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Transcript

Not Enough Horses

Summary of the story:

The story discusses the apparent evolution of First-Nations people and the dilution of their various beliefs as part of their culture. The story focuses on the views of Houston Heavyman, whose daughter is being pursued by Clinton Merasty, a Caucasian. Houston Heavyman receives numerous great gifts but is disappointed in the evolution of culture.

This conflict is created for King to show how people are becoming more and more private and scared to express true feelings.

SURE!

The conflict is between the parents and the children

Parents continually fail to keep their promises to their children

Children are getting used to the idea of disappointment

Mother is having trouble to get a job

In addition to mourning for the deaths of her family members she is having trouble getting back up on her feet.

The son Luke has struggle to mature. Does not know what to believe. He is not ready for experience of death. Cows being taken to slaughterhouse.

THE END!

Who is the true owner of the Baby?

It was never concluded who the true owner of the baby was, but in the perspective of Bob and Linda, the baby was the "property" of the Natives. Bob and Linda(adoption agency worker) had the intention of "confiscating" the baby no matter the result of the bingo game. It was almost as if they felt a sense of ownership over the baby because of the colour of its skin. Early European settlers acted in the same way as they took control of land that was not rightfully there's. They did the same thing with Natives, as they treated them like property and took control of their lives. Children were often snatched from their families and were forced to assimilate with European culture. This is what Bob and Linda are replicating, because they are trying to take away a baby and force it into the care of another family. They are controlling the baby like property and are trying to make a quick sell. This could also be connected to the slave trade, where African Americans were treated like possessions and were sold off for a price.

The Natives also had a similar sense of ownership over the baby. They were the original "owners" of the baby and Orena (Native person) didn't want to give up the baby since she felt there is a chance it has some Native blood. The Natives basically started off with the baby and had no intention to give up possibly one of their own to the adoption agency. This is similar to how the Native peoples felt when the settlers decided to invade their territory and tear down their sacred forests.

The settlers one the intitial battle against the Natives and sucessflully took over their land and confiscated their children; however due to Orena, the Natives came out victorious in this recent much smaller altercation. This can be seend as satirical, since the roles of the Natives and Whites have somewhat been flipped in this conflict.

The Baby in the Airmail Box

Bob and Linda's resistance to allow the Cardinals to adopt a White baby

Bob and Linda have no intention to allow the Cardinals to adopt a white baby. They made several racist implications that degrade the Native couple. First Bob says that they normally pair the child's race with the parents. This was shot down by Mr. Cardinal as he pointed out that white parents very often adopt outside of the caucasian race. Bob then says that he wants their babies to go to a wealthy and educated family, implying that Native people don't have the ability to be either of those two things. However, the Cardinal's shot down this by saying they are very well off financially and are well educated as well. Finally Linda admits why they are so reluctant to give them a white baby, "its because we are racist."

Bob and Linda implied several times that the Natives aren't good enough to adopt a white child. This can be correlated to White people forcibly assimilating Native children to European culture. They basically felt that the Native population of that time were not good enough to be called Canadians. In both of these situations the Native peoples are discriminated against but there is one major difference. In the past, the Native people did not have the ability to talk or fight back against the caucasian government. But in this story, the Cardinal's had the oppurtunity to refute Bob and Linda's uneducated remarks. They in fact ironically sort of "own" Bob and Linda, as these two are working for a Native couple. The roles again have been reversed, but these Natives are treating their white "workers" with respect, unlike the way that whites treated Natives in the past.

1)who is the true owner of the baby; the Natives or the adoption agency.

2)Bob and Linda, of the adoption agency initially resist giving the Cardinal's a white baby

3)RCMP raid

RCMP Raid

The RCMP raid snatched away Bob's truck which he had just won by winning bingo night. They also came to take away the baby, but that portion of the mission was failed, as Orena takes away the baby when no one was looking. The Rcmp similarly attempted to take away the baby, which Orena felt should be under Native possession. This can be coralated with the Caucasian race attempting to intrude on Native people's lives. Natives are not allowed to live the way they want to, or even practice what they believe is right; the RCMP took away their rights today, and the Europeans stole their rights in the past.

Central Theme

There are two themes prevalent throughout the story. The first theme is the apparent treatment of the First Nations women as items that simply said DO WORK. This theme is seen often when Houston and Clinton converse regarding Clinton's marital pursuits towards Sarah Heavyman. The Second theme is the deterioration of the Native American culture that accompanies the progression of technology and values of society.

Examples of Person versus Man Conflict

The Various Types of Conflict as Observed in the Story

Examples of Person versus Society Conflict

Houston:

  • Experiences some difficulties with regard to process of bartering his daughter's hand in marriage
  • Is seen trying to receive the 'best deal' for Sarah

Clinton

  • Trying to please Houston
  • Giving him everything that he could possibly want, while trying to maintan the values that Houston uholds

The different types of conflict that is seen in the story are:

  • Person versus Society
  • Person versus Self
  • Person versus Man

Houston:

  • Disappointed with the progression of society and its major impact on the lives of the Native American peoples
  • Reflects on the 'good ole days' when men used to ride in on their horses
  • Upset with the apparent dilution of the Aboriginal culture with the Inter-Racial marriages with Caucasians who care not for the Aboriginal ideals
  • Makes his daughter's suitor give up several key items in return for his approval of the marriage

Clinton

  • Forced to do things the traditional Native way, to seek Sarah's hand in marriage
  • 'Sucks Up' to him by giving him several items as a substitute of the traditional gift of horses
  • Unable to fulfill the Native tradition of giving horses; substituting for a several HP snowblower

Examples of Person versus Self Conflict

Houston

  • Forced to admit defeat to the modern society and reluctantly has to accept a powerful snowblower instead of the traditional 'dowry' of horses
  • Feels as if he is selling his very daughter, and trying to get the best deal for her services, as seen by the way he speaks about her to her suitor

Clinton

  • Not as easily recognized as Houston but seems to force himself to fulfill the requirements as part of the Native American tradition
  • Has to give up several material pleasures, to gain the asset that is Sarah

The Relationship between the Mistreatment of Beings and the Conflict of the Story

Fire and rain

The man also struggles to get people he cares about to be sincere with him.

The conflict of the story is the main character's inner struggle to get over his marriage.

eventually he even struggles to be honest with his wife after she cheats on him.

He attempts to do so by looking at the benefits of being single

The stories that we will be exploring:

  • Rendezvous
  • Coyote and the enemy aliens
  • Not Enough Horses
  • Baby in the air mail
  • Fire and Rain

Rendezvous

"I can go to a ball game. I can go to the symphony. I can go to and art opening."

Summary of the story:

An urban town is suddenly overrun with animals now taking up residence in people's homes and in public spaces and disrupting the every day lives of the towns people. They hold a town hall meeting where a native man, Mr.Wagamese explains to them that the reason their animals are starting to settle in their town is because of the habitat loss due to deforestation of the Boreal Forest. The towns people do not acknowledge the warnings of Mr.Wagames and more and more animals start to appear in the town; mountain lions in the mall parkinglot, bison inside Old Navy. Finally one day all to the towns people's relief all of the animals suddenly just disapeer. Two of the resedents, Alistair and Evelyn Doogle decide to go to their cottage after this, however the whole while there they did not see or hear a single animal.

Conflicts

Coyote and the enemy aliens

Noah's Ark

The main conflic of this story is Man v.s. Nature, King uses this story as a commentary of our destructive practices on nature and our lack of attempt to do anything to solve the problems we have created.

Conflict

Summary

The reality of many animals slowly starting to move in to urban communities is true across most of Canada and the primary reason for this is due to loss of their natural habitat. The irony of King's story is that humans invade the habitats of animals and develop it into cities and other urban centers and now when some of the animals have come back to the areas that originally were their lands the people do not want to share any part of it.

The narrator thinks that Coyote is trouble and it is true. Coyote's actions as Custodian of Alien Property have brought suffering to the aliens and natives. Coyote and the White men grab natives thinking that they are aliens. Before Coyote leaves for his new job in Los Alamos, the narrator is releived, because there is " nothing nuch in that Los Alamos place that Coyote can mess up." Ironically, Los Alamos was a site where the military was building atomic bombs.

The narrator warns readers about coyote. Coyote was heading West in 1941 and he stops by the narrator's house and eats, drinks, and finds a job at the coast. He collects enemy "alien" property ("Japs"). Coyote tries to sell confiscated items. Coyote and the white men round up enemy "aliens." Coyote lost his job and found a new one in Los Alamos.

Throughout the story, although anoyed by the animals the towns people are reluctant to take any action to remove them from their communities or actively seek out why they have started to appear until Mr.Wagamese explains it to them. Even then after this visit many of the towns people are still skeptical because they have never actually seen any of this destruction for themselves, and Indians were known to use these "scare tactics " in order to get people to recycle more and create less garbage.

King writes this story to confront a very real and serious problem in our society, our destructive ways of life that have had a large negative effect on the natural system around us. We can even see that the story concludes with "and on the seventh day they went home" to imply that this was similar to the creation story, however this was a story about our destruction and intolerance of animals and nature.

Conflict

Theme

The biggest conflict in the story is Coyote himself. The narrator warns the readers not to attract coyote's attention or else "that one will never leave." He thinks Coyote is bothersome. When Coyote comes back, the narrator reminds the reader that he "warned you about this." The narrator constantly warns readers about Coyote. Even the writing and speech is affected by Coyote as it is organized into paragraphs with few short sentences, because Coyote is always interrupting other people and interfering with their lives.

The biggest theme is about tricks.

A coyote is an animal that is recognized in Native American culture as being very sly and a trickster. He uses the narrator for his own benefits. Coyote thinks he is smart and important because he is Native and is given a good job by White men. This trickster loses his job around the end of the story. He thought he tricked the Whitemen, but really the White men tricked Coyote.

A Short History of Indians in Canada

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