March 23- 30

James Welch’s novel, The Heartsong of Charging Elk captures one of the best pictures of trying to discover identity because he is literary thrown into a society he knows nothing about. Charging Elk did make the choice to go on the road with Buffalo Bill’s Wild West Show but he was still in the company of many people he was still able to communicate with. Charging Elk had no way of preparing himself for waking up in the hospitable because he was abandoned without even knowing any of the language. The book can be see as foreshadowing from the point that Charging Elk was leaving to join the Wild West Show and seeing to female cows mounting each other. This shows how nature was out of balance from the time he decided to join to the time that he was abandoned. Charging Elk comments that both utters were swelling with milk and it was strange because if both cows had milk swelling they had been with a bull previously. It is important to note that Charging Elk uses words like strange and comments on this scene to lead into his own self discovery of his identity. Charging Elk does not even have his own clothes or costume clothes to help identify himself. Most other characters from the other novels are still able to identify themselves through dress or language. Charging Elk’s situation is unique because there is no one around to understand his language or his culture. He has to redefine himself and understand himself in order for him to communicate with others. The real irony comes into play when the other Indian dies and the government declares Charging Elk dead amidst the confusion. This is also an easy way to write him off so he is no longer their “problem. I loved how the novel moved back and forth between his memories and present, this elapse of time reveals how hard it is for Charging Elk to adapt to his new life in Europe. Everything about his cultural identity has been stripped from his because clothes are hard to find for him because of his height and the ability to change diets from what he was used to on the plains. Charging Elk has more loss than any other character we have talked about this semester, more so because he has to navigate through the world on his own. He does not have a family that is around for him to fall on or even a safe haven or him to return to because he is so isolated in Europe. His ability to observe nature gives him a sense of ability to diagnosis himself and the trouble that he has to find his own identity. Charging Elk is more sure of himself in the end then before he joined with Wild West Show because while he was part of the show he only had to depend on what other people expected of is culture and race, but in France when he is alone he only has himself to rely on.