Sierra's journals

First Quarter

I found the first quarter of the book Indian Horse to be a sad and interesting read. We hear the point of view of a residential school survivor and the events leading up to him being taken to residential school.

I find this book to be sad because of the depressing back story we learn about in such detail. For example we learn that the protagonist, Saul, had his brother taken from him at a young age and that Saul still remembers the details of this loss and being able to describe it so well after so many years. I find it especially sad that Saul is still suffering from his years at St. Jerome’s residential school. We learn that Saul is at a treatment center for his problems with alcohol, which were brought on by the trauma at the school. It is clear that Saul is having a difficult time sharing his experiences with the group at this treatment center because of the extreme situations he went through and the fact that he isn’t able to relate with the younger members of the group. This opened my eyes to similar problems happening all over the world today. Many people are suffering from experiences by themselves because they don’t have people with whom they can relate. Obviously places like the New Dawn Treatment Facility are good investments for people who need help and to share their experiences.

I find this quarter to be interesting as well as sad because it’s not just told as a story but from the point of view of someone who has truly experienced residential school.

In conclusion I feel that the first quarter of the book was depressing and at the same time very detailed and informative. I’m looking forward to the second quarter of the book.

 

Second Quarter

            The second quarter of the book Indian Horse I found to be inspirational and, similarly to the previous quarter, very sad. In this quarter a new priest by the name of father Gaston Leboutilier comes to St. Jerome’s and changes the atmosphere for Saul and several other boys at school.

In the novel father Gaston Leboutilier introduced hockey to some of the older boys at school. Saul who was in charge of shovelling the snow off the ice was immediately taken with the game. I found this quarter sad because of the number of obstacles Saul had to face to simply enjoy the game. Examples of this are that he was too young to participate and that, when he got good enough to play for the town team, he was denied the opportunity soon after he started. This happened because the white players didn't like that Saul had surpassed them skill wise.

The part of this quarter that bothered me the most was that Saul’s obstacles were all based on his cultural background. I found myself relating this quarter of the book to the novel to kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Saul Indian Horse can be compared to Tom Robinson because they both were discriminated for their skin colours and had to fight to be treated as equals.

Despite the sadness this quarter brought me I also found it inspirational. The reason I find this quarter inspirational is because Saul did surpass all of the obstacles he faced. When he was too young to make the team he made up for in training and skill. When the town team wouldn't let him play his skill had been heard of all the way to a First Nations league that he went on to play for.

Overall I've really enjoyed this quarter of the novel and I really look forward to see Saul’s character develop. I look forward to the direction the book will go with Saul and his hockey. 

Third Quarter

The third quarter of the book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese is in my opinion the best quarter so far. Contrary to the members in my group I found this quarter very relatable, as the story goes deeper into the hockey background.

In this quarter Saul goes from playing on a small team to an AHL career. Through this success Saul changed as a player and became increasingly aggressive on the ice. Certainly the brutal racism played a part in the change of Saul’s game however it also had to do with the fans. The fan’s labeled Saul based on his actions during a game. Saul behaved aggressively and was named “the rampaging redskin” which put Saul in the spotlight. In hockey players often enjoy the spotlight and in Saul’s case being well-known as the rampaging redskin was better than some harsher racist slurs that people could have called him. This is why I can understand the change in the way Saul plays.

I felt that in this quarter the author set up the time period very well. I was shocked at first by the amount of racism that Saul faced but then came to better understand the time period. I was then able to relate this book to some of the lessons I’ve learned in English class about racism in the 1900’s.

In conclusion I felt this quarter of the novel represented the time period very well by the treatment towards Saul and his team and it also clearly showed Saul’s character development very well, we see him go from residential school to the AHL and back and the whole way he had mountains of racism to climb over. I’m looking forward to the last quarter of the novel and I’m interested in seeing how Saul ends up in the New Dawn Treatment Center that we learned about in the beginning of the book.

Forth Quarter

This week I read the final chapters of the book Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese. I found these chapters to be very sad and depressing, even more so than some of the other quarters. I also found a certain part of the book very puzzling and even a bit shocking.    

The part of this chapter that I found so depressing was to see the way Saul was affected by the extreme amount of negative experiences he faced throughout his life. This quarter was similar to the first quarter because we see Saul in a later period in his life when he has a problem with consumption and is at the New Dawn Treatment Facility. Where this quarter differs from the first is that Saul’s problems with alcohol are, in my opinion, so much worse than in the beginning of the book. In the last quarter Saul even ends up in a hospital after rendering himself unconscious from the large amount of alcohol he had consumed. Another part of the quarter I found sad was that Saul started remembering even more harsh treatment towards him in his younger years. Like when we found out that Father Leboutilier, the one person who helped Saul find an escape to the horrors and was supposed to have been the one to help Saul and the other boys out at residential school had in fact raped him while he was at the school. As if the treatment wasn’t bad enough towards Saul but he had to remember even more.

The reason I found this chapter so puzzling was because Saul went back to St. Jerome’s. At first I couldn’t understand why, however eventually I came to realize that Saul was probably just looking for closure. This visit may have brought up some bad memories but having Saul sit on the rink that changed his life in my opinion was worth it.

Overall I found this book to be a very good read! It was very detailed and eye-opening. I’m definitely glad that I chose this book, even though it was sad the read was worth it.