What Role Does Family Play In The Life Of Saul Indian Horse?

Family and tradition play an important role in Saul’s coming-of-age. They give him a sense of higher purpose and remind him that he’s not alone in the world—that, on the contrary, he’s connected to his family members, both living and dead.

What is family in Indian Horse?

In 1961, the Indian Horse family—an Ojibway family consisting of eight-year-old Saul, his grandmother Naomi, and his Christian parents John and Mary—live in the wilderness of Northern Ontario, hiding from the authorities, who previously took Saul’s siblings, Benjamin and Rachel, to residential schools.

What role does hockey play in Saul’s life?

Saul uses hockey as a major escape route and as he plays hockey he stops being reserved and becomes livelier. Hockey helps him forget about his problems. For instance, he said that the game kept him from remembering; that as long as he could escape into it, he could fly away (Wagamese 199).

Why is Fred Kelly important to Saul?

He adopts Saul Indian Horse, freeing Saul from St. Jerome’s, and encourages him to play hockey for his local team. He continues to provide Saul with love, food, and encouragement, even after Saul has been away for years and returns to wrestle with his tumultuous past.

What is the significance of the Indian Horse in Chapter 2?

But it is also a symbol of the demise of his people and their culture, as this passage foreshadows. (The arrival of horses in Indigenous communities in Canada did symbolize the end of an era, since it marked the arrival of European colonizers who wiped out much of Indigenous Canadian society.)

What role does his grandmother play in Saul’s early upbringing?

The grandmother of Saul Indian Horse, Naomi is, in many ways, the key maternal figure in Saul’s life. A strong and sensitive woman, Naomi takes care of Saul by telling him stories, keeping him warm, and reassuring him that everything is going to be all right, even when it seems otherwise.

Did Sauls parents abandon him?

Saul’s parents disappear into an alcoholic, nomadic existence in Northern Ontario mining and mill towns, leaving their remaining boy with his grandmother in the bush, a short-lived idyll that ends when the old woman freezes to death and Saul is sent to St. Jerome’s.

What is the moral lesson of the story of Saul?

God is looking for a heart of faith, not perfection.
Saul’s actions reveal to us that he did not have a keen understanding of God or what faith in God looked like. His pride, lack of faith, and disobedience towards God is what blinded him spiritually.

Who is the hero in Indian horse?

Its hero is Saul Indian Horse, a resilient Ojibway boy who becomes a self-made star on the hockey rink while enduring abuse by priests and nuns at his residential school.

Is Saul Indian Horse a real person?

It’s a fictional film, but delivers a story that’s all-too real: in the 1950s, a six-year-old Ojibwe boy is torn from his family and forced into a residential school, where he is forbidden to speak his language and faces brutal punishment for the tiniest transgressions.

Who helped Saul in Indian Horse?

Furthermore, Fred Kelly, one of the gentlest and most amiable characters in the novel embraces Saul Indian Horse by liberating him from St. Jerome’s and urges him to play hockey for his team. One day when Saul decided to ask, ‘Did they rape everyone?

What did Father Gaston do to Saul?

As a child, his beloved mentor at St. Jerome’s, Father Gaston Leboutilier, sexually abused him. Saul’s shocking realization cements trauma as one of the key themes of the book. Wagamese shows how trauma, particularly when it’s caused by abuse, as it is in Saul’s case, can be a crippling burden for its victims.

Who is Saul’s brother in Indian Horse?

brother Benjamin
Saul Indian Horse is a member of the Fish Clan, an indigenous tribe from northern Ontario. He grows up with his parents, John and Mary; his brother Benjamin; his sister Rachel; and his grandmother, Naomi, in the late 1950s.

Why is the horse an important symbol for Saul’s people?

Horses are a central symbol in the novel. The horse, Saul’s namesake, brings the teaching of the changing ways to come. Once Saul begins playing hockey, the players are frequently described in equine terms.

What is the moral of Indian Horse?

We need to accept the past before we can move on. Such is the theme of Indian Horse . For Saul, the past includes not just his time at residential schools but also his relationship to his ancestors. I’m given to understand that many indigenous cultures believe strongly in an ongoing connection to one’s ancestors.

What did Indian Horse teach us?

First, the story is a powerful reminder that reclaiming your story is a necessary component to healing. Second, Indian Horse answers the most important question we are left with when we see brutal statistics and headlines regarding First Nations addictions, mental health, and suicide epidemics.

What was the purpose of Saul’s vision of his family in Chapter 48?

Whereas Saul’s first vision (at least according to Naomi) served as an introduction to his family and tradition, this vision serves as a sobering reminder of how cut-off Saul is from his past. And yet the vision serves a positive purpose: it seems to give Saul an idea of how to address his problems.

What story does Saul’s grandmother tell him about their family connection to Gods Lake?

During the journey, Naomi tells her grandchildren about the “Long Ago Time,” when Fish Clan hunters tried to catch the moose. The hunters trusted their intuition and followed the moose all the way to Gods Lake.

What does Sauls grandmother teach him?

She taught Saul and Benjamin the traditions, how to hunt, how to harvest food and hull rice, and many other important survival skills. Other than Benjamin, Naomi was the only person Saul could connect to.

Why did Saul’s parents not come back?

Saul asks Naomi where his parents have gone, but she says she doesn’t know. It is never explained what happens to Saul’s parents after they leave Saul and Naomi, but Saul and Naomi have no choice but to move on, or risk freezing to death in the cold of winter.

Who are Saul’s siblings and what happened to them?

Saul has a brother named Benjamin and a sister named Rachel. Saul never met Rachel, since she disappeared at the age of six. Naomi tells Saul and Benjamin about how, one day, the white man, or “Zhaunagush,” came to their community and abducted Rachel, taking her away by boat.