The Power of Words

In this week, "The Warriors" was a reading that had a pretty strong effect and message on me. This story character of Uncle Ralph played the soul of Native Americans since after the time of colonization. Throughout Native American history, tribes all over the US have experienced times in which their pride and sense of peoplehood has been torn down by the pressure and dislocation caused by white colonization. In essense of all Native Americans who have tried surviving and resisting both assimilation and oppression, Uncle Ralph had an amazingly strong pride of his culture and old rituals. Little by little we see how his heart begins to break down and he resorts to alcohol as a way of escaping the hardships of his life. For him, there was nothing worse than seeing his people live their lives in ways that were not really "theirs". Assimilated people live their lives according to the way that the dominant group has imposed the way that life "should be", and for Uncle Ralph, this was not a choice he was going to follow. Although, Uncle Ralph had his moments of sadness and hopelesness, he was able to pass his message to his nieces, specially Pumpkin Flower, thus ensuring that it will be passed down through generations to come. Uncle Ralph was fighting and ressiting, and at a point seemed to have lost the battle, but in the end was able to pass his survivance to his niece. By doing this, he was much more successful than he would have thought.