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mandkips's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
sad
medium-paced
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
anna_wa's review against another edition
In class, we were only assigned to read the beginning of the book (the part that tells her life story). We weren't assigned the rest of the book. I might consider going back and reading the rest one day, but all the reviews I read said that the rest wasn't as good???
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism
Minor: Racial slurs
curatoriallyyours's review against another edition
reflective
medium-paced
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
4.0
I read this book as part of the '1921 in 2021' reading challenge and I'm so glad I did. This book is split into sections - an autobiographical account of the author's childhood, a series of allegorical stories, and an essay. The most compelling section is the first. Not knowing much about the author I guess I was expecting a sort of quiet recollection palatable to a white audience of the time. Not so! Zitkala-Sa does not hold back her opinions and paints a very clear picture of this transitional period of history and what it looked like for individual first nations people of different generations navigating that transition from the traditional way of life to survival under the so called 'protection', downright manipulation and sometimes the oppressive 'good intentions' of white people. The essay at the end is not as easy to read but it does show that even then the failure of government policies and practices of the time that pertained to first nations people. Over all, this was a compelling read and a meaty start to my 2021 reading challenges.
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Genocide, Racism, Slavery, and Violence