In “The School Days on an Indian Girl,” American Indian writer Zitkala-sa expressed her experiences regarding the assimilation of her people into the melting pot of America. I believe Zitkala-sa was pursuing the American Dream but was trying to achieve it in the wrong ways. While reading the story, I connected the theme of many other short stories we have read in this class: assimilating to the white culture will bring success. The fact that her long, thick hair had to be cut of during her first couple days of school was the first act made by the “pale faces” to make her belong in the Eastern culture. She had explained that the enemy shingles another’s hair after defeat or submission. This point in the story symbolized her defeat of her Native American heritage to the white man. The school forced the Native Americans to dress in white men’s clothes and learn English. I know Zitkala-sa was pursuing an education but do not agree with forgetting her heritage to do so. My attitude changed towards Zitkala-sa in the end of the story when she was coming across more success. The second to last paragraph in the story symbolized her defeat against the prejudicial white man. “The evil spirit laughed within me when the white flag dropped out of sight, and the hands which furled it hung limp in defeat” (438). This sentence represented her success in her field despite her Native American background, which sure sounds like an American Dream to me.
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