# II explained — American Indian Stories > Chapter companion for American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá. ## What happens After nine winters at a mission school, the narrator returns to his tribe as a Christian preacher, only to find his father gravely ill and his mother grieving. He struggles to reconcile his new faith with his people's traditions, ultimately driving away the medicine-man, which causes his father to despair. ## Themes in this chapter ### Cultural Displacement and Assimilation The narrator returns as a stranger in his own village, wearing foreign clothes and carrying a foreign Bible, unable to reconnect with his family's traditions. ### Spirituality vs. Christianity The narrator's Christian faith clashes with the medicine-man's healing rituals, leading to a confrontation that deepens his father's despair. ### Loss of Identity and Belonging Despite sitting between his parents, the narrator feels alienated, separated by 'ideas and faiths' and unable to fulfill his intended role as a warrior and huntsman. ## Character check-ins ### Ohiyesa The narrator, returning as a Christian missionary after nine winters at a mission school. ### Mother Sits with bowed head, weeping over her husband's illness, spiritually separated from her son. ### Uncle The old warrior who leads the narrator to his father's teepee and advises him to wait outside. ## Key lines > Nine winters’ snows had buried deep that night when my old grandmother, together with my father and mother, designed my future with the glow of a camp fire upon it. Nine years had passed since my grandmother, father, and mother planned my future by the campfire. _Sets the scene of lost potential and the passage of time._ > With the white man’s Bible in my hand, and the white man’s tender heart in my breast, I returned to my own people. Carrying the white man's Bible and adopting his compassionate heart, I came back to my tribe. _Highlights the narrator's internal conflict and assimilation._ > Wearing a foreigner’s dress, I walked, a stranger, into my father’s village. Dressed in foreign clothes, I entered my father's village as an outsider. _Emphasizes the theme of displacement and loss of identity._ > Alike our throats were choked and tears were streaming from our eyes; but far apart in spirit our ideas and faiths separated us. We both wept, but our beliefs and spirits were deeply divided. _Illustrates the emotional and spiritual rift between the narrator and his mother._ > Useless was my attempt to change the faith in the medicine-man to that abstract power named God. My efforts to replace belief in the medicine-man with faith in God were futile. _Shows the failure of the narrator's missionary work within his own family._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/american_indian_stories_se/chapters/ii - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/american_indian_stories_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/american_indian_stories_se/chapters