The Ojibwa tribe lived near Lake Superior on ancestral land. The Native Americans’ main economic activities were hunting and gathering. Their culture is depicted in the story when a young Omokaya was taught to clean and stretch buffalo hides. A young Omokaya also had a ‘gift’ for dreams and healing. They communicated through stories. On the other hand, the Ingalls are White settlers. They have fled tough economic times and set out for the Midwest to farm. White settlers lived as nuclear families and sang songs, compared to the Native Americans’ culture of living together as extended families.
The Ojibwa tribe had deep connections to their land. The onset of White settlers into the Midwest was detrimental to their communities. White settlers forcefully drove them out of their ancestral land and killed many of them. However, the United States government decreed years later that they return Native American land in a forceful evacuation. Therefore, there are parallels between the Ojibwa evacuation from their ancestral land to that of the Ingalls’ by the American government.
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2.
Alexie’s statement that every culture is tribal is true. In essence, humans have always focused on tribal mentalities where every tribe seeks to self-preserve and maintain social networks with people they know and relate to. Unless there are bad intentions, this cannot be seen as tribalism. For instance, Native Americans will always look to protect their own because they have a sentimental connection to their roots. These ‘tribal mentalities’ also manifest in terms of gender, economical, regional, or national alliances.
3.
In Beth Grant’s Coyote Learns a New Trick , the author tells us of the female Coyote who changes gender to that of a traveling man. She sees this as an opportunity to play tricks on other animals. The same act can be compared to the traditional Coyote tales where a male dresses up as a lady. In both Native American instances, the Coyote can be seen as a ‘shapeshifter’ who transforms to accomplish hidden agendas.
The United States government’s treatment of the Native Americans can also be compared to a trickster tale. Over the years, treaties such as the Treaty of Canandaigua meant to return native and have been signed. However, most have been broken as large sections of Native American land remain annexed.
The third example is the trader who brought smallpox to the whole tribe in The Birchbark House . Although the tribe was trying to help him, most were infected. As a result, helping him turned into a disaster as baby Neewo died and the family faced starvation.
4.
A. There are shifting points of view such as when Scout is 6 at the beginning and 8 years old when the novel concludes. Although the reader may find it hard to understand the world from the eyes of a 6 year old, I believe that the shifts are helpful as they give readers a different view of things. For instance, a young Scout believes that her father is ‘old’ because he is almost half a century old. However, an adult reader will view this as ‘middle-aged.’
B. In Chapter 23, four classes of citizens are explained by Jem namely: those living in the “tired old town” of Maycomb where poverty was rampant, those living in the forests, those living in the dump, and the blacks. These classes showcase the economic strife of the Depression of the 1930s. However, issues such as racial and gender-based injustice cut across time and place. For instance, Scout envies Calpurnia and Miss Maudie who are portrayed as firm and liberated. Also, the Negroes are looked down upon. An example of an unwritten social code is racial prejudice. The sentencing of Tom Robinson introduced social alliances that are present today the world over.
