Blog #5: The Theme

After reading "An Indian's Looking-Glass" and “Indian Names,” I have noticed there is a theme of resistance against the dominant race, the white man.

“An Indian’s Looking Glass” opposes the white man’s racist composition of Native Americans as an inferior race and uses examples of the Bible to prove that native people and people of color are identical to the white men in the eyes of the Lord.  William Apess develops the idea that white men are dishonorable when it comes to dealing with people of a different skin color.  He deliberately asks the reader to consider if “different skins were put together, and each skin had its national crimes written upon it, which skin do you think would have the greatest?”  Once again, he refuses to accept the white man as the most dominant, pristine race.  He states multiple quotations from the Bible as evidence against the white man.  “He who loveth God loveth his brother also” (1 John 4:21), Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself.  On these two precepts hand all the law and the prophets” (Matthew 22:37-40).  He uses irony as a tool against the white man.  The white man reads the Bible and follows the Lord but is not applying these rules to all races.  He even mentions that Jesus himself was not a white man.  Apess directly asks the reader if Jesus ever taught one to despise another man because of the color of their skin. 

  “Indian Names” has a more naturalistic approach to oppose the white man.  Lydia Sigourney uses the natural landscapes of America to symbolize the ancient culture of the Native Americans.  She is particularly speaking about the Removal Act of 1830, which forced native tribes to give up their land to the white man.  Sigourney used a more passive voice than Apess, but she was still resisting the white man’s rule.