In our class this semester, we've read a lot of stories of people who wanted so badly to take part in the 'American Dream,' but for whatever reason, were stopped short of attaining it. However, this story of Zitkala-Sa is a little bit different than all of those stories.
A Sioux Indian, Zitkala-Sa is taken to a missionary boarding school to be ‘civilized.’ She is expected to learn to communicate in English, her long, braided hair is cut off, and she is taught stories from the Bible. This new culture that she is learning to be a part of is the complete opposite in what she has known as normal all of her life. Her Indian ways seem to stick out like a sore thumb, and she is punished if she does not comply with the ways of the ‘palefaces.’
After living in this new culture for three years, Zitkala-Sa finds that returning home to her previous culture is even more difficult than before. She explained, “During this time I seemed to hang in the hears of chaos, beyond the touch or voice of human aid.” She feels that she does not belong with her illiterate Indian mother and brother who do not understand her feelings, and she feels caught in the middle. She is not young or old, or “a wild Indian nor a tame one.”
In reality, Zitkala- Sa obtained what we could label as ‘the American Dream.’ She was a civilized, educated woman who attained great things in the eyes of whites. But by achieving this ‘dream’ that really was not her own, which led her to feel ostracized by her own people and out of place in both worlds.
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