Heroic Characters in the Indian Horse

Heroic Characters in the Indian Horse

Saul was born in the Ojibway family in Northern Ontario. He lived with his grandmother, who gave him the stories of his ancestors, which helped him to know more about his history. Saul could foresee things. He suffered from the trauma because the white settlers had abducted his brother and parents. This made him become an alcohol addict, and the therapy makes him recover, and this makes him reconnect with his family.

In the novel, the Indian horse, three characters prove to be heroes; these are Saul, Virgil, and Naomi. Saul is presented as a protagonist, and he is also the narrator of the story. He gives an account of his life, which can be used as a therapy for those reading it. Saul lived with his grandmother Naomi throughout his childhood life. His grandmother used to narrate stories for him, which knew Ojibway. Through the stories told by the grandmother, Saul grew up knowing that the Whiteman was dangerous since there were the ones who abducted his parents and his brother Ben and placed them into ‘’residential schools ‘’ (Wagamese,2018 ). What saved Saul is that he escaped and went to his grandmother’s place, who took him to the Gods Lake, which later builds the character of Saul. Ben later died of tuberculosis, and Saul is also considered to St. Jerome is a residential school.

Saul lost his time in God’s lake and the trauma he gets after being placed at St. Jerome. Saul saw his fellow students being physically, sexually, and emotionally abused, and their intention was to force them into Christianity as well as beating them. Saul awakens to look for the freedom of his people. Father Gaston joins him in the freedom-seeking, and he is the one who introduced Saul, who to play hockey as a friend. Playing hockey helped Saul to get off the enslavement of St. Jerome’s (Gupta et al. 2018). He is sometimes taken to the court and other times set free out of the violence of racism; this makes him successful in the mission of setting his people free. He played the hockey game with a lot of passion when he loses in the game; he also loses hope, and if he wins, his confidence goes high. As time when he got himself into alcoholism, and his ancestors and therapy help him. It is in the period of treatment that he realizes that it was the trauma he underwent in St. Jerome’s that made him love hockey as well as the issues he had in his life .when he overcomes he gets time to mourn his family and gets strengthen to go back to his community and live with his people.

Naomi was the grandmother of Saul, who is a traditionalist, and she liked keeping history. She wanted God’s Lake, and she would encourage her family to go back there, since that the place she passed the traditional knowledge to her grandchild, Saul, and his brother Ben. The experience she gave to these boys pushed helped Saul when he was in hard times. They made him remain healthy and act with a lot of knowledge when dealing with the Whiteman. Naomi had a conflict with Saul’s mother, who was a Christian, and due to her believes, she never wanted Naomi to practice the Ojibway religion. When Ben dies, Saul’s mother prevented Naomi from giving him a burial that is prepared traditionally. Naomi brings Saul out of the wilderness to Minaki to Northern Ontario.

Virgil is the closest friend, and he is the son of Martha. He happens to a captain to Moose, and he mostly concentrated on coaching people since Fred used to have a busy schedule.  Virgil was an honest friend to Saul when expressing his anger, disappointment, and doubting honestly. Virgil used to encourage Saul to be himself and take risks where necessary (Miroux, 2019). He also urged Saul to do a career in NHL and discouraged him from leaving Manitouwadge and doing road work. The decision of leaving angered virgil, but still, they remained friends.

In conclusion, the three characters in the novel are displayed as Heroes in the book. Naomi and Virgil are the characters that built the behavior in Saul. They acted as his advisors throughout his life. His grandmother taught him the history of his people as well as how to deal with Whiteman since they mistreated his people and abducted some of them, including his parents and brother. Saul passes through a lot of suffering until he gets traumatized to the extent of becoming an alcoholic. In due time of his sufferings, he started thinking of the way to make his people free from the slavery of the white settlers. Virgil encouraged him to become a better person by insisting on taking a course in NHL as well as discouraging him from doing things that could affect his life negatives. Virgil was a genuine friend to Saul.

Reference

Wagamese, R. (2018). Indian Horse: A Novel. Milkweed Editions.

Gupta, S. K., Kumar, A., & Sharma, A. (2018). Trojan horse anaesthesia: A novel method of anaesthesia for pars plana vitrectomy. Oman journal of ophthalmology, 11(2), 119.

Miroux, F. (2019). Richard Wagamese’s Indian Horse: Stolen Memories and Recovered Histories. Actio Nova: Revista de Teoría de la Literatura y Literatura Comparada.