishments may be added to, or subtracted from the basic character.” (Manrodt 4) He believes the legacy of the Chilton family should live on, make an impact that lasts and never forget who made it happen.…

    • 677 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Autobiographical Element

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages

    A quote with significance in everyone’s life, we all learn to judge others and their backgrounds but we forget about our own in the course. We are the reflection of who we believe in whether it is others or ourselves. I feel writing out about our experiences is an eye opener for everyone as well as for us. We don’t have to give an exact account of our history but have substantial examples to avoid being recognized as phonies, but instead giving an account of our experiences gives the novel or piece of work we are writing depth and progress. Therefore I have decided to compare the reflection of the autobiographical element felt in the two novels I am currently reading. When we talk about autobiography what it means is, auto means self writing and biographical means to relate to a fact or reality of a person’s life history in their own works. When the two words are put together as “autobiographical”, it means to narrate one’s personal history or just take a few significant aspects*. Though the author doesn’t directly write about the deep connection between the characters and her personal life but instead indirectly implicates the relationship between the real character and the factitious character in the novel.…

    • 360 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics