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In If I Ever Get Out Of Here, we don't get too much variety in setting; there are really only two different settings, which are the reserve that Lewis, our protagonist, lives on, and George's neighborhood. Although, both of these offer a lot of contrast and depth to the characters and story. A good chunk of the book takes place on a Native American reservation in the city of Niagara Falls. On this reservation, the police are negligent to crimes that are committed, the houses are in dire need of repairs, and most people live in poverty. Small details, like how it's so small, yet so packed together, and how kids learn to drive right when they can reach the pedals are what tell you that the author really did his research. For the parts of the book that took place on the reserve, these factors, like the oppressive poverty really set the dark, dreary, depressing scene that this book takes on. I found it startlingly easy to visualize, and I really enjoyed how in depth the author was about this particular setting. Another key setting in the story is George's neighborhood and his house. George lives in a community where military families live when the person in their family in the military, in this case, George's dad, gets deployed(as to why George's dad got deployed in Niagara Falls, I don't know). The community is very military like, in the way that there are no bright colors, nothing to really catch your eye. Everything is in unison, everything in order, much like how it is in the military. This clean, orderly community really contrasts from Lewis' reservation life. Furthermore, George's specific house contrasts with Lewis' because everything is neat and tidy, everything is working, there isn't any extreme need for any repairs, and nothing is really tattered and old, compared to Lewis' house which is falling apart. Although, everything in George's neighborhood feels very temporary, in the way that you might have to get up and leave at any second, which adds to the dark and dreary feel to the story. I can connect to George's neighbourhood, because I used to live in a neighbourhood similar to his. Everything was very bland and very orderly, almost robotic, and there wasn't any large amounts of contrast, so nothing was really personal. I feel that the setting is an extremely important and significant factor in this story because it sets the tone of the story that wouldn't exist otherwise.
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Over the past few weeks, I've learned several things about the FNMI(First Nations, Métis, Inuit) community, and there's a lot of interesting information that I've learned.
Some very interesting information that I learned is about about these ceremonies called Pow Wows and the Sweat Lodges. In Pow Wows, everyone sits around in an enormous circle, and cultural performances, mainly dances, are performed in the center. There are several different types of dances, such as Grass dances and Hoop dances, each with their own important legend or story behind them. Pow Wows are held to celebrate nature and Mother Earth. A Sweat Lodge is a spiritual, more calm ceremony used for prayer. These are held in huts made of natural materials. During these ceremonies, aboriginal peoples can sing, pray, talk, sit in silence, or meditate. The ceremonies are used to purify your mind, body and spirit. The most shocking information that I learned involves Residential schools. Residential schools are basically schools that aboriginal children were sent to to be separated from non-aboriginal children to be stripped of their culture, religion, faith and way of life. Residential schools had the worst conditions imaginable. You would be separated by gender, you wouldn't be able to talk to your siblings, if you threw up, you would have to eat your own vomit, and if you misbehaved you would get locked in a closet with no food and no light for at least a day. Although the last residential school was abolished in 1996, the effects haven't worn off. Children were abused, emotionally, sexually, and physically in residential schools from the time they were infants until they graduated. They were never raised properly, so they don't know how to raise their own children properly. The abuse that went on in these schools was so traumatizing, most the surviving ex-students have developed PTSD. I've learned a lot about the FNMI community over the past few weeks, and I hope to continue to learn more in school, and outside of school. |
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