Tom Whitecloud Blue Winds Dancing Analysis

Character Analysis of Tom Whitecloud’s “Blue Winds Dancing”

In this story or fictionalized autobiographical fragment Whitecloud develops a character, a young Native American man, stuck within an internal conflict of discovering his individuality and his true identity. Throughout the story the narrator shows characteristics of rebellion. The struggle of deciding whether to conform or to rebel against the white modern American ways is what causes this internal conflict. The narrator’s rebellious character is brought out by his attempt to leave the Indian reserve and attend university to try to conform to white modern American ways, his decision to leave the University and go back to his “home” in Wisconsin, and his realization of the
He describes the peace of his “home”, the Native American Indian reservation, back in Wisconsin. He describes the beauty, serenity, and the tranquility of the Native American culture and the reader can easily tell how much he misses it by the contrast between the feelings for life at the university and feelings for life back at home. However, the narrator is not quite sure if that’s where he belongs or if he would even be welcomed back. What would his people and family think of him if he went back… a white, an Indian, or a failure? With all of this confusion and crisis to discover his identity the narrator makes the rash decision to head back to his “home” in Wisconsin, to see whether or not it is indeed where he belongs. Rebelling against white modern American ways of life the narrator rides the coal tenders of a freight train back to Wisconsin. On his way he passes through many other Indian reservations containing different tribes. He points out the beauty of the nature around him. The reader can sense the excitement because the narrator very seldom refers to the severity of his situation and how dangerous it is. Instead, the narrator just focuses on the different landmarks of each tribe territory the freight passes