No Parole Today: Through the Looking Glass
To imagine with the lifestyle of the individuals of the Navajo culture, one must empathize with them through their experiences. An ethnological approach to understanding identity would be to reflect upon the culture itself. Some may view the Navajo culture differently than others creating confrontation involving the values, tradition, and how they communicate. Laura Tohe’s, No Parole Today, finely illustrates part of a world that not many witnessed or understood at the time. It examines how individuals were treated in boarding school and how their spoken language became an issue. She writes to not only have others reflect on the situations they dealt with, but for herself and her people to reflect …show more content…
The schools possessed a complex ideological struggle for language. One must put themselves in that boarding school in order to link both the English hand Navajo language together and see where the value of their language gets weighed down by the English language. Both are rooted and devalued at certain times; one more than the other. Languages are a way to display an emotional bond between people and their heritage. There are metadiscourses that create these relationships between a speaker and the language being spoken. The trope utilized in the book is the boarding school experience that helps give a connection to a significantly shared memory among the culture. This language serves as an intimate side to socializing which allows language ideologies to become …show more content…
Through those metapgramatic devices, Tohe develops a clear image of the boarding school where nothing but silence and humiliation takes place toward the Navajos. At the same time they challenge the policies and try to stand up and spread their voice. The metapragmatic terms “tell”, “tease”, and “joke” are the words that construct a critique. And at the same time, the words create a sense of social intimacy for Navajos. Then narrator, Vida, is being told by Mrs. Harry which is the essential part of the story. Through the repetitive use of “tell”, and how it contrasts with the intimate uses of “tease” and “joke”, character associations intertwine with the metapragmatic terms. The Navajo students are based as positive and good- humored characters. There is also Vida’s cousin Viv and Vida’s object of affection, Edgar part of the story. Where as Mrs. Harry is, “a Heinz 57, an Indian who is from several different tribes”, (Tohe, 28). The story has interactions between Vida and her cousin Viv, Edgar, and Mrs. Harry. The story leads with Vida and her Uncle riding horses, then turns to events at an Albuquerque Indian School. Both the opening and closing scenes focus on the Navajo Nation. There is contrast between the medial scene of events occurring at the school. The term “tease”
To imagine with the lifestyle of the individuals of the Navajo culture, one must empathize with them through their experiences. An ethnological approach to understanding identity would be to reflect upon the culture itself. Some may view the Navajo culture differently than others creating confrontation involving the values, tradition, and how they communicate. Laura Tohe’s, No Parole Today, finely illustrates part of a world that not many witnessed or understood at the time. It examines how individuals were treated in boarding school and how their spoken language became an issue. She writes to not only have others reflect on the situations they dealt with, but for herself and her people to reflect …show more content…
The schools possessed a complex ideological struggle for language. One must put themselves in that boarding school in order to link both the English hand Navajo language together and see where the value of their language gets weighed down by the English language. Both are rooted and devalued at certain times; one more than the other. Languages are a way to display an emotional bond between people and their heritage. There are metadiscourses that create these relationships between a speaker and the language being spoken. The trope utilized in the book is the boarding school experience that helps give a connection to a significantly shared memory among the culture. This language serves as an intimate side to socializing which allows language ideologies to become …show more content…
Through those metapgramatic devices, Tohe develops a clear image of the boarding school where nothing but silence and humiliation takes place toward the Navajos. At the same time they challenge the policies and try to stand up and spread their voice. The metapragmatic terms “tell”, “tease”, and “joke” are the words that construct a critique. And at the same time, the words create a sense of social intimacy for Navajos. Then narrator, Vida, is being told by Mrs. Harry which is the essential part of the story. Through the repetitive use of “tell”, and how it contrasts with the intimate uses of “tease” and “joke”, character associations intertwine with the metapragmatic terms. The Navajo students are based as positive and good- humored characters. There is also Vida’s cousin Viv and Vida’s object of affection, Edgar part of the story. Where as Mrs. Harry is, “a Heinz 57, an Indian who is from several different tribes”, (Tohe, 28). The story has interactions between Vida and her cousin Viv, Edgar, and Mrs. Harry. The story leads with Vida and her Uncle riding horses, then turns to events at an Albuquerque Indian School. Both the opening and closing scenes focus on the Navajo Nation. There is contrast between the medial scene of events occurring at the school. The term “tease”