Under the premise of manifest destiny and the ideals of Americanization, the federal government sought to stretch the Euro-American establishment from coast to coast by disengaging the indigenous people from their ancestral homelands. In pursuance of this goal, the Dawes Act of 1887 was founded in congruence with the ideology that one must “kill the Indian” to “save the man,” with one method of approach being the assimilation of native youth into mainstream society. Providing a unique perspective on this matter, Zitkala-Sa examines the strides made by native youth to maintain a sense of ethnic identity amongst the mounting pressure of acculturation. This internal struggle, defined by elements of rebellion and resistance, can be observed as the major theme of “The School Days of an Indian Girl.”
Zitkala-Sa speaks to the reader retrospectively, as she navigates the events of her past in which she was directed away from her mother and family to attend a government-subsidized boarding school. “The School Days of an Indian Girl” is a coming of age story that oscillates between two very distinct worlds of variable culture, tradition, and structure. Initially, she articulates …show more content…
While her confidence and pride became more engrained in her behavior as she grew up, there were quite a few instances in which she stumbled and lost her voice and sense of self. She was constantly fighting an internal battle between preserving an ethnic identity and submitting to the dominant culture during a time in which Euro-American politics were in the business of cultural genocide. Zitkala-Sa was successful in integrating herself in white-culture, but even then “the little taste of victory did not satisfy a hunger in [her] heart,” for in her mind she saw her “mother far away on the Western plains…holding a charge against me.” The internal struggle rages
Zitkala-Sa speaks to the reader retrospectively, as she navigates the events of her past in which she was directed away from her mother and family to attend a government-subsidized boarding school. “The School Days of an Indian Girl” is a coming of age story that oscillates between two very distinct worlds of variable culture, tradition, and structure. Initially, she articulates …show more content…
While her confidence and pride became more engrained in her behavior as she grew up, there were quite a few instances in which she stumbled and lost her voice and sense of self. She was constantly fighting an internal battle between preserving an ethnic identity and submitting to the dominant culture during a time in which Euro-American politics were in the business of cultural genocide. Zitkala-Sa was successful in integrating herself in white-culture, but even then “the little taste of victory did not satisfy a hunger in [her] heart,” for in her mind she saw her “mother far away on the Western plains…holding a charge against me.” The internal struggle rages