D’Arcy McNickle, in his final novel, Wind from an Enemy Sky, is able to clearly convey to the reader his personal views regarding the future of Native American culture as it is subjected to the pressure of the American legislative system. These ideas are conveyed through both the progression of the storyline and the individual roles, with intertwined actions, of each of the story’s well calculated characters. This paper will first summarize the plot of Wind from an Enemy Sky and will then explore the views of D’Arcy McNickle regarding the state of Native America through the analysis of select characters from his novel.
Wind from an Enemy Sky begins as Bull, a respected elder and leader among the Native Americans of Little Elk, learns of a newly …show more content…
This realization depicts a landscape where political prospects begin to improve for Native Americans, but are sharply shattered by resumed exploitation. Bull represents the followers of native tradition who begin to express hope regarding the changes taking place in US policy, only to be deceived into further subjugation. The martial represents the ever present prejudice against native people incorporated into society and government policies. Finally, Toby represents a hopeful reformer with good intentions who is ultimately powerless as “Washington” and changing circumstances trick him, through a thinly woven vail of positive intentions, into exploiting his native allies (McNickle 33, 47). Throughout his novel, McNickle repeatedly emphasizes the questions “What did I learn from this?” and “What should I remember?” (McNickle 8). Through this book I learned that native people need “not just the land … but the power to decide things for themselves, to be in control or their lives” and I remember, as McNickle clarifies through the destruction of the medicine bundle, that any hopes for this return of power were extinguished by American political backtracking (McNickle 211,
Wind from an Enemy Sky begins as Bull, a respected elder and leader among the Native Americans of Little Elk, learns of a newly …show more content…
This realization depicts a landscape where political prospects begin to improve for Native Americans, but are sharply shattered by resumed exploitation. Bull represents the followers of native tradition who begin to express hope regarding the changes taking place in US policy, only to be deceived into further subjugation. The martial represents the ever present prejudice against native people incorporated into society and government policies. Finally, Toby represents a hopeful reformer with good intentions who is ultimately powerless as “Washington” and changing circumstances trick him, through a thinly woven vail of positive intentions, into exploiting his native allies (McNickle 33, 47). Throughout his novel, McNickle repeatedly emphasizes the questions “What did I learn from this?” and “What should I remember?” (McNickle 8). Through this book I learned that native people need “not just the land … but the power to decide things for themselves, to be in control or their lives” and I remember, as McNickle clarifies through the destruction of the medicine bundle, that any hopes for this return of power were extinguished by American political backtracking (McNickle 211,