# Four Strange Summers explained — American Indian Stories > Chapter companion for American Indian Stories by Zitkála-Šá. ## What happens After three years of schooling in the East, the narrator returns to the Western country for four strange summers, feeling caught between two worlds—neither a wild Indian nor a tame one, neither a child nor an adult. She struggles with her identity and displacement, finding solace only in reckless rides across the prairie. Her brother Dawée treats her as a child, and she is excluded from social gatherings because she lacks proper civilized attire. Her mother, unable to understand her daughter's education, offers an Indian Bible for comfort, but the narrator rejects it in anger. The chapter ends with her mother's mournful cries for her brothers' spirits and the narrator's resolve to return to the eastern school. ## Themes in this chapter ### Cultural Displacement and Assimilation The narrator is caught between her Indigenous heritage and the white man's education, feeling neither fully Indian nor fully civilized. ### Loss of Identity and Belonging She describes herself as 'neither a wild Indian nor a tame one,' highlighting her profound sense of dislocation and lack of place. ### Motherhood and Family Bonds The mother's attempt to comfort her daughter with the Bible and her subsequent wailing for her brothers' spirits show the deep emotional bond and shared suffering within the family. ## Character check-ins ### Mother The narrator's mother, who never attended school, tries to console her daughter with an Indian Bible but cannot bridge the gap between their experiences. ### Dawée The narrator's older brother, who calls her 'baby sister' and does not fully understand her feelings; he prepares to attend a social gathering without her. ### Cousin Mentioned as a tall cousin who enjoys privileges the narrator does not yet have. ## Key lines > I was neither a wee girl nor a tall one; neither a wild Indian nor a tame one. I was stuck in between—not a child, not an adult; not fully traditional, not fully assimilated. _Captures the narrator's liminal identity and sense of displacement._ > My mother had never gone inside of a schoolhouse, and so she was not capable of comforting her daughter who could read and write. Because my mother had no formal education, she couldn't understand or console me after I learned to read and write. _Highlights the generational and educational divide between mother and daughter._ > I extinguished the light, and leaned my head on the window sill. Many schemes of running away from my surroundings hovered about in my mind. I blew out the lamp and rested my head on the sill, thinking of many plans to escape my situation. _Shows the narrator's desperation and desire to flee her circumstances._ ## Links - HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/american_indian_stories_se/chapters/vi-four-strange-summers - Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/american_indian_stories_se - All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/american_indian_stories_se/chapters