In Zitkala Sa’s short story The Soft-Hearted Sioux a Native American boy goes to a mission school that teaches him that killing anything is wrong. His father is sick and unable to hunt, and he did not kill until it is too late. The young man is born and raised Native American but, is taught Christianity in school which made him a social outcast to both his people and their ways of life. Zitkala story The Soft-Hearted Sioux, portrays that the boy is torn between two faiths. The conflict with his father’s believes and what he is taught in school leads to horrible decisions. These choices cause him to go against both.
The beliefs of the Native Americans exhibit why the schoolboy is called soft-hearted. Native Americans believe that killing …show more content…
The mission school teaches the young man that killing was wrong. He falsely interpreted killing as do not kill anything including animals. In Christianity, nothing is wrong with killing animals. If you do it to fit your needs as in food, clothing, and shelter, you will be following by the rules. The young man claims “At the mission school I learned it was wrong to kill. Nine winters I hunted for the soft heart of Christ, and prayed for the huntsmen who chased the buffalo on the plains (1847).” The boy completely strays away from the culture he is born with, into the new idealism that’s spreading across the country. Instead of hunting for his family, while showing his bravery, he stays home and searches for what the mission schools taught in the 1800’s, salvation from the “savage” Native Americans culture. Yes, the boy is Native American but, the mission school slowly conforms him into the American man. The boy testifies that “With the white man's Bible in my hand, and the white man's tender heart in my breast, I returned to my own people. Wearing a foreigner's dress, I walked, a stranger, into my father's village (1847).” The modifications the boy is going through because of the mission school makes him lose his culture, and try to convert other people from his tribe to change their way of life as he is doing. This certainly leads to his father’s death and his skeptical thoughts on what he will see in the afterlife once he meets the
The beliefs of the Native Americans exhibit why the schoolboy is called soft-hearted. Native Americans believe that killing …show more content…
The mission school teaches the young man that killing was wrong. He falsely interpreted killing as do not kill anything including animals. In Christianity, nothing is wrong with killing animals. If you do it to fit your needs as in food, clothing, and shelter, you will be following by the rules. The young man claims “At the mission school I learned it was wrong to kill. Nine winters I hunted for the soft heart of Christ, and prayed for the huntsmen who chased the buffalo on the plains (1847).” The boy completely strays away from the culture he is born with, into the new idealism that’s spreading across the country. Instead of hunting for his family, while showing his bravery, he stays home and searches for what the mission schools taught in the 1800’s, salvation from the “savage” Native Americans culture. Yes, the boy is Native American but, the mission school slowly conforms him into the American man. The boy testifies that “With the white man's Bible in my hand, and the white man's tender heart in my breast, I returned to my own people. Wearing a foreigner's dress, I walked, a stranger, into my father's village (1847).” The modifications the boy is going through because of the mission school makes him lose his culture, and try to convert other people from his tribe to change their way of life as he is doing. This certainly leads to his father’s death and his skeptical thoughts on what he will see in the afterlife once he meets the