Before constant advancements and the line driven western society marked their place in America, the Native American culture was based on an interrupted circle. The Native American way of life was anti-hierarchical and lacked chaos inflicted from outer societies. The line driven western society is comparable to a line that disregards the past in order to succeed in the future. This viewpoint punctured the Indian sphere through forced assimilation and harmful generalized statements about the Native Americans. The novel “The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian,” the movie “Smoke Signals,” and various other articles, demonstrate how the cultural circle of American Indians is deflated and how stereotypes affect the daily lives of these
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Arnold makes a final point about repairing his own circle at the end of “True Diary.” He ponders “...and wept because I knew that I was never going to drink and because I was never going to kill myself and I was going to have a better life out in the white world” (Alexie, 217). Arnold learns that he must initiate the change in his own life before he can make a valid attempt to repair his entire reservation’s circle. Contrastingly, the conventional society is based on successes that do not stem from problems of the past. The people tend to forget about other societies and their importance to cultural evolution. Through poems such as “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question,” the American culture has put stereotypes in place that put a harness on the social appearance of the Native Americans, and it is a strain for them to extinguish the stale generalizations. Diane Burns shows her sarcasm about the white culture in the line “No I didn’t make it rain tonight. Yeah. Uh-huh. Spirituality” (Burns). Through this, it is learned that the American culture tries to relate with the Indians off what they think to be true, and ignorance is shown through the lack of understanding of the actual circumstance. All viewpoints can be used to build and knock down cultural circles of the Native Americans however, because the viewpoints work in their own circle. The Native Americans work to eradicate false assumptions about their culture, while the white culture serves as an example for initiating changes in themselves and others that do not rely on working from past
Arnold makes a final point about repairing his own circle at the end of “True Diary.” He ponders “...and wept because I knew that I was never going to drink and because I was never going to kill myself and I was going to have a better life out in the white world” (Alexie, 217). Arnold learns that he must initiate the change in his own life before he can make a valid attempt to repair his entire reservation’s circle. Contrastingly, the conventional society is based on successes that do not stem from problems of the past. The people tend to forget about other societies and their importance to cultural evolution. Through poems such as “Sure You Can Ask Me a Personal Question,” the American culture has put stereotypes in place that put a harness on the social appearance of the Native Americans, and it is a strain for them to extinguish the stale generalizations. Diane Burns shows her sarcasm about the white culture in the line “No I didn’t make it rain tonight. Yeah. Uh-huh. Spirituality” (Burns). Through this, it is learned that the American culture tries to relate with the Indians off what they think to be true, and ignorance is shown through the lack of understanding of the actual circumstance. All viewpoints can be used to build and knock down cultural circles of the Native Americans however, because the viewpoints work in their own circle. The Native Americans work to eradicate false assumptions about their culture, while the white culture serves as an example for initiating changes in themselves and others that do not rely on working from past