Find three examples of names that need to be spoken aloud in order to catch the allusion. Discuss the examples as well as the reading technique that requires you to read aloud in order to make connections. Why does King want us to read aloud?

– Question 6

Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer (LIBI Archives/Library)

George Morningstar

This character only catches my attention when I read aloud his description, the part that Latisha met him at the reserve: he was “wearing—tan cotton slacks, a billowy white cotton shirt that was loose in the body and tight at cuffs. He had on oxblood loafers and patterned socks” (132), and his signature “fringed leather jacket” (Page Number). These details of outfit much resemble the famous lieutenant General, George Armstrong Custer. Furthermore, a non-fiction book named Son of the Morning Star also made him as the subject, which coincided with his last name in GGRW— Morningstar.

Other than the above, his underestimation over the reaction towards his attendance in the Sun Dance, which ended up being dismissed by the Indians, too resembles his situation at the Battle of the Little Bighorn, where he too underestimated the native force, believing that he could overrun them at ease. He ended up being killed by the Indians.

Alberta Franklin

The first character that I paid attention after reading aloud would be Alberta Franklin. The name itself is obviously an allusion of the province of Alberta, but then I started wondering the reason behind King’s intention in mentioning Alberta. Bearing in mind that King constructs his story undergirding Canadian history, the deadliest landslide that took place in Frank, Alberta would mostly likely resembles the name of Alberta Franklin. The landslide took place on April 29^th, 1903, where tonnes of rocks fell from the Peak of Turtle Mountain into the Crownset Valley River.

One reason that I believe King including this incident into his story would be because of the Native oral traditions that related to this landslide. It has been reported that the groups of native people living nearby, the Blackfoot and K’tunaxa, have oral traditions in referring the summit of Turtle Mountain as “the mountain that moves” (“The Frank”). Taking this into consideration, I think the intention for King to incorporate the incident into his story would probably be integrating oral culture into written culture, which is identical to the theme of the story: portraying oral culture in written form.

Dr. Joseph Hovaugh

I had a hard time in struggling how to pronounce “Hovaugh” and, could not even relate him to any other figure. Luckily, the clue was obvious when I started to read the dialogue of Dr. Hovaugh and Dr. Eliot in page 46. With Dr. Eliot calling Dr. Hovaugh “Joe,” I quickly correlate “Joe” and “Hovaugh” together and finally noticed that Dr. Joseph Hovaugh is created based on the biblical character, Jehovah.

After grasping the connection between Dr. Hovaugh and the Bible, King’s details started to make sense to me. To further illustrate their similarities, I would like to cite a narration of Dr. Hovaugh on page 16, and compare it with a passage drawn from the Book of Genesis.

“Dr. Hovaugh sat in his chair behind his desk and looked out at the wall and the trees and the flowers and the swans on the blue-green pond in the garden, and [he was pleased]. [emphasis added] (King 16)”

“I have provided all kinds of grain and all kinds of fruit for you to eat; but for all the wild animals and for all the birds I have provided grass and leafy plants for food” – and it was done. God looked at everything he had made, and [he was very pleased]. Evening passed and morning came – that was the sixth day. [emphasis added] (Genesis 1:27-31)”

God obviously plays a dominated role in the Bible, while Dr. Hovaugh too plays a dominated role over the four Native elders, which symbolizes control over the Native people in the story. From the above quotations, they both are conveyed through a tone of control and revealed their leading status over their people, which is the Native people in the case of Dr. Hovaugh.

By connecting God with Dr. Joseph Hovaugh (aka. Jehovah), I suspect that King intentionally build up this character to illustrate the desire of the predominating Christian European settlers in taking control over the land of the Natives through controlling their lives and land.

Works Cited

Frank Slide Interpretive Centre. The Frank Slide Story. 18 Mar. 2016, http://history.alberta.ca/frankslide/frankslidestory/frankslidestory.aspx. Accessed by 18 Jul 2016.

For this blog assignment, I would like you to research and summarize one of the state or governing activities, such as The Royal Proclamation 1763, the Indian Act 1876, Immigration Act 1910, or the Multiculturalism Act 1989 – you choose the legislation or policy or commission you find most interesting. Write a blog about your findings and in your conclusion comment on whether or not your findings support Coleman’s argument about the project of white civility.

– Question Two

The Multiculturalism Act, 1988

Taking the two major groups of European settlers into account, former Prime Minister Lester B. Pearson established the Royal Commission on Bilingual and Bi-culturalism in 1963, aimed to develop an equal basis for British-Canadians and French Canadians. Shortly after its establishment, Pearson’s successor Pierre Elliot Trudeau announced that Canada would be the world’s instigator to adopt multiculturalism as its official policy in 1971, which finally and officially includes the First Nations into the Canadian culture.

With the enactment of the Multiculturalism Act by Prime Minister Brian Mulroney in 1988, the Canadian government, “affirmed the value and dignity of all Canadian citizens regardless of their racial or ethnic origins, their language, or their religious affiliation”, through holding the two fundamental principles that “all citizens are equal and have the freedom to preserve, enhance and share their cultural heritage”, and that “Multiculturalism promotes the full and equitable participation of individuals and communities of all origins in all aspects of Canadian society” (“Canadian Multiculturalism”).

With the inclusion of First Nations in the Multiculturalism Act, it is clearly acknowledged that they share equal rights like the other European settlers, while their culture and heritage must also be protected. However, criticisms suggested that forcing the official bilingualism on First Nations would do harm on their cultural inheritance, suppressing them into the mainstream Western, English/French-speaking culture (Voyageur 109). Furthermore, though it is officially reckoned that the Indian Act is unconstitutional in British Columbia under the circumstance an “Indian” women’s “Indian” status would no longer be valid when she married a non-Indian man, and that her children would also be invalid for their “Indian” status (Hanson), amendments on the Indian Act and the Multiculturalism Act are yet to be made, and other provinces in Canada may still have yet acknowledged this controversy.

Applying what we have gone through this lesson: Introduction to Nationalism and Daniel Coleman’s summary on White Civility: the Literary Project of English Canada, I have come to realize that not only the First Nations, but also us, who are living under the illusion of multiculturalism. According to Eric Hobsbawn and Benedict Anderson, culture is inherited through ethnic enclaves. Though I could not deny that multicultural media is firmly established within Canada, we are bounded in the Western European environment, encountering media that are dominated by Western Europeans, trying to emerge into the Canadian society through learning English and French, which I found these conditions resembling to what Daniel Coleman has highlighted in his book: “the fictive element of nation building”, and “the necessary forgetfulness required to hold that fiction together”.

Works Cited

“Canadian Multiculturalism: An Inclusive Citizenship” Government of Canada. Government of Canada, n.d. Web. 18 Jul 2016

“Ethnic print media in the multicultural nation of Canada: A case study of the black newspaper in Montreal”. Journalism 7 (3): 343–361.

Hanson, Erin. Bill C-31 and gender discrimination, The Indian Act. First Nations and Indigenous Studies. UBC, 2009. Web. 18 Jul 2016.

“Introduction to Nationalism.” Canadian Literature Guide. University of British Columbia, n.d. Web. 4 July 2016.

Voyageur, Cora J.. “Various Shades of Red: Diversity within Canada’s Indigenous Community” London Journal of Canadian Studies 16: 20000/2001: 109-124. Web. 18 Jul 2016.