Zitkala-Sa

Charles So

English 48B

Jan. 18 2011

Journal for Zitkala Sa

Author Quote:  From- "Why I Am a Pagan"

"Folded hands lie in my lap, for the time forgot. My heart and i lie small upon the earth like a grain of throbbing sand... During the idle while i sat upon the sunny river brink, i grew somewhat, though my response be not so clearly manifest as in the green grass fringing the edge of the high bluff back of me." (1130)

Internet Quote:

" Zitkala-Sa was "very conscious of the passing of an era" (D. Fisher 207), although in radically different ways. Criticism of her work typically concedes her status as cultural ghost, interpreting key passages of her autobiographical essays as her own recognition of, even acquiescence in, a tragic cultural dissolution; she is read as a casualty of the unresolved ambivalence's of a mixed-blood biculturalism." (Literature Resource Center Author- D.K. Meisenheimer, Jr.)

Summary:

The nature of Zitkala-Sa's quote is to express her feelings toward nature. Her experience in the quote is comparable to people who attend church, as she express's herself sitting down with her hands folded on her lap, just as you may in church on sundays. Her affection towards nature and its affects on her is strongly presented as she says, "I grew somewhat," again the affects of nature for her is comparable to 

someone religious going to church.

Personal Opinion:

I feel the harsh and not so idealistic first interactions with white people in Zitkala-Sa's childhood and young adolescents greatly effected the mindstate and attitude of Zitkala-Sa towards society. In her autobiographical story she talks about her trip to get the white people's red apples and how it turn out to be bad because all she got was dirty looks during the train ride for the red apples and when she arrived at the school where her apples are suppose to be, she only got her hair chopped off which was very disgraceful for her. Not only her experience in school, but her decision to leave her mother essentially her people and culture for the white society makes her have discontent and maybe a grudge.