Element of the Four Souls

When I first read Louise Erdrich's Four Souls, I pondered in thoughts about the thematic element of the stories being narrated by two different narrators. At first, I imagined the main character, Fleur Pillager, as an angry Native American woman who's upset by the man that had stolen her trees and is following his track to seek vengeance. But what was intended with hatred gradually illustrates a sense of self-actualization, which is central to the themes of the book. Originally, I predicted the ending to be a happy ending based on the reliability of the narrators. But to my finding, I now acknowledge the ending to be somewhat bittersweet. At the end of the story, Nanapush states, "Finally, I can see the shape of all that's happened and all that is to come./ Within me there has always burned an urge to see how things turn out./ To know the story./ Now that I know the story, I can rest./ The woman once called Fleur Pillager, and now named Four Souls as well as another name nobody speaks, is now understood by the spirits" (209). Here, the reader can speculate the bittersweet sensation, which is highlighted by the mere fact that the characters and narrators like Polly Elizabeth are experiencing a self-realization. Both the characters and narrators telling the story are guilty of behaving in a stereotypical way. As the story progressed, the reader witnesses how the negative behaviors and actions of Fleur, Nanapush, Margaret, and Polly Elizabeth led to the results of their bittersweet ending. For Fleur, she started out seeking vengeance but she somehow ended up marrying a white man and even bearing his child. However, Fleur's downfall led to her consumption of unnecessary amount of liquor, resulting in her child's birth defects. Nanapush's mad love for Margaret overcame him with jealousy because he was convinced that Margaret and Shesheeb were having an affair. His jealousy led to his consumption of alcohol, which made him somewhat insane and came up with a plan at winning Margaret back, but instead ended up trapping her and almost killing her. At that time, Margaret had a vision with her great-grandmother, telling her to sew a dress that will gives healing power, so she set out to make the medicine dress. For Polly Elizabeth, she was a reliable narrator because her failure in love gave her a sense of self-actualization. As Polly Elizabeth narrates, "If one only accepts what is given!/ There could be afternoons of laughter./ There could even be happiness. If one only accepts" (125). To conclude, the bittersweet touch in the ending is allowing yourself time to heal and what's more important is being able to see your mistakes and learn from those mistakes. Although, it is a happy ending for Fleur to get her name back, there still remain many possibilities to be considered. Relating back to the title of the book, Four Souls, I believe Louise Erdrich was clever in having more than one narrators telling the story of Fleur Pillager. The three narrators Nanapush, Polly Elizabeth, and Margaret happened to make up the three souls of Fleur, what's missing is the fourth soul. Based on the reading and my observations, I theorized that self-realization and personal beliefs completes the four souls, making up for the fourth soul.

Where does the heart belong?

Gertrude Bonnin's The Soft-Hearted Sioux strikes an interesting theory in regards to cultural expectations. The story told of an Indian male who stepped out of the cultural boundaries but was pulled back in. In the Indian's culture, the male are expected to become a warrior since it signifies a class distinction in that the title of a warrior is considered highly respected and honorable to his family. Another critical aspect of this Native American culture is hunting, which is a common expectation in a man's role. This appeal to gender's role for this culture because the men are suppose to be responsible for hunting to provide the meat/food and protecting the women and their families, while the women are expected to be responsible for household duties such as farming and caring for the husband and children. Nevertheless, the young man in the story "did not grow up the warrior, huntsman, and husband he was to have been." Instead, he went to the missionary school outside the village and it changes his cultural beliefs about the idea of hunting. As a result, he became a religious Christian when he returned to the village. To me, this was a turning point for the young man because he had stepped out of his cultural boundaries but as soon as he had returned home he became challenged with cultural expectations again, where he faced his family's expectations along with his people's expectation of Indian ancestry. Cultural boundaries has a major impact on how you are as a person because depending on what culture you belong to, your belief lies in correlations to your cultural beliefs. Sometimes, cultural beliefs can very limitting factor because it is a collective beliefs system intended to apply to each and every individual descended from a common ancestor, but in reality everyone differs in their beliefs. In the story, the young man was placed in a stressful situation to live up to his families' expectations and becoming a warrior, a huntsman, and a good husband candidate to the women in their village. Additionally, this had also placed him in a tough situation to make a decision about living up to cultural expectations or commit to what he has learned and believes in from the missionary school. I can relate to what the main character in this story has experienced because my cultural expectations has also affected my beliefs and how I choose to live life. It's really a challenge in escaping cultural expectations when it keeps pulling you back, furthermore, its especially harder to live up to someone else's expectations of you. The whole idea of expectations are highly complex because it constantly changes and are constantly challenged by cultural boundaries and beliefs. Living up to your own expectations and having to live up to someone else's expectation at the same time creates an abundant amount of stress, which hinders you from moving forward in life. Like the character in the story, I do feel the need to live up to my parents' expectations but I also wished to escape cultural boundaries and moving forward in my future. Also, I found it is even more difficult to live my life when someone else starts comparing me with another person who are doing exceeding well in their field while I am struggling with mine. I try to look at these situations in a positive way, but it still failed to make sense to me when I compare because everyone have their own strenths and weaknesses so why should someone's success reward me with more miseries for living my life independently?! The Soft-Hearted Sioux strikes a powerful as well as pathos belief in me in regards to cultural identity.

What's real and What's NOT?!

When reading Greg Sarris, The Woman Who Loved a Snake, many thoughts had crossed my mind. First of all, I'm not fond of snakes but ironically I was born in the year of the snake according to the zodiac. For me, the snake has always seemed to symbolize a negative image. However, I was also confused by the meaning behind the story that Mabel McKay has told Sarah. It was interesting how the context of the story of "The Woman Who Loved a Snake" were being compared with Shakespeare in the essay. I don't really understand Shakespeare much myself and in contrast to the story of the woman and the snake, I also considered the same feelings about the real meaning of the spoken words but more importantly the perceptual messages and context of cultures as listeners and readers. As we have touched upon in class discussion, Sarah and Mabel McKay differs in their cultures, traditions, and languages, so, it was problematic by the hidden and true meanings of the snake and the man in the story. To Mabel McKay, she was just practicing her culture's oral traditions, but to Sarah there was more to the story than it was told because it raises the questions of what's real and what's not real. Language is very important to every single beings because that is what we all practice when communicating with one another. But if we're not careful when using words and languages to communicate, the words can easily be confused to have infinite meanings. There's a saying that my mom would always say to me whenever I'm quiet around others, that "words does not cost money to buy." I guess my mom just wanted to encourage me to be more talkative to communicate with others, but I always found that the meanings of these words changes diachronically as I grow older and experiencing life.

Tree of Souls

At the end of The Soul of the White Man, Charles Eastman states "I am an Indian;...Nevertheless, so long as I live, I am an American." This seems confusing to me because I am unsure whether he is considering himself to be an Indian or an American, as in being white. But judging from the argument he presented, my guess is that Eastman is saying he still considered himself as an Indian culturally. However, because he has been influenced by the American/Western way of life, he has adapted to the civilized lifestyles.


Of course, Charles Eastman made a very convincing argument in regards to the white men's religion of Christianity. I agreed with Eastman that the white men "are anxious to pass on their religion to all races of men, but keep very little of it themselves." It's true, evidence from historical context examined that those who claimed to be "Christian" were murderers that feeds on those considered to be "weak" and are society's "outcasts." The question to be ask is not "why" they call themselves "Christian" while being guilty of executing the wicked and evil act because the reasons are obvious, but rather the question is "how" are these "less developed people" getting away with their crime? And the answer is quite simple yet does not fail to shock some people, that society today has not outgrown this system. It doesn't do anyone a favor to be pointing fingers or passing the blame because ironically enough every individual is at fault. Moreover, "the white man's religion is not responsible for his mistakes," and it does not create peace for anyone but may ignite more chaos. Another way to look at this issue is "the system of life is based upon a trade-off system when civilization is reduced to its lowest terms." By nature mankind are selfish: they are selfish to achieve an immortal life where they refuse to age, they are selfish to help others, they are selfish to share with one another, they are selfish at looking attractive, and so forth. Like the white men, society do composed of hypocrites and less developed people, who are blinded by the media and religion. These people in some way neglect their own cultures as well as beliefs and in exchange they foolishly pursued a life full of miseries and disgusts. Perhaps deep down somewhere in the illusions of being a "Christian" they are able to realize that they are spellbounded by their own spell in the attempt to cast it upon mankind. Little do they know that their souls are being sucked out of their bones and flesh and in place of it is replaced with a little monster because they have passed on a genuine religion but forgot to have faith in their God.

One World, Zero Pieces

To the American Indian is confusing at times yet very remarkable to read because the stories were very descriptive. In chapter one of the book, I was able to relate the story of the doctors and the Native's way to cure sickness. I find it interesting when Thompson mentioned that "most of the doctors were women" since there are usually mostly male doctors in other cultures that were acknowledged. For instance, in the historical times, both America and China alike had always strictly regulated literacy and education to only men. Therefore, the men were in favor of becoming doctors while the women were expected to become housewives. Also, the methods the Natives used to cure a snake bite and other sickness cases were especially crucial to their culture. Unlike the Caucasians and their advance form of medicine, the Native Americans "did not know anything about surgery" and instead they were able to provide medical treatments with only nature's products of roots and herbs. Similarly, the Chinese has always been an expert with herbal medicines in their culture. From experience, I can relate to these two distinct cultures because I have been exposed to such special methods for cure by my own cultural preferences. Everyone is alike in that we all share this planet Earth. However, everyone are different in ways that we are raised in differing environments, situations, and are exposed to our own cultures. Additionally it's hard not to make references to our own cultures because that's the first instinct we get when we admire or criticize someone or something. In fact, this happens daily in society, from the element of business, academic, social status, class distinctions, to the nutritional diet. Language and culture are very important, but what's more important is the way we communicate and respect one another. Perhaps, not everyone feels obligated to respect each others' cultures as they may choose, but learning about someone's culture is as challenging as learning a foreign language. This is the feeling I get in regards to the issues of the White men that tried to civilize the Native Americans with the Western way. It's no wonder an extensive number of innocent lives has to suffer by the chaos and changes the foreigners brought upon the Natives' culture.

Blog 1b: Popul Vuh, written proof of how history repeats itself

The Popol Vuh reminds me of the stories from the Bible. Of course, there are some differences and similarities in context but I feel the moral of the thematic elements has a lot in common. For instance, the thematic elements of trickery and deceit and the relationship of women and men are still acted out in today's world. Throughout history, the issues of gender roles and battle of the sexes still remain a controversy. Even in stories such as those in the Bible and the Popol Vuh, the males has always been viewed as the dominant sex while the females are viewed as the weaker sex. It appears that despite the women's movement and women's rights, the men will always be the leader with the greater power. In Popul Vuh, the idea that women cannot exist without men was portrayed when the evil lord was defeated and his wife was not able to continue life because her husband has died. This idea of the strong yet invisible bond that exists between each and everyone is written proof that society allows history to repeat itself. Needless to say that the thematic element of trickery and deceit still happens throughout the world, but it is only known to everyone in a different form or terminology. What I am trying to hint at is the competitive side of society. It's true, this is a dog eat dog world and as Darwin's great mind had proposed, it's "survival of the fittest". Everyone is always competing with each other and is willing to make sacrifices in order to acheive "survivance". So you see, history will continue to repeat and renew itself throughout time because we are living in a round cycle. The Earth is round and so is the cycle of life, which means fate is unavoidable.

Blog 1: why GREENtea?

Hi all,

I am greentea327! Does anyone else likes the color green or tea? or how about greentea?! Well, I know I do! In fact, I absolutely LOVE greentea related things!!! It's just as simple as that. If you are unfamiliar with any of the greentea related things I'm about to list below then I suggest you go out there and try it for yourself! But first of all, did you know that greentea has many health benefits?! It's true, studies have shown that greentea can help lower your risks for heart disease and certain types of cancer. It also contains anti-oxidants and can help in weight loss. Convince yet? If you are, great! If you're not, that's cool too. Anyways, despite these health benefits of greentea, I have to say that I really enjoy the greentea-flavored ice cream, greentea frozen yogurt (@cultive), greentea frappucino (@starbucks), greentea-scented lotion, greentea ointment, greentea tapioca milktea, and many more!!! Now, about the numbers 327 after greentea. The number 3 stands for the third month of March, which is a great month because it's in Spring and daylight savings starts again! The number 27 is consider special and somewhat lucky to me because I was born on this day! Also, I don't know why but the number 7 is even more special because it is one of my lucky numbers! Last but not least, go GREEN! Afterall, the green planet Earth is the only planet with ice cream! :)

I forgot to mention the second part to my title: greentea's whirl. It's pretty simple actually. I decided to use "whirl" instead of "world" because I like the sound of "greentea's whirl," it sounds a lot better. But it should mean the same thing as "greentea's world," does that makes sense?