A New Story Poem Analysis

The true Native American culture died long ago, leaving only the aspects that white people can embrace in order to deny that they forced the death and assimilation of Native Americans. Native American culture has become lifeless culture losing everything but what the dominant culture deems to be profitable. The binding classification of being a Native American in a society where Native American culture is devalued and made into costumes forces the modern Native American to play a part in America’s romanticized Indian culture festival or to blend in with the crowd. As seen in “The Real Indian Leans Against” and “A New Story”, Native American culture has not survived because whites deem it worthless, forcing its members into assimilation and submission. Ortiz’s poem, “A New Story,” showcases how being a Native American in modern American society is a hindrance as the main character submits to the request of a white woman. Throughout the length of the poem the white woman asks a Native American man, being tended to at a VA hospital, to objectify himself and his culture by acting as a museum artifact on a parade float. Ortiz wrote the poem in a satirical tone in order to mimic the subtle objectification of the white woman in her requests from the Native American man: “Put a real Indian on a float / not just a paper mache dummy,” (43-44). The woman is essentially declaring him a …show more content…
The culture has been greatly violated in a way that caused all members of its community to be forced into playing the role of what it has become or forced into assimilation. They must choose one of the two choices because of their fear of disobeying the desires of the dominant culture, because of what happens to those who disobey. They are forced into the isolation of reservations and their lives are