Brianna's journals

Journal entry number 1:

This week I started and finished the first quarter of the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. In the beginning of this novel I learnt about a young boy named Saul Indian horse and his life. I personally think that even though Saul has experienced some hardships in his short time that where he lives is quite beautiful and is lucky to be able to live practically in and with nature 24/7.He describes the country side as,alive Saul is also quite lucky to have his loving grandmother Naomi. After facing an extreme hardship Saul's parents turn to alcohol to solve their problems. I think that if i were to experience the hardship of losing a child like Saul's parents,Naturally I would be quite upset for sometime but eventually would snap out of it because I should be thinking about keeping my only child left (Saul) safe and out of the residential schools.I would be thankful to have someone as loyal and loving as his grandmother Naomi in my life trying to protect my and keep my out of the residential school system.  Near the end of the first quarter we witness a dark turn in Saul's life and what it is like to be a young child living in a residential school. Even after losing his parents and grandmother Saul for some reason does not cry when he arrives at the school. I find this quite bizarre considering he seemed to be quite close to his grandmother and depended on her to keep him safe and out of harms way. Naomi aside from taking care of Saul most of the time teaches him numerous valuable lessons and the origins of their people (Ojibway). Seeing the transition of a beautiful Canadian country side where the rivers and trees are alive to the dark,cruel residential school is a lot to take in as a reader. We learn that Saul has witnessed everything from children being beaten to a pulp to children as young as 6 committing suicide. Knowing that this was actually a reality not too long ago makes me feel somewhat disgusted with the government and how no one spoke out about this to stop this horrible tragedy was absolutely terrible and very sad. What I am hoping to witness in the next quarter of the novel is to hopefully see Saul escape the residential school system or for his life there to become somewhat "better" although if the novel is anything like what happened in real life there is not a lot of hope for him







Journal entry number 2: 

This week I finished the second quarter of the novel Indian horse by Richard Wagamese. I personally think that this has so far been the most exciting and riveting part of the novel so far. In this section we learn that better things have come Saul's way and he has discovered the beautiful game of hockey, (which he has quite a knack for). In this quarter i really like the use of description that Saul uses when he is describing stepping on the hockey rink for the first time to his first ever game with the other boys from the school and the constant rush of excitement and adrenaline he gets. Hockey is almost like a salvation for him and the other boys. I really like how the author shows how Saul grows up and becomes older throughout this part of the novel, it really helps us see how his character develops and remembers where he came from even though he was taken away at a somewhat young age. Another aspect I really like is how the author uses realistic things such as television shows in this quarter of the book. Things such as when Father Gaston-Leboutilier ( a young priest at the school) shows the boys Hockey night in Canada. Things like this help me relate somewhat to the novel as well as make it more interesting to read, especially when Saul describes the game and how the players play as well as that hockey has always been a really big sport in Canada. Although this quarter of the book has so far been my favorite there are a few aspects of it that i find upsetting and do not quite enjoy. When Saul is kicked off the town's hockey team for being Indian as well as an extremely good player I find this extremely unjust, but it proves just how badly Indian people/children were treated back when residential schools were around. Although this is not a great event in Saul's life he still finds a way to learn an important lesson that I feel most people should learn. Never give up. This lesson proves to help Saul out because through practice and dedication he eventually gets scouted and adopted by Fred Kelly (an Ojibwa man) to play on a very high level team. Another somewhat disappointing part in the novel is how there is a lack of description about the new community Saul moves to when he is adopted by Fred Kelly. I find it somewhat harder to picture the setting and place of where Saul is. But besides the point the author makes it compelling to read because we go from seeing the depressing horrors of the school to a somewhat lighter and happier atmosphere. Of course it is still depressing to learn about what happens to the children at the school, since I find as the novel progresses we learn about more of the horrific things being done to the children, but it is nice to see that for Saul and the other hockey boys things are improving bit by bit. It really helps the book progress and also helps the characters grow. After this part of the book i'm very excited to read about what happens to Saul next and where he he will end up on and off the ice.


Journal entry number 3: 
This week I finished the third and second last part of the novel Indian horse by: Richard Wagamese. In my personal opinion I find this part of the novel to be the most interesting by far since we really get a deep and thorough insight into Saul's budding professional hockey career and the racism that unfortunately comes with it. I personally like how the author uses more descriptive words and common racial slurs from that specific time period (1960's-70's). I also like how the author lets Saul stay true to himself up until he agrees to go play with the Toronto marlies which leads us to witness Saul become more violent and acts like a "goon" to please the crowd. When this happens its sad to see that Saul was doing this to give the people what they want , but it was also in a sense nice to see Saul change and grow during this hard and racial time for indigenous people in sports.The authors descriptions throughout this are amazing and very clear and easy to understand, I really enjoy having this in the novels I read since it helps me understand and really picture the characters, situations and places in the novel as well as give me a clearer idea of whats going on. The author also shows a clear and what seems to be almost extremely quick progressions of Saul's minor league hockey career to an AHL career to going back home to Fred Kelly's where he feels he really belongs. The author shows really well how brutally Saul was treated throughout his AHL career with the constant racial slurs, to him being beaten up black and blue to him finally becoming a somewhat violent player nicknamed "the rampaging redskin". Unfortunately it is not only Saul who faces the brutal racism but also his hockey team the moose. Wagamese really makes this part of the book quite interesting but unfortunately I find not as "relatable" as the last part where Wagamese used TV shows such as "Hockey night in Canada " , which from living in Canada I have watched multiple times. This part of the novel in general is much more descriptive then the second part but is unfortunately lacking in being relatable. All in all this part of the novel was so far my most favorite as it helps fore shadow what might come next in the novel for Saul and also shows that even though he is out of the residential school he still unfortunately faces harsh racism and cruelty.  




Journal entry number 4:
This week I finished the fourth and final quarter of the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. Personally I find this chapter to be the most interesting, disturbing and eye opening due to the fact that we find out much that was hidden about Saul's time at the school and what racism has really done to him over the past few years and the toll it has taken on his life. I really like how the author still uses very detailed description in the last quarter as he did in the first quarter, since it really helps us see and feel how Saul had felt at the time. I was quite shocked when I had found out that Father Leboutilier (who we are set to believe was very kind to Saul and helped him "escape" the school) had actually raped Saul numerous times and let Saul join the hockey team to keep him quite and have more time with him. I find this was very disturbing but unfortunately was the harsh truth for many of the children who attended the school. This also was quite interesting and intrigued me to read more since, we finally get to see why Saul turned to alcohol when he got older. It was not just the racism towards him that made him turn to alcohol but the school. Later in the quarter when Saul goes back to visit the school and his home at God's lake, we still get a detailed and intense description from the author which I quite enjoyed because we got to see how much the school had deteriorated , but also got to experience the beauty of God's lake and the contrast between the two. We learn also in this quarter that Saul, even with the help of a friend he meets along the way named Ervin Shift cannot become completely sober for long periods of time with out proper professional help and to fill the need to find out where he came from. Reading the last few chapters of the novel I was quite please to see that the author again had made Saul's character evolve from being a young boy, to a lost, sad and silent man to someone who has figured out where he has came from and where hes going in the future. I think this is a very nice way to finish off the novel because we get to see Saul go back to the game he loves with out having to deal with the intense racism and cruelty. Its great to find out as well that Saul gets to teach children how to love the game like he did/does, it really wrapped the novel up nicely to also be able to witness Saul and his loved ones ( Fred Kelly, The moose and entire neighborhood) play another game of hockey just for the fun of it. I think this novel has by far exceeded my expectations of how I thought it would have gone and has really been a eye opener to the residential school system and how indigenous people are/were treated in sport.  I really enjoyed reading this novel and will most definitely check out more of Richard Wagamese's novels in the near future.