Indian Stereotypes

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In any story, it is important for the audience to understand which characters are powerful and those that are powerless. In several stories that have been read this semester, there have been characters that are portrayed to be inferior because of their socioeconomic status or skin color. As a result, those characters obtain insignificant roles in books and do not receive the chance to have their voices heard in any story. Furthermore, the authors chose to display stereotypical images of them and try to persuade the audience by creating a story that implicitly states that everyone of a specific race or social class is incompetent or unintelligent. To begin with, in the Captive Heart novel by Carolyn Keene, there is one character that is marginalized …show more content…
When Arnold decided to go to Reardan, he felt powerless because he wasn’t able to help his fellow Indians leave the reservation. He wanted to help them but, the stereotypical notion of Indians being drunkards was their downfall. Arnold knew that Indians were only going to leave the reservation if their white counterparts allowed it. The majority of them didn’t want to leave town anyway because they would be harassed by white police officers. Arnold saw his chance to leave and he swiftly took the opportunity before he fell in the same pit as everyone else. He didn’t want to live a life where he would die due to alcohol. Arnold wanted to experience what else life had to offer. Furthermore, this novel isn’t similar to Tricycle or Captive Heart. This book is different because the author is actually an Indian who shares how he views people from his perspective. The story isn’t being told by someone that is a part of a superior race. It is told by a minority citizen who wanted to share his life experiences and show people of color how he was able to use courage and ambition to lead a successful life. The author used stereotypical notions but, he also shared some good messages that could help and appeal to anyone with the journey of self-discovery. This author doesn’t solely focus on rich or poor but, Alexie gives balance and displays how easier his life became when he was able to be accepted on either side of the

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