I wanted to mention a couple of things I thought about Anna Lee Walters' The Warriors.
First, the quote that I noted for Daily Writing on Thursday was, "'You Indian ain't you? Ain't You?' she screamed. 'We your people!'" As said already, this was a pretty powerful part of the story. To see this little girl expressing this. The fact that she is little and does not really know much kinda shows her innocence. In a way, she hasn't been corrupted by the world like the hobos or Uncle Ralph. The quote just seems so innocent and pure, as if there is no other answer. It seems like there is a subtle theme of preserving innocence in this story, as we see Uncle Ralph's life wither.
The other thing I wanted to talk about was how Uncle Ralph was portrayed as a great uncle in the beginning and then he begins to fall. I sort of think about the point of view of the little girl and how we might not be getting the whole story. That is, it might not just be that Ralph WAS great in the beginning and then he became an alcoholic, but maybe he has always been, but her innocence just never saw that in the story because she grows up as the story progresses. I think that the point of view from a girl that is growing up also fits for the theme of loss of innocence. As readers, we only see what this girl tells us, so what happens when she was too innocent to see "behind the scenes"?
Uncle Ralph has always believed in living beautifully, but he never did it himself. It seems like he gives in to the wrongs (for lack of a better word) of the world and eventually his happy spirit disappears. The fact that he is the "warrior" also seems to be that he is fighting those wrongs of the world off too. He tries to pass on his wisdom to the two sisters so that they don't become someone that is like him. When I first read that he was becoming an alcoholic, I thought that he was a hypocrite because he would be preaching beauty, but then not do it himself. But eventually I realized that there was almost this hopelessness/helplessness to it; as if he could not help it at all.
I think Walters definitely uses pathos in this story. It definitely reached out to the emotions of the readers. We see this positive man that his nieces really look up to begin to deteriorate. Being that it was told by one of the girls also appeals to the emotional aspect.
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I thought it was really interesting that you brought up that the author's point of view may have changed from her childhood and as she continued to age. The way she viewed Uncle Ralph as a child probably was not the whole story, and this just brings us back to the issue of a narrator's reliability which we brought up in class.
ReplyDeleteAlso, it's sad that Uncle Ralph believed in living beautifully, but did not follow his own advice. One could consider him a hypocrite, but I just think that he was trying to save others from falling into the same state of helplessness as him. He knew he could not be saved, but he fought to save others, so I think he could be considered a warrior in this sense. Even the most unexpected people are capable of pointing out beauty to those of us who may have forgotten.
Hmm... I had never thought about your point of Uncle Ralph as always being an alcoholic but he dont notice until the girl becomes older and more aware. I completely agree with you because since this is a fictional story and seen through the point of view of Pumpkin Flower, we only see what she sees. Cool insight.
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