Exploring the Text

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  1. In the opening section, “The Big Red Apples,” Zitkala-Ša acknowledges that “it was not yet an ambition for Letters that was stirring me” (par. 9). What, then, does motivate her desire to leave her mother and familiar circumstances to travel east with the missionaries?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - In the opening section, “The Big Red Apples,” Zitkala-Ša acknowledges that “it was not yet an ambition for Letters that was stirring me” (par. 9). What, then, does motivate her desire to leave her mother and familiar circumstances to travel east with the missionaries?
  2. Why does her mother oppose her daughter’s wish to leave? At what point does the narrator realize that her mother’s fears are coming true?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Why does her mother oppose her daughter’s wish to leave? At what point does the narrator realize that her mother’s fears are coming true?
  3. In “The Land of Red Apples,” what happens that causes Zitkala-Ša to doubt her decision?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - In “The Land of Red Apples,” what happens that causes Zitkala-Ša to doubt her decision?
  4. Having her hair cut was the most dramatic of the “extreme indignities” (par. 48) that the narrator describes, but what other measures are taken by the missionaries to distance her (and her peers) from her native culture?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Having her hair cut was the most dramatic of the “extreme indignities” (par. 48) that the narrator describes, but what other measures are taken by the missionaries to distance her (and her peers) from her native culture?
  5. What role does language play in the experience of young Zitkala-Ša? In what instances does she show that she is most aware of the importance of her own language?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - What role does language play in the experience of young Zitkala-Ša? In what instances does she show that she is most aware of the importance of her own language?
  6. Throughout these autobiographical pieces, Zitkala-Ša takes readers to the immediacy of her childhood experiences, yet these are filtered through her adult consciousness. In the opening section, for instance, discussing the missionaries she says, “Alas! They came, they saw, and they conquered!” (par. 9). What other examples of the adult “interpreter” do you find?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Throughout these autobiographical pieces, Zitkala-Ša takes readers to the immediacy of her childhood experiences, yet these are filtered through her adult consciousness. In the opening section, for instance, discussing the missionaries she says, “Alas! They came, they saw, and they conquered!” (par. 9). What other examples of the adult “interpreter” do you find?
  7. The author began her life with the given name Gertrude Simmons, reflecting the influence of her European American father, her mother’s second husband, who abandoned the family soon after the birth of his daughter. She took the Lakota name Zitkala-Ša, which means Red Bird, when she began to write around 1900. After her marriage to Raymond Bonnin, she used Gertrude Simmons Bonnin as her legal name and in her dealings with the Bureau of Indian Affairs; that is the name on her grave in Arlington National Cemetery. Today, some books identify her as Gertrude Bonnin, others as Zitkala-Ša. Which name do you believe is the more appropriate primary designation for her?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - The author began her life with the given name Gertrude Simmons, reflecting the influence of her European American father, her mother’s second husband, who abandoned the family soon after the birth of his daughter. She took the Lakota name Zitkala-Ša, which means Red Bird, when she began to write around 1900. After her marriage to Raymond Bonnin, she used Gertrude Simmons Bonnin as her legal name and in her dealings with the Bureau of Indian Affairs; that is the name on her grave in Arlington National Cemetery. Today, some books identify her as Gertrude Bonnin, others as Zitkala-Ša. Which name do you believe is the more appropriate primary designation for her?
  8. In her book Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism (2000), scholar Laura Wexler characterizes the assimilationist education efforts of seemingly well-intentioned missionaries as “tender violence.” Using Zitkala-Ša’s autobiographical writings as a source, to what extent do you think that term captures the experience?

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - In her book Tender Violence: Domestic Visions in an Age of U.S. Imperialism (2000), scholar Laura Wexler characterizes the assimilationist education efforts of seemingly well-intentioned missionaries as “tender violence.” Using Zitkala-Ša’s autobiographical writings as a source, to what extent do you think that term captures the experience?
  9. Below are two portraits of Zitkala-Ša, both taken in 1898, by the American photographer Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934). The women became friends, and Käsebier is said to have encouraged her to select what she wanted to wear and how she wanted to pose in the portraits. How do each of these images depict Zitkala-Ša’s multiple identities? What representations of both her Native American and European American cultures do you note? Does she seem to privilege one over the other or embody a blended balance? Cite specifics in the photographs to support your response, including her expression and the material objects within each image.
    image
    Gertrude Kasebier Collection, Division of Culture & the Arts, National Museum of American History, Smithsonian Institution

    Question

    ALMF/kS1zzW73MouRsoXk1h0lKY=
    Exploring the Text: - Below are two portraits of Zitkala-Ša, both taken in 1898, by the American photographer Gertrude Käsebier (1852–1934). The women became friends, and Käsebier is said to have encouraged her to select what she wanted to wear and how she wanted to pose in the portraits. How do each of these images depict Zitkala-Ša’s multiple identities? What representations of both her Native American and European American cultures do you note? Does she seem to privilege one over the other or embody a blended balance? Cite specifics in the photographs to support your response, including her expression and the material objects within each image.