Preview

Bruce Beresford's "Black Robe": A Movie About Religious Conversion

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
742 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Bruce Beresford's "Black Robe": A Movie About Religious Conversion
Alexander Bermeo
February 25, 2013
WHO 2001 – U01

Black Robe Although throughout the film it was evident that other Indian tribes, such as the Iroquois and Algonquin, did not want to convert to Christianity because it went against their own beliefs, the Huron’s were able to go against their belief and accept Christianity. Despite the Huron’s disapproval of the religion because of their own beliefs they eventually accept the religion based on the perception of father LaForgue and his humbleness when he arrives to the settlement, the Huron’s respective chauvinism changes and begins to tolerate the religion as time goes by when the settlement accepts Christianity and the honesty LaForgue gives off, and a cultural rapprochement is evident when the Huron settlement accept Christianity when father LaForgue is there and becomes the priest of the settlement. The film Black Robe shows that there was a successful convergence of the religion the Huron’s had to Christianity. Throughout the film all the tribes did not like father LaForgue, as well as LaForgue’s assistant, Daniel. It is clear the Indians do not like father LaForgue because they discriminate him by referring to him as “black robe” and not by his actual name. (Black Robe) Also, when the Algonquin’s abandon LaForgue Daniel continues with the Indian tribe and they do not like it nor do they like him following them. For example, one member of the tribe attempts to murder Daniel as he is following the tribe. (Black Robe) However, despite all these things that have occurred father LaForgue remains humble and when he finally reaches the Huron settlement he respects the tribe and tells them that he loves them even though the other Indians tortured him and put him through a tough journey. During father LaForgue’s journey to the Huron settlement it is clear that each Indian tribe show a strong chauvinistic view on their respective religions. For example, even though LaForgue goes through many trials and

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    The escalation of the conflict between the Huron and the Iroquois was founded in the French preference for trade with the Huron and the Huron refusal to trade with the Mohawk, a tribe of the Iroquois five nations. The Mohawk where described as “trying to force the Huron to trade with them and ... when their efforts in this direction where unsuccessful, did they decide to destroy the Huron” (Trigger 110). In the movie the hate between the Huron and the Iroquois is most palpable in the scene where the Jesuit, Daniel, Chomina and his daughter and a small boy are captured and are being tortured and the Iroquois tribe leader says “Today was but the first caress, you will die slowly, we will peel all the skin from you and you will still be alive” (Black Robe 1991). Another scene in the movie where it is evident the Huron and the Iroquois dislike each other is the scene where the three Huron men are discussing the fate of the black robe and their fate as a tribe they say “and soon our enemies [the Iroquois] will know of our weakness and will wipe us from this earth” (Black Robe 1991). This again shows that the Iroquois will show no mercy to the Huron’s because of the bad blood between the two…

    • 1045 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    "This brook presents the horrific act of European settlers towards the natives Indians, in order to establish their dominance over the American land . Briefly covering the lives of the native and how cordially they use dto live in th holy land prospering. They were very close to the nature, since the English invaders entered the main land the condition became worse and along with them they brought infectious diseases and epidemic which further facilitated the expansion of the foreigners and demise of the natives.…

    • 134 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mrs. Mary Rowlandson in the excerpt, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God, asserts that Native Americans are barbarous savages; only the grace of God guided the author to survival. Rowlandson supports her claim by illustrating the bloody attacks the Natives led against the colonists and the deaths of her closest family members and friends. The author’s purpose is to expose the cruelties of the Native Americans in order to persuade all educated colonists that Native Americans are cruel, not friendly, and cannot be cooperated with. Therefore, the author writes in a grieving and anguished tone for all educated white colonists with mixed knowledge and perspectives on the trustworthiness of Native Americans.…

    • 111 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Robertson stayed true to his objective and only shows slight bias. An unfair representation of the Native Americans was conveyed when Robertson called the Indians savages. Yet, he supported his claim by illustrating the Indian’s savage behaviors later in the text. While displaying the Indian’s savage behavior, he did not thoroughly examine their culture; and therefore, showed slight bias in his work. However, it does not diminish Robertson’s overall objectivity.…

    • 657 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Undoubtedly, the tribe with whom Father La Forgue has the most contact throughout the film Black Robe is the Algonquian tribe. The Algonquians were historically a nomadic tribe, making their role as guides for Father…

    • 2135 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Often perceived as a group of tyrannical oppressors, the white people have firmly established their gruesome and discriminatory image through the bloody history of its dictatorship over racial minorities. Although it is true to some extent that White people were biased and unjust to other races, it is obvious that the intransigent mindset of the native Indian people have also contributed to the intense enmity between the two races. Harold Cardinal, once president of the Indian Association of Alberta, had inaccurately accused Caucasian Canadians in “The Mystery of the White Man”. He had described White men as a group of bigoted, corrupted rapists and portrayed the Indians as some guiltless victims of the depraved White society mistreated for living up to the standard of morality. Harold Cardinal had disguised his people under a mask of innocence and blamelessness while labeling Caucasian Canadians as the ultimate obstacle to peaceful diversity.…

    • 771 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Elk Speaks written by John Newhart is a biography of a Native American. In the biography Neihardt takes us thru Black Elk’s experiences as the Wasichus (white man) take over the land he lives on. The Wasichus have always been monsters to the Natives. Young kids see them as monsters that will get you if you misbehave and adults see them as merciless murders, due to the fact that they killed many Native women and children; Wasichus also took away culture and tradition from them. We can see through use of pathos, logos, ethos, and diction that Black Elks attitude toward the Wasichus was resentful.…

    • 792 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Black Robe

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Robert Kilker concludes that though Black Robe “may at times pretend to equalize its perspectives of the French and Algonquins . . . it always recovers that balance, replacing it with a Eurocentric hierarchy.” I felt just the opposite. For me, Black Robe was based around Chomina, a true hero. Chomina is a strong character who stands firm in his beliefs but respects the beliefs of others, which is why he is the essence of the movie. As the movie progresses, the characters change, especially Laforgue, who comes to question his very identity as a Christian. Chomina changes the least, however, and emerges as the film’s most powerful character. His key trait is his ability to establish relationships that are founded on respect. Chomina accepts outsiders, while staying true to his own culture. He demonstrates how two cultures can co-exist, but not assimilate into one culture or the other. The basis for this co-existence is respect – a respect that begins in respect for himself and spreads to respect for his tribe and respect for other cultures.…

    • 590 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The tribes were made up of sub-tribes, which then were divided into other clans and bands of Sioux Indians. Each tribe was assigned a chief, who was chosen by their successfulness in war and by their ability to gain the public’s acceptance. The issues were dealt by the council in the tribe, which was made up of the community and elders. The moral codes of these Natives Americans were immensely important. The single act of being morally right could elevate a man into higher position of leadership. In each village, there were a set of “holy people” often called medicine man or priests. There were two different kinds of holy man; one could heal, bring good weather, or make the days hunt prosperous. The others could communicate with the spirits, andforesee the future, called shamans. Unlike the chiefs (that were always men) shamans or healers could be women. (galafilm.com). Popular culture has affected the governance system of the Sioux by spreading out the idea of “holy man” and “shamans” as uncommon or unreal. This could be seen as bad, because they lose some their earliest governance beliefs that were once the foundation of the…

    • 978 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Hurt, shame, humiliation, and pain. The struggle for Indigenous people is a continuous cycle of abuse and one of broken hopes and dreams. In Deborah Miranda’s tribal memoir, Bad Indians, she uses her narrative along with primary sources and related stories to reassess previous knowledge about how the lives of American Indians were affected by colonialism. Through the use of tone, point of view, and counter discourse, Miranda sheds light on how the gender-based violence and sexual abuse that accompanies colonialism, despite the notion that settlers were following Christian ideals, shaped a new Indigenous society that tore their culture apart and led to a mosaic of their broken identities. By creating a distinction between historically dominant…

    • 1169 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Edmunds, R. David. American Indian leaders: studies in diversity. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1980.…

    • 2634 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Kiowa Culture

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages

    ne of the common features found in the literature about Native American folklores is that it exhibits a big and rapid influence by the dominant culture which results in the discontinuity between old and new, mostly the latter selected over the former. This book’s chapters except for the prologue and epilogue each chapter is consisted of three voices: folktale narrative, historical, and modern personal feelings. The author seems to model via this format how in Kiowa people’s conscience the time and space work and how they view the discord between the enriched past and nihilistic present for them, as seen in the different tones. This book explains how the mixing of culture during their history has molded Kiowa’s contrasting views towards the…

    • 651 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Cultural Immersion

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages

    From my readings and internet explorations from part 1, I learned that Native Americans are truly spiritual people who believed in building a community of togetherness. During the church service, they stressed this same concept over and over again. They continuously prayed and recited confessions about unity,…

    • 1289 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    The colonist where there also to convert people to Christianity, but their methods of doing so made the natives think that Christianity was a bad thing and that they should be afraid to join this religion. The quote that brings the most power showing this is, “Did you ever hear or read of Christ teaching his disciples that they ought to despise one because his skin was different from theirs?” (CR, 29). This quote brings light to the fact that they were not teaching natives the true Christianity, but an altered form that was favorable to the white men. There is also another part where he says that God would be disgracing himself by making fifteen different other races to live alongside his powerful white image. He notes this at the beginning of the essay by proposing the idea that Indian and white people are both children of god (Danver, 2016). Any another line of questions that connect the impracticality of the white men with Christianity, “But I would ask, how are you to love your neighbors as yourself?... Now to cheat them out of their rights is robbery. And I Ask, can you deny that you are robbing the Indians daily, and many others?” (CR, 31). He is showing how the colonist did not treat the natives with love or any care whatsoever, but instead with power and deterrence.…

    • 912 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    When Jesus Came, The Corn Mothers Went Away gives an in-depth history of the Pueblo Indians before and after the Spanish conquest. It describes the forced changes the Spanish brought to the Indians, and also the changes brought to the Spaniards who came to “civilize” the Indians. The author's thesis is that the Pueblo Indians and other Indians were treated cruelly by the Spanish, who justified their crime by claiming they were civilizing an uncivilized nation, by changing their way of culture, social standing, marriage and sexuality practices to what the Spaniards deemed as correct. The Spaniards refused to acknowledge the Indian's culture as culture and set out to forcibly change the Indians. Even while the Spaniards themselves were influenced by the Indian way of life, the Indians continually suffered under the Spanish rule.…

    • 696 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics