Indian Horse & Personal Interview
Self-Knowledge and Self-Acceptance
Brittany Rich-Nepoose
English 1500
Anna Chilewska
“Time heals all wounds” a saying everyone will hear at least once in their lifetime. Does a person have to go through a life changing experience to find self-knowledge and self-acceptance? In Richard Wagamese’s novel “Indian Horse” self-knowledge and self-acceptance is what I will explore. Comparing and contrasting the journey of Saul Indian Horse to the journey of my own mother Yvonne Nepoose. Initially people go through adverse situations in life that leave them feeling isolated. They feel the need to turn to self destructive behaviors to forget the pain; however, this response in turn hurts others as well as themselves. To overcome the pain they feel they must accept the love and help of others. In doing so this will compel them to be resilient.
Saul Indian Horse was taken away from his grandmothers arms and taken away from the world he knew to a new world. To him this was an unknown world and he heard it to be terrible. He was brought to St. Jerome’s a residential school “St. Jerome’s was hell on earth.” (wagamese 78). There he was stripped of his identity and culture; He was forced to become someone else, someone who was non-aboriginal. He was an outcast at St. Jerome’s the other children did not like him because he already spoke English and could understand it, he was left alone. Saul always did everything he could without complaining, he did all his chores, school work, so he would not be punished like the other children. This behavior alienated him from the rest of the children at St. Jerome’s. My mother was married at the young age of nineteen. After marrying my father she had decided to leave Alberta and move to my father’s hometown McBride, British Columbia. McBride was not very populated it was a very prejudice town there was no aboriginal people that lived there. My mother was immediately hated
Brittany Rich-Nepoose
English 1500
Anna Chilewska
“Time heals all wounds” a saying everyone will hear at least once in their lifetime. Does a person have to go through a life changing experience to find self-knowledge and self-acceptance? In Richard Wagamese’s novel “Indian Horse” self-knowledge and self-acceptance is what I will explore. Comparing and contrasting the journey of Saul Indian Horse to the journey of my own mother Yvonne Nepoose. Initially people go through adverse situations in life that leave them feeling isolated. They feel the need to turn to self destructive behaviors to forget the pain; however, this response in turn hurts others as well as themselves. To overcome the pain they feel they must accept the love and help of others. In doing so this will compel them to be resilient.
Saul Indian Horse was taken away from his grandmothers arms and taken away from the world he knew to a new world. To him this was an unknown world and he heard it to be terrible. He was brought to St. Jerome’s a residential school “St. Jerome’s was hell on earth.” (wagamese 78). There he was stripped of his identity and culture; He was forced to become someone else, someone who was non-aboriginal. He was an outcast at St. Jerome’s the other children did not like him because he already spoke English and could understand it, he was left alone. Saul always did everything he could without complaining, he did all his chores, school work, so he would not be punished like the other children. This behavior alienated him from the rest of the children at St. Jerome’s. My mother was married at the young age of nineteen. After marrying my father she had decided to leave Alberta and move to my father’s hometown McBride, British Columbia. McBride was not very populated it was a very prejudice town there was no aboriginal people that lived there. My mother was immediately hated
Cited: Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse, 2012 Vancouver: D&M P, 2012. Nepoose, Yvonne. Personal Interview. 2 Dec. 2012.