Friendship, Family and Face-offs in Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse
When one is taken away from everything that they have ever known and thrown into an environment where their culture and beliefs are mocked, they will then learn the true value of relationships. In the novel, Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, Saul Indian Horse is a boy who loves the game of hockey, but when he faces harassment, he starts to fight back and appreciate his relationships with his family and friends. Saul learns about the value of friendship and family from his experiences at St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School and from his experience with the Kellys.
Saul learns about the value of family after he is taken away from them. Initially, Saul is in touch with his…show more content… For example, when Saul describes an aspect of his culture in the novel, he narrates, “{w}hen the sun was warm and the song of the wind could be heard in the rustle of the trees, our people said that the Maymaygwayseeuk, the water spirits, had come out to dance” (Wagamese 4). Evidently, Saul only recognizes his family’s way of life until this point in the novel because no further explanation for this aspect is given. Furthermore, Saul appreciates his great-grandfather’s beliefs, but does not value the life his great-grandfather lives. For instance, Saul describes his great-grandfather as, “a shaman and a trapper” (5). Since Saul is still living with his family members, he disregards the real meaning of his culture. Saul goes to St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School, where he heads for a path of isolation as a result of being taken away from his parental and family influences. Even though Saul is separated from his family, he still observes and follows his elders’ teachings, “in my chrysalis of silence I turned to Zhaunagush books and language, finding in them a path beyond the
