American Indian Stories · Chapter
VII: Incurring My Mother’s Displeasure explained
The narrator returns East for a second term, secretly carrying a medicine man's charm for protection.
What happens
The narrator returns East for a second term, secretly carrying a medicine man's charm for protection. After earning her diploma, she defies her mother's wishes to pursue college, causing a rift. She struggles with loneliness and prejudice but wins an oratorical contest at her college and later a state competition, despite racist taunts. Yet victory feels hollow as she longs for her mother's forgiveness.
Themes in this chapter
Education as a Tool of Oppression
The narrator's pursuit of white education creates a painful divide with her mother and exposes her to racial slurs and humiliation.
Loss of Identity and Belonging
The narrator feels homeless and heavyhearted, torn between her mother's world and the cold, prejudiced white society.
Resistance and Resilience
Despite defiance of her mother and facing racist attacks, the narrator perseveres and wins oratorical contests, asserting her voice.
Characters to notice
Key passages
“I silenced her by deliberate disobedience. Thus, homeless and heavyhearted, I began anew my life among strangers.”
I chose to ignore my mother's wishes, leaving me feeling without a home and deeply sad as I started over among people I didn't know.
Highlights the narrator's painful choice to pursue education against her mother's will.
“The little taste of victory did not satisfy a hunger in my heart. In my mind I saw my mother far away on the Western plains, and she was holding a charge against me.”
Winning the contest didn't fill the emotional void I felt; I kept thinking of my mother out West, still angry with me.
Emphasizes the emotional cost of success and the unresolved conflict with her mother.