The Rez Sisters Essay, Research Paper
The Rez Sisters
The drama The Rez Sisters is written by one of Canada s most famed dramatists, Tomson Highway. Highway was born in 1951 in northwesterly Manitoba. He went on to analyze at the University of Manitoba and graduated from the University of Western Ontario, with awards in Music and English. Native Literature is inspired by modern-day societal jobs confronting native Canadians today ; intoxicant and drug maltreatment, self-destruction, married woman banging, household force, the racism of the justness system, solitariness, rejection, young person consciousness, every bit good as contemporary environmental issues. ( P. 172 Native Literature in Canada. ) Highway one time said, We grew up with myths. They re the nucleus of our individuality as people. ( P. 172 Native Literature in Canada. ) I am traveling to concentrate on the image and individuality of Native people as seen through the drama The Rez Sisters.
Identity is how you view yourself and your life. ( p. 12 Knots in a String. ) Your individuality helps you find where you think you fit in, in your life. It is a rich complexness of images, thoughts and associations. ( p. 12 Knots in a String. ) It is given that as we go through our lives and meet different experiences our individuality of yourselves and where we belong may alter. As this happens we may derive or release new values and from this individuality and image our influenced. A bad self-image and low self-pride may organize portion of individuality but frequently the cause is non a loss of individuality itself so much as a loss of belonging. Social psychologists suggest that individuality is closely related to our civilization. Native people today have been faced with this challenge against their individuality as they are progressively faced with a non-native society. I will turn out that the drama The Rez Sisters showed this loss of individuality and loss of belonging. When a native individual leaves the reserve to travel and get down a new life in a metropolis they are forced to accommodate to a life style they are non accustomed to. They do non experience as though they fit in or belong to any peculiar civilization. They are faced with utmost racism and stereotypes from other people in the nonreservational society.
The Rez Sisters won the Dora Mavor Moore award for the best drama in 1986-87 and subsequently went on to gain excessive congratulations at the Edinburgh Festival. ( P. 172 Native Literature in Canada. ) The drama is full of comedy, calamity, life and dreams. It is a fast moving drama informed by penetration into, and deep cognition of, reserve life, and it is both tickle pinking and wash uping. ( P. 174 Native Literature in Canada. )
The drama involves seven really lively and amusing adult females, who live on the Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve, Manitoulin Island, Ontario. Their lives consist of cognizing everybody s concern. Nothing is private or sacred to them, they know each other s sex wonts, wellness jobs, household histories and day-to-day modus operandis. ( P. 174 Native Literature in Canada. ) When they play begins we are given an over position of what it like on the modesty by a pictorous description, from here I can see half of Manitoulin Island I can see the chimneys, the tops of apple trees, the refuse pile behind Large Joey s dumpy small house ( P. 2 The Rez Sisters ) The modesty has a spot of everything, a good side and a bad side.
During the drama we learn that the Rez Sisters make life bearable on the modesty by playing lotto. From this we learn about their lives and dreams. We learn what they want separately in life, and where they would travel and what they would make if they had the chance. The drama gives the reader in sight to what each of the adult female want. Marie-Adele is a 39-year-old adult female who says if s
he had the money she would, Buy an island. ( P. 36 The Rez Sisters ) I fell she wants this because she wants to get away from everybody, the modesty and from the regular population. Veronique is the female parent of one of the other characters in the drama, Zahaboonigan, who is mentally handicapped. Veronique wants to purchase a range and cook for everybody on the modesty. She wants to take attention of her ain, the younger coevals and possibly give them a better opportunity at life. As the drama continues the seven adult females, Pelajia, Philomena, Marie-Adele, Annie, Emily, Veronique and Zhaboonigan confirm that the biggest lotto in the universe is coming to Toronto. All of them have no excess money to acquire at that place so they all band together and make anything they are skilled at to raise the financess. They all work really hard and raise the money to acquire all seven of them to Toronto to fall in in the biggest lotto in the universe. They load up a new wave they borrowed and head off to the large metropolis.
Nanabush, a North American Indian mythology animal follows them on their travels. Nanabush is a prankster and he can travel by many faces. The myth behind Nanabush is that he left this universe when the white people came and he is the Christ of Native mythology. Many native people believe that, without Nanabush and the religious wellness of this figure, the nucleus of Indian civilization would be gone everlastingly. ( P. XII The Rez Sisters ) During the drama Nanabush disguises himself as the Seagull, the night owl and eventually the Bingo Master himself. I fell the ground Nanabush was with adult females on their travels and disguised as the lotto maestro was to maintain the native spirit alive with in each adult female. By making this I fell each adult female was allowed to woolgather of what could be and what might go of each of her if they were to win the lotto. Nanabush was there so the dreams would be kept as dreams and non go a world. Nanabush might cognize that the grass is non ever greener on the other side of the fencing as the adult females think.
At he stop of the drama we learn no 1 has one the lotto and Marie-Adele as passed on to the spirit universe escorted by Nanabush. Life returns to the manner it was at the beginning of the drama with a small less desiring to acquire out of the life style the so much wanted to go forth buttocks or alteration. The adult females seem content with what they have and will likely go on to populate their lives similar to the manner they all did at the start of the drama.
I feel the Toronto Star was right when the said that the drama The Rez Sisters, was one of the most toughing exuberant, smartly crafted and utterly entrancing dramas ( Cover The Rez Sisters. ) Tomson Highway did a great occupation at giving the reader an thought of what modesty life is approximately. He gave us the chance to see the adversities of native people and some penetration to how they form their individuality.
After reading this wondrous written drama I do believe that our civilization plays a really of import function in how we as people form our individuality and determines where we feel we belong. Nanabush had a great trade to make with the adult females maintaining their current individualities and since of belonging. I feel that if we believe in a spirit and resignation or lives to them they will take attention of us merely as Nanabush did in this drama.
We all need to belong someplace and experience comfort in our lives. We as human existences need to open our eyes and see we can all belong together and populate in one society without dropping our civilization but before this can go on we need to stop racism and stereotyping. These are the two chief factors that push people, more normally native people, into the loss of belonging the loss of their civilization and the loss of the nucleus of their individuality.
