Jordan's journals

 In the first quarter of Indian Horse was a good start to the story with quite a few elements that I liked about it, but there were a few things that I did find a bit unnecessary that slowed the book down. One of these things was the nature talk. Throughout the first 10 chapters or so, much of the text was in-depth descriptions of various elements of nature and of the environment. Not that there's any problem with good description to help establish the setting, especially since in nature is clearly a very important part of Saul's culture , but I found that it got a bit repetitive after a while. If just a few small sections here and there could have been cut out, I think the start of the book would have flowed a bit better. 

Other than that, I really liked the start of the book. One thing that I really liked was when his parents became depressed drunks and couldn't effectively care for him, his grandmother was able to take him under her wing and be his mentor, as well as his parent and both those sides of her show up several times. I did find a bit wired though that, despite them clearly having a very close relationship, in the story Saul constantly refers to her as "The Old Woman". I don't know if that has something to do with the culture, but it was definitely something I noticed.

In contrast to the beginning, where the extreme amounts of detail sometimes slowed the story down, once the story shifted to St.Jerome's, that same intense description actually helped the story in my opinion. It really helped portray to the reader how terrible the students were treated and also what it was like to live through it. In found the descriptive elements of this section much better than the same level of description at the start.

Overall, I think it's going pretty well. The plot is interesting and makes me eager to continue the second quarter of the book.

 Journal #2

In the second section of Indian Horse, we get a very clear picture   of St. Jerome’s and all the horrors that take place there. One thing that I liked was how it gave a sense of perspective. We have often herd about how terrible life at Residential schools was, it was never something that we could understand just from hearing it. This section did a great job at giving an inside look as to how bad it truly was at these schools. The one bright spot at the school, and probably my favorite character so far, Father Latebrouliir gave the students something that they could actually look forward to. The most interesting thing about him was that he was able to have the same values as the rest of the staff at the school, but his methods were very different. Although it’s never directly mentioned, I think it’s fairly evident that Father Latebrouliir does not approve of the disciplinary methods used by the school but, like the students, does not have the power to  make any changes so instead, he uses what power he does have to give the students something that can  make their lives slightly brighter. The story never once mentions Father Latebrouillir getting mad or beating any of the students. In fact, the only time it looked like he was truly upset, was when Saul was cut from the town hockey team. Unlike the others, he actually sees the students simply as a different type of people, not savages that need to be cleansed, which he was seen as a beacon of light for many students, especially Saul, who he defended against Father Quinney and Sister Igarcia multiple times. Overall, this section of the book was even better than the first and the best part for me was seeing how the arrival of Father Latebrouliir really turned the school around. I look forward to seeing where the story goes in the next section.

Journal Entry #3

In one of my comments on last weeks journal, I mentioned that it seemed like things were finally looking up for Saul, that with the escape of residential school, things could not possibly become worse than they were there right? Well I should't be surprised, but in a way it seems like  Saul's struggle got even harder. At the school, Saul's "good" behavior and  ability to keep a low profile were enough to keep him away from some of the worst punishments and most of the physical harm that many kids experience. This is no longer the case. His incredible skill makes him a bright red target  for other teams. I found this part did a great job a showing the overwhelming racism of not only the church and school's, but by the general public. It reminded me somewhat of how blacks were treated in the U.S, hated by everyone, only being seen as Indian, not even really  humans.   Being able to fight through all that constant negativity and hate towards not only you, but towards your entire culture and all your beliefs must take incredible resilience and Saul and his team showed this time and time again. There does however, come a breaking point, and when the stage is magnified, so is the hate. It gets to the point where even the resilient Saul could not handle it any more.  I can't say I didn't hope he would be able to get through all the adversary and become an NHL star, but the racism, hatred and taunting would never end. His wonderful natural talent was wasted, simply because people would never be able to accept him because of the color of his skin. If I was in his position, there's no doubt I would have quit long before he did. The one thing however that really impacted me in this part, and is what made it the saddest part for me, was seeing the dark change in Saul. The once graceful, nice, talented boy ended up becoming the type of player  he once vowed to never become. And that change was not only one the ice, as Saul, filled with such talent and promise, promise that could have made him a legendary hockey player if he was white, hit rock bottom. I'm very intrigued to read the final part and see what will ultimately become of Saul.

Journal#4

There is a lot to say about the final section of this book. First and foremost are my thoughts on the somewhat "twist" ending. I though that,from a writing standpoint, that this was absolutely brilliant. The way it was done did a great job at driving home the major themes of this novel. As for Saul, it also put an emphasis on how young he was when these incidents happened because it was clear that he did not realize what was really being done to him while it was happening. One thing I did notice though, is that despite it being clear that Father Latebroiller did horrible things to Saul and probably others, he was still very different from the rest, and still did many good things. For example, he still brought hockey to Saul and the school, defended Saul against Father Quinney and Sister Igarcia, from what we know, never participated in the vicious punishments that the other priests enjoyed, and even, despite his sick love for Saul, allowed him to go away to the Kelly's. These things, in contrast with his horrible deeds leave me with  mixed feelings about the father. As for the rest of the story, I liked how it ended. I liked that Saul revisits places from earlier in the book. I find it gives the story a bit of closure. I did worry, that with the way his mental state was when he went back to God's Lake, that he may have commit suicide there. It do not know if it was just me, but that was something that I was worried would happen. I was very happy with the ending. Although it leaves a lot up in the air, it does indicate that Saul will find away to get by and that the horrors of his youth are finally behind him. Overall I loved this book. Although the beginning was a bit slow, once it got going it was completely gripping and very sad, which is exactly what I expected. I also really liked how it gave a bit of an inside look as to what it was like to be Ojibway during this time.