is Indian horse fiction?
Is the Indian horse autobiographical? Indian Horse, a harsh but beautiful novel by Ojibway writer Richard Wagamese, is about Saul Indian Horse, a former hockey star undergoing treatment for alcoholism. His autobiography is a familiar vehicle for conveying the plot of the novel.
Who died on an Indian horse? They end up losing their canoe and running out of supplies, and Naomi dies at a railroad depot outside Minaki. Saul is found by authorities and taken to St. Jerome Indian Residential School in White River.
Is The Indian Horse a good book? It is an excellent story that highlights an important part of our Canadian history. It recounts Saul’s experiences at boarding school and explores the effects he carried with him for a long time, often something that is ignored in the history of boarding school students.
Does Indian Horse Fiction – Related Questions
How did Benjamin die riding an Indian horse?
The extended family manages to evade authorities for a time, but Benjamin is eventually kidnapped by government agents and placed in a school in Kenora. He escapes a few years later and returns to the family, but is so ill with tuberculosis that he soon dies.
What is the iron sister in the Indian horse?
Saul describes the area in which the students are punished (the Iron Sister) as follows: “It was shaped like a shoebox, long and flat with a small grill in the door” (80). Wagamese also expresses that the shoes could be a metaphor for boarding school students because, again, they are treated like objects.
What does the horse symbolize in the Indian horse?
But it is also a symbol of the disappearance of its people and its culture, as this passage suggests. (The arrival of horses in Indigenous communities in Canada symbolized the end of an era, as it marked the arrival of European colonizers who wiped out much of Canadian Indigenous society.)
How old is Saul at the end of the Indian horse?
CODE’s Burt Award for First Nations, Métis and Inuit Literature. The story is set in late 1950s Ontario, where eight-year-old Saul Indian Horse is torn from his Ojibway family and interned in one of Canada’s notorious Catholic boarding schools.
How does Naomi die riding an Indian horse?
Naomi is a matriarchal figure in her family, commanding respect from all around her and upholding the family’s heritage and traditions. Tragically, her life comes to an end as she carries Saul through the snow, trying to lead him into warmth. His death coincides with Saul’s transfer to St.
What does alcohol symbolize in the Indian horse?
Like his parents before him, Saul becomes an alcoholic – partly, it’s implied, as a reaction to the tragic turn his life has taken and to numb the pain of having his dreams taken away from him. Like many alcoholics, Saul uses alcohol to escape his sadness.
Who is the Shabogeesick Indian horse?
Shabogeesick is Saul’s great-grandfather. He was a shaman of his tribe, and also a trapper. He spent a lot of time on earth and he began to unravel the teachings he passed on.
Who is Father Leboutilier’s Indian horse?
A teacher and priest in Saint-Jérôme, Father Gaston Leboutilier initially seemed to be Saul Indian Horse’s only ally at school. Leboutilier teaches Saul how to play hockey and gives him endless encouragement and love.
How does the Indian horse end?
There is a scene at the end of Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese where the main character, Saul, returns to northern Ontario where his family lives, a place called God’s Lake. There he is able to sob away the grief and anger caused by the life he was forced to live.
What did Saul learn in the Indian horse?
Instead, he is given permission to write his story, so he can “go on with his life.” Saul begins with the story of his grandfather Shabogeesick and how he earned the name Indian Horse. Benjamin will later escape, but his return is marred by illness, which Saul will later learn is tuberculosis.
How many books has Richard Wagamese written?
As one of Canada’s foremost Indigenous authors and storytellers, Richard Wagamese has been a professional writer since 1979. His oeuvre includes six novels, a collection of poetry (Runaway Dreams) and five non-fiction titles, including two memoirs and an anthology of his journal columns.
What is the purpose of chapter 39 in Indian horse?
It shows how resistance to oppressive circumstances can take many forms – a theme that links this seemingly oddly placed chapter to the themes of the previous chapter, in which Saul ultimately lashed out at his racist opponents and was punished for it.
What is the Iron Sister?
The Iron Sisters are female Shadowhunters who forge weapons for all other Nephilim. They reside in Adamant’s Citadel, their heavily fortified and hidden base, and only occasionally speak to female Shadowhunters.
What is the hockey metaphor in the Indian horse?
Hockey is the metaphor for the “white man’s game”… the game of life. They expect him to play the part of a savage Indian, and eventually, fueled by a lifetime of suppressed rage, and against his best instincts, he obliges.
What is the main message of the Indian horse?
The underlying theme of this novel is discrimination and how racism and stereotyping can affect a human being. Throughout this novel, people had expectations of what Saul should be like. During his stay in Saint-Jérôme, he realized that he was not there to learn, but to be stripped of all culture and thrown into a white-faced world.
What does a horse symbolize?
Horse symbolism and meaning
The main symbols that represent the horse are courage and freedom. This majestic animal is a being of power, independence, freedom, nobility, endurance, confidence, triumph, heroism and competition.
What does the lake of God symbolize in the Indian horse?
Lake of the Gods. Gods Lake symbolizes the value of personal and family heritage.
Who is the antagonist of the Indian horse?
There is no single person who is the antagonist in this story, but society itself. Saul’s greatest battle in the novel is against society, which attempts to strip Saul of all his culture and happiness, through boarding schools and discrimination outside of school.
Is Saul Indian Horse an alcoholic?
Saul Indian Horse is an alcoholic Ojibway who finds himself the reluctant resident of an alcohol treatment center after his latest binge. To reconcile with himself, he must tell his story. Indian Horse was a 2013 Canada Reads finalist, championed by Carol Huynh.
How is Saul isolated in Indian Horse?
The way Saul is characterized is reflected in the way his people are treated in society and how they feel apart and separated from all others. When Saul leaves residential schools, he isolates himself again, this time from his in-game teammates who once offered him refuge and joy.
Who dies at the end of Chapter 10 Indian Horse?
If the boat hadn’t capsized, Saul sometimes thinks, he and Naomi would have reached Minoose. But instead, Naomi froze to death and Saul was “cast adrift on a strange new river”. With this, Saul is separated from his family and embarks on a scary new chapter in his life.
