Aysa Emami Heravan NBE3U-7 Ms. Nekrasovsky 19th April 2024 The Psychological Repercussions of A Dysfunctional Environment On a Child's Mental Well-Being In Indian Horse The environment and people that a child is surrounded by are crucial to their behaviours and identity. Children are adaptive creatures that often take inspiration from those that surround them; their actions influence and shape their decision-making. When children experience exposure to trauma, it induces difficulties with emotional regulation as well as difficulty with self-concept. A nurturing environment allows children to embrace their capabilities and become successful. Indian Horse explores how the multitude of traumas that the protagonist, Saul Indian Horse, faces cause
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Even though some children couldn’t speak any other languages, they weren’t allowed to speak any other language but English. The children who disobeyed these rules were severely punished as “There was no tolerance for Indian Talk” (Wagamese 48). Saul describes an instance where a boy was severely punished and eventually killed because he spoke Ojibway “On the second day I was there, a boy named Curtis White Fox had his mouth washed out with lye soap for speaking Ojibway. He choked on it and died right there in the classroom. He was ten” (Wagamese 37). Emotional abuse may also come from excessive disciplinary actions; when a child is told to stop something they can’t control, it instills an insecurity in them that can last a lifetime. Saul recalled a particular boy by the name of Arden Little Light as a kid with a medical condition that caused a runny nose; he would wipe it with his shirt sleeve but the nuns insisted that he used a hankie. Arden wouldn’t obey, which led to them tying his hands behind his back, and one day “The nuns found him hanging from the rafters of the barn on a cold February morning.
Even though some children couldn’t speak any other languages, they weren’t allowed to speak any other language but English. The children who disobeyed these rules were severely punished as “There was no tolerance for Indian Talk” (Wagamese 48). Saul describes an instance where a boy was severely punished and eventually killed because he spoke Ojibway “On the second day I was there, a boy named Curtis White Fox had his mouth washed out with lye soap for speaking Ojibway. He choked on it and died right there in the classroom. He was ten” (Wagamese 37). Emotional abuse may also come from excessive disciplinary actions; when a child is told to stop something they can’t control, it instills an insecurity in them that can last a lifetime. Saul recalled a particular boy by the name of Arden Little Light as a kid with a medical condition that caused a runny nose; he would wipe it with his shirt sleeve but the nuns insisted that he used a hankie. Arden wouldn’t obey, which led to them tying his hands behind his back, and one day “The nuns found him hanging from the rafters of the barn on a cold February morning.