English 48b
February 1, 2008
Professor Lankford
Quote:
“They came like a lion, yes, like a roaring lion…they made a great noise like thunder and lightning”.
Summary:
It is a quote found in the “Life Among The Piutes”. It explains the Piutes’ feeling when the white people are coming into their country.
Response:
I think that this quote clearly explains the Paiute people were terribly afraid of the whites. They considered the whites as “a roaring lion” which might eat them or kill them. Although Sarah Winnemucca’s grandfather insisted on saying that the white people were their brothers and asking his people to love the whites, they thought that the white people were still very horrible. The Paiute people thought that the white people were lions due to the bread on their faces. Moreover, I think another reason was that the whites were much taller and stronger than the Paiute who were living near to the desert region.
Frankly, I like the part of “the great noise like thunder and lightning” so much. Winnemucca really described what the Paiute felt about the guns, bombs or other weapons. She used her father’s dream to bring out how cruel the whites were. From my point of view, Winnemucca must have known the great sound was produced by the bombs or other strong weapons. However, she didn’t directly say that the white people had powerful bombs. Instead, she said there were “great noise like thunder and lightning”. When I was reading the book, I just thought that the Paiute people were really very innocent and they even didn’t know what the guns and bombs were. I really love this kind of description skill.
1 comment:
20/20 It's so ironic that you chose a nuclear mushroom cloud to illustrate this journal -- because dozens of nuclear weapons have in fact been "tested" on former Paiute lands in Nevada in the 20th Century (with the Tribe protesting fiercely at every turn).
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