Allen-Persecution In Modern America

I will consider the film Pow Wow Highway and the short story "Saint Marie" separately in order to consider the aspects of both these works, and how through their characters they show us the complexities of human belief--or by another word, faith.

In Powwow Highway, we are given two characters who are united by their Cheyenne bloodline, as well as their inbitance on a Native American reservation in Montana. The conditions of such reservations are poor, underfunded, and generally forgotten or ignored by the remainder of America. The people of the Cheyenne tribe (and of every tribe) are forced to exist and carry out their culture inside a sectioned-off environment. These designated crops of land, which have been automitized and therein exempt from federal laws and regulations, function not unlike the ghettos of World War II era Poland. The design of the reservations and Jewish ghettos both seek to accomplish a segregation of a people. Whether united by bloodlines, religious background, or socioeconomic status, these ghettos fulfill the purpose of containment. Containment facillitated by the same principles as prison confinement; succeeding in it's goal to remove and isolate 'undesirables' from the bulk of American urban society. This is done under the veil of ethical treatment and condoned through the lost notion of 'fairness' in American society.

Native American culture has been constrained and mangled by these legislative actions against them, as portrayed excellently in the film. Philbert symbolizes the man of faith; Whirlwind Dreamer; he that wishes to believe. Red Bow represents the man of desperation, who sees his struggle for security as a war between an 'us' and a 'them'. Philbert is portayed in the film as an unintelligent and uncomplicated man who is out of the loop on most issues. Red Bow is clever, perceptive, and has been taught to expect deception from the White Man who offers him false promises of prosperity. Philbert's genuine motivation for escaping the confines of the reservation is the pursuit of a higher spiritual experience through the adventure of a cross-country voyage. Red Bow concentrates only on the immediate physical realities that threaten him; incarceration, likely through a betrayal of misplaced sympathies. Philbert is more trusting of the world, and allows himself to wander and explore the untouched shrines of nature in search of a form of enlightenment. As the film progresses, each of these characters learn to accept the beliefs of the other: Philbert's spirituality as a means of togetherness softens Red Bows' cynicism, and allows him to see the positive connotations of the events of his life. Philbert learns, through his adventure, to discard and abolish all illusory necessities he requires to live a fullfilled life.

In Louise Erdrich's story, the narrator Marie is caught up in the midsts of a spiritual identity crisis brought on by a conflict between a Catholoic conception of God and the Native American conception of god. Marie is an intensely empathic and faithful character, and she uses these abilities to gain insight into the behaviors of Sister Lepolda as a means of understanding her faith in her God. Leopolda scolds and berates Marie because, like Marie herself, Leopolda has powers of personal perception enabling her to understand the inner-workings of another person's mind. She is able to recognize Marie's aversion to being indoctrinated in Catholic teachings, and attributes this aversion to lustful thoughts of sexual immorality. Marie and Lepolda are united by the fact that they both believe strongly in the presence of evil: Leopolda calls her concept of evil 'Satan', Marie refers to evil as 'The Dark One'. The reason there is a central conflict between Marie and Leopolda is because Leopolda's Satan is an object of immense fear for Leopolda, and she seeks to escape her sensation of it through abolishing It's presence wherever she can find it. Marie's Dark One is not an incarnation that inspires fear and panic in her, but as something familiar to her soul. She sees this Dark One as irremovable from her spiritual being, but also as a necessary element that keeps her soul in balance.

In both of these works there is a presence of persecution and injustice. This injustice is brought primarily upon the characters due to a lack of common association between differing--yet fundamentally identical--faiths and beliefs. The atrocity of segregating one person's spiritual needs from another person's spiritual needs has no justification or reprieve. A Belief (a.k.a. a faith, or one's dreams, ambitions, wishes, fantasies, self-discoveries, intuitions, and so on ad infinitum) are created for the purposes of the individual human being that has adopted them into their spiritual existence.

To persecute a people for their Beliefs on the basis of any physical justification is pure human debauchery; displayed proudly and shamelessly as though someone, somewhere, had given omnipotent approval which condones certain acts of hatred and ignorance as though they werent any different from murder or torture.