One of the most popular, recognizable, and enjoyable genres of storytelling is the bildungsroman, sometimes known as the coming-of-age story. The Bedford Glossary of Critical and Literary Terms (2003) notes that this kind of story can also be called an apprenticeship or formation story. All stories that take this shape follow certain conventions. In the…
Tag: The United States of America
The Medicine Bag – Setting
Native American History: The Lakota As writer and storyteller Joseph Bruchac reminds readers in his 2003 book Our Stories Remember: American Indian History, Culture, and Values through Storytelling, ‘‘Native America is made up of many cultures, hundreds of them. There is not just one history of the American Indian but countless histories.’’ Thus, attempting to…
The Medicine Bag – Symbolism, Characterization
Characterization ‘‘The Medicine Bag’’ includes examples of both rounded and flat characters, sometimes also referred to as dynamic and static characters. A rounded or dynamic character in a story is one who changes and grows from the beginning to the end, whereas a flat or static character remains essentially the same throughout. Martin and Grandpa…
The Medicine Bag – Themes
Family Relationships Sneve explores family relationships in ‘‘The Medicine Bag’’ at several levels. Martin’s nuclear family, comprised of Martin, his sister Cheryl, his mother, and his father, is in many ways a typical suburban American family. The members of the family get along well with each other, and the family relationships do not seem to…
The Medicine Bag – Characters
Cheryl Cheryl is Martin’s ten-year-old sister. She is portrayed as a cheerful, loving little girl, far from adulthood. She has no embarrassment over her great-grandfather’s arrival at their home. Indeed, she seems proud to have her friends meet Grandpa. She treasures her Native American heritage. Grandpa also loves her, but it is clear that he…
The Medicine Bag – Summary
‘‘The Medicine Bag’’ is a story narrated by a young Native American boy named Martin. Martin’s mother is also Native American, but his father is a white man who teaches at a college. Although Martin’s age is not mentioned, other details in the story suggest that he is thirteen or fourteen years old; in the…
Marigolds by Eugenie W. Collier – Analysis
Formalist critics look at a piece of literature in terms of how its elements work together to create a meaningful whole. The piece must have internal logic in order to present the themes coherently as well as cohesively. In other words, the formalist framework takes into consideration how the elements work together to form a…
Marigolds by Eugenie W. Collier – Setting
Segregation in the Great Depression The 1930s in America were years of severe economic depression resulting in abject poverty. Some fared better than others; minority populations such as African Americans and Mexican immigrants tended to struggle the most because they already faced racial discrimination and thus had to work harder than whites to achieve the…
Marigolds by Eugenie W. Collier – Symbolism, Metaphor, Literary Devices
Memoir Collier tells the story in the style of a memoir, that is, in first person, as if she is speaking directly to the reader. Use of the words ‘‘I’’ and ‘‘my’’ and ‘‘we’’ make the story more personal, more emotional than it would be if told in the third person or in the style…
Marigolds by Eugenie W. Collier – Themes
Coming of Age A coming-of-age story is one in which the protagonist, or main character, is initiated into adulthood through the attainment of knowledge or experience. Often, experience leads to knowledge, and the process is often one of disillusionment. ‘‘Marigolds’’isLizabeth’scoming-of-age story. The confusion she feels over her father’s desperation and shame and the subsequent role…