Monday, January 26, 2009
Heart of A Chief
As I have been reading Heart of A Chief I have been torn whether I like it or not. I find there are several stereotypes and I do not know if the author is trying to combat those stereotypes or if he is fueling the flame. The first stereotype I found was that Native Americans drink a lot. This is seen when Mito, the father, is missing in the book because he has to go to rehab. Another stereotype I see is that Native Americans build casinos. This one I am not sure about because on the one hand they are trying to build one but on the other hand many people are against it, which could be used to show that not all Native Americans want to build casinos. Overall I am still torn with these. I cannot decide what point the author is trying to convey. My thoughts were somewhat swayed when I read that the author is Native American.
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I completely agree with your thoughts about the Heart of A Chief. While I was reading it, I was unsure of myself if I was enoying the book or not. Usually, I am pretty intune with my own feelings and I read all the time so I'm pretty good at deciding if I like a piece of literature or not. I think what threw me off is the fact that we are in a DIVERSE literature class, where we are supposed to be digging deep within the texts to try and analyze the literature and see if it meets the criteria of a good diverse book. That is why I had such a hard time with this book because there are alot of aspects that I did enjoy. For example, I believe the author did a good job of writing a contemporary piece that portrayed a Native American in a public school setting living life very similarly to those of us that are not native. However, I agree that the stereotypes (especially alcoholism and casinos) really threw me for a loop while I was reading the text .Afterwards when I was thinking about the book as a whole I came to the decision that it was a well written book and I believe that students of both native and non native decent would benefit from reading it. As a teacher I would use the stereotypes in the book to take a moment and talk about stereotypes with my students and compare stereotypes to generalizations. This may be a hard topic for students to grasp, but having open conversations and talking about the text are what I believe some of the most important aspects of literature in the classroom.
ReplyDeleteI think it is a stereotype that Native Americans are alcoholics- however I liked that he put this situation in his book because there is evidence that the rate of alcoholism is high on reservations. I thought it was interesting that he didn't make the father out to be this crazy alcoholic, but put him in rehab and in a situation that he wanted to recover. I was also interested in the names that he chose for the children in the book. Are they stereotypical? or are they just names that children call each other? Like Pizza for example, I could see that being stereotypical with the red sauce and the stereotypical redskin name. However Bellybutton? Gartersnake I guess could be taken either way.
ReplyDeleteI also had a hard time deciding whether or not I liked Heart of a Chief, although for different reasons. In one of the articles we read for last week, it mentioned that literary quality should always come first when deciding whether or not a diverse text is worthy of reading. While I can appreciated the story the author was trying to tell, I really do not think that the book was of good quality. I remembered reading about this in the G&C text from 348, so I looked back on it. Here is the checklist for evaluating the quality of diverse literature:
ReplyDelete1. The book is an excellent piece of literature
2. The book depicts diversity as an important but not gratuitous backdrop in a nonstereotyped manner, or
3. The book explores cultural differences and similarities in an accurate and sensitive manner, or
4. The book explores a particular culture accurately, demonstrating diversity within as well as across cultures if appropriate, and avoiding stereotypes
5. The book is a positive contribution to an understanding of the culture portrayed
Galda and Bernie E. Cullman. Literature and the Child. 6th ed. Belmont, CA: Thomson Higher Education, 2006.
First and foremost, quality is measured by literary merit. I found this to be interesting, as it tied in perfectly with the coursepack article. While I feel like the idea behind the story was great, I feel like the story itself could have been so much better! Overall, I felt like the events in the plot were not drawn out enough and really, I felt quite empty after reading the book. Everything seemed to happen so quickly and I wanted the author to go into more detail about the events and their aftermaths. It is for these particular reasons that I had a hard time enjoying the text as a piece of quality literature.
Secondly, while the book certainly “explored” a diverse culture, I believe that it did it in ways that would not fulfill the criteria for quality. This is because of all of the stereotypes that were included. A major criteria for quality diverse literature is the avoidance of stereotypes, and this book definitely did not do that. However, I did like how the stereotypes were explored; such as the fact that Mito was going through rehab and the fight against building the casino. It is this appreciation that helped me better understand the Native American culture. Overall, while the book included diverse characters and the challenges that their differences bring, I really don’t think that I would include it in my classroom library when I become a teacher. Although I can appreciate the goal of the story, I think that it could have been a lot more captivating.