Reflection:

I will improve my gramma issues and vocabulary mistakes  next time and try to make my sentences more clearly to understand. And I will also try to make my thesis more concise and strong and try to capture the main idea in succinct words.

I think I did a good job in my argument to make it  revolves around the thesis. I picked useful and strong evidence from the sources, and I try my best to use the formatting language to make it more normative.

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Abuse begins with culture and ends with culture

Residential Schools in Canada bring dark and painful experience to First Nation people. Students who survived from the Residential School also changed a lot, so what is the effect of the Residential School on First Nation people? Author David Alexander Robertson wrote the graphic novel, Sugar Falls. It is based onthe true story of Betty Ross from Cross Lake First Nation. The whole story is set in Canada. When Betsy is eight, she is taken to Residential School and abused. Her father’s word about trusting the relation gives her strength to resist the cruelty. Richard Wagamese is a famous Canadian author and journalist who grew up in an Ojibway family. Indian Horse is based on his Residential School experience. The story happens in Northern Ontario, where Saul grows up in an Ojibway family. After his family breaks and Grandma dies, he is taken to Residential School. The experience of being abused makes him isolated andaddicted to hockey to protect himself. When the only happiness is taken away, he starts to degenerate. However, like Betsy, he heals himself through the traditional way, which is going back and revisiting his past. Finally, at Gods Lake, he knows he has a stronger relationship between his people, although he experienced so much pain and discrimination, he has already strong enough to move on. In contrast, the effects are Betsy loses her hearing in left ear and friends who has passed away. Through her father’s words, she became strong and the best student to resist the cruelty.In Indian Horse, Saul was isolated by First Nations students because he can speak English and white people because of his skin color, thus he closes his heart to protect himself. Abuse makes him isolated and he abandons himself resulting in him becoming an alcoholic. Similarly,both of the protagonists live through and survive Residential Schools. Betsy and Saul heal themselves through the help of their adoptive parents by turning to First Nations traditional ways. Racism and abuse in Residential Schools may make First Nations people ashamed and traumatized, but if people trust their tradition and culture, they will heal themselves and move on.

In Sugar Falls, although Betsy eventually survived Residential School, she also lost her hearing and her friends forever. Sister Marie beats Betsy because she used her own language to communicate with her friends. The long punishment time makes her unable to timely treat her injured ear and thus lost her hearing: “She kicked me so hard I lost my hearing in my ears. Sister Marie loved to see us beg for mercy as she set us on her path of righteousness,” (Robertson, 30). In Residential School, the nun abuses the First Nation children to see them begging for mercy. Nuns not only physically torture children, but also insult their dignity and cause psychological fear. However, Betsy does not give in to the nun, thus she has paid the price of losing her hearing. In addition to the physical pain of losing her hearing, the loss of a significant friend has a greater impact on her. Flora cannot stand the cruelty, so she decides to escape from the Residential School by swimming across the lake. But in the end, Betsy could only watch her drown in the lake. At Flora’s funeral, the prayer of the priest makes Betsy angry and helpless, because it was their abuse that indirectly led to her friend’s death, and no matter what they do, Flora will never come back: “And for me, these was only anger left. He was preaching for her, but she had been running from him,” (Robertson, 33). The discrimination at Residential School makes her helpless and angry about Flora’s death and what had happened to her. The experience affects her a lot; therefore, she wants to commit suicide to end her life in the Residential School.

In addition, the Residential Schools not only influence Betsy and make her want to commit suicide, but also make Saul from simple become unsociable, violent, and ended up an alcoholic. When he is ten, Saul is taken to Residential School and isolated by Ojibway kids because he can speak English; therefore, he chooses to close his heart as protection from injury and pain. Since then he has isolated himself from others, which is the main factor causing his later painful experience:

…They had bent their heads close together as they mopped the halls or. mucked out the barn stalls and speak Ojibway. I learned that ventriloquism eventually, but in the beginning, they saw me as an outsider.

I did not mind that. I was sore inside. The tearing away of the bush and my people was like ripped flesh in my belly. Every time I moved or was forces to speak, it roared its incredible pain. And so, I took to isolation. I was not a large boy and I could disappear easily, (Wagamese,48).

Saul wants to abandon himself, so he hints himself that he does not care about it. But the damage of being isolated at the Residential School filled him with pain, so he chooses isolation as a shield to protect his heart from harm. However, isolation also separated him from others and makes his heart more suffering in the days that followed. Besides the isolation, hockey is also the protection for him, so when it cannot protect him anymore, the experience of being abused and hurt at Residential School will deeply affect him, making his dignity begin to crumble: “When that happened, I knew that the game could not offer me protection any longer. The truth of the abuse and the rape of my ignorance were closer to the surface, and I used anger and rage and physical violence to block myself off from it,” (Wagamese,200). When Saul grows up, he remembers being raped and discriminated against in Residential School because of his ignorance. Therefore, painful abuse in Residential School and loss of only happiness makes him turn to alcohol and violence.

Even though Residential Schools have some negative effect on Betsy and Saul, the most important thing is to let them grow up in the painful past and be closer to their own culture. In Sugar Falls, the abuse and death of Flora make Betsy want to commit, but what stops her is her father’s word, believing that her relationship with tradition will be the salvation from difficulties: “I remembered the word of my father. When the darkness comes, let this strength be a light, let it guide you away from the pain, I am not saying the road was easy after that. But no matter what they did to me, I held on to myself, my language and my spirit,” (Robertson, 36-38). In the face of real suffering, relationship with culture can exert real power. In the lake, she remembered her promise and her culture. Although the life of the Residential School is still hard, she can find herself through the spirit of her culture, would not be beaten down again by abuse in Residential School. Similarly, Saul also gets out of the past through his relationship with culture. When he goes back and revisit his past, he makes the Gods Lake, he saw his family, so he knows all his painful experience is started at his Ojibway culture and also should end with it: “As I watched, it became the shining face of a rink and, where Indian boys in cast-off skates laughed in the thrill of the game… I offered tobacco to the lake where everything ended, and I offered my thanks aloud in an Ojibway prayer,” (Wagamese, 206). When he connects with tradition then to revisits his past. Instead of using alcohol to forget his painful experience and give up on himself, now he can face up to the abuse he has received in the past. After healing himself through traditional methods. he can hold on himself, his spirit, and his tradition.

In conclusion, although racism and abuse in Residential Schools make First Nation people angry and self-abandoned, the positive is that suffering also brings them closer to their culture and tradition, if they trust their spirit, they can heal themselves and move on. InSugar Falls,Betsy lost her hearing and friends because of abuse in Residential School, but her culture and spirit saved her when she wanted to commit suicide. In Indian Horse, when Saul gives up himself and becomes an alcoholic because his innocence was trampled on by the school, the relationship with his culture and family healed him. Therefore, when humans trust their culture and hold on themselves, no matter how hard the situation is, they can solve it. Indigenous people need more respect and help, although the government has abolished Residential Schools, there is still a need for society to respect and understand Indigenous people.

Bibliography

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse: a Novel. Douglas and McIntyre, 2016.

Robertson, David, and Scott B. Henderson. Sugar Falls: a Residential School Story. HighWater Press, 2011.

 Document of C and C essay