Growing Tension Joe Suina Analysis

Growing Tensions: Assimilation Within Modernity
Much of American history glosses over the Indian experience; the European notion that indigenous peoples were inferior and “savage” reinforced the idea that it was justified for other groups to conquer their land, steal their goods, and kill them. The story of these natives reflects the pain of their ceaseless struggle and highlights the repressed suffering they feel as they try to progress in society, simultaneously inching further from their history. In Joe Suina’s, and then I went to school, we are able to feel the tension native millennials feel when they must give up parts of their culture to grow up. This pressure, to adopt more “whiteness,” was increasingly felt, as they attended traditional …show more content…
It seems that the deep connection to nature is symbolic, in the eyes of Americans, of being primitive. This false notion, fueled by non-natives, perpetuated the idea that natives could not undertake challenges found in the “real” world as they were stuck in the path of their old ways. For Sherman and Joe, this created immense tension and internal conflict, as they found it difficult to choose between cultures and remain loyal to their roots. In Joe Suina’s and then I went to school, he reflects on his struggle growing up as an Indian boy and touches upon his experience feeling torn between adopting white culture, a pressure felt at school, and staying true to his native culture. By focusing in on the difference in setting between his home and his school environment, readers are able to better identify the small details that make the author feel such isolation and sudden malaise. When remembering his times at school, Suina recalls the stark difference between his home and his school environment school, saying, “Those fluorescent light tubes made an eerie drone and blinked suspiciously over me. This was quite a contrast to the fire and sunlight my eyes were accustomed to. I thought maybe the lighting …show more content…
Although native children like Joe were taken into society, their culture was not; for Joe to be fully understood by whites, he had to be more like them. The constant reminder that difference and change were ideal compared to what they felt accustomed to, led Sherman and Joe, to feel as if abandoning what they grew up with was inevitable. Reflecting on his confusing passion for Western films he