WilliamClements

"Dear John Wayne" by Louise Erdrich(1984)
//William Clements//  August and the drive-in picture is packed. We lounge on the hood of the Pontiac. surrounded by the slow-burning spirals they sell at the window, to vanquish the hordes of mosquitoes. Nothing works. They break through the smoke screen for blood.

Always the lookout spots the Indian first, spread north to south, barring progress. The Sioux or some other Plains bunch in spectacular columns, ICBM missiles, feathers bristling in the meaningful sunset.

The drum breaks. There will be no parlance. Only the arrows whining, a death-cloud of nerves swarming down on the settlers who die beautifully, tumbling like dust weeds into the history that brought us all here together: this wide screen beneath the sign of the bear.

The sky fills, acres of blue squint and eye that the crowd cheers. His face moves over us, a thick cloud of vengeance, pitted like the land that was once flesh. Each rut, each scar makes a promise: //It is not over, this fight, not as long as you resist.

Everything we see belongs to us.//

A few laughing Indians fall over the hood slipping in the hot spilled butter. //The eye sees a lot, John, but the heart is so blind. Death makes us owners of nothing.// He smiles, a horizon of teeth the credits reel over, and then the white fields

again blowing in the true-to-life dark. The dark films over everything. We get into the car scratching our mosquito bites speechless and small as people are when the movie is done. We are back in our skins.

How can we help but keep hearing his voice, the flip side of the sound track, still playing: //Come on, boys, we got them where we want them, drunk, running. They'll give us what we want, what we need.// Even his disease was the idea of taking everything. Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins.

Way 1: First Impressions
This poem is about a Native American going to see a movie. The narrator is most likely Native American because he or she is disgusted with John Wayne: "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything" (41). The first stanza describes the location, how they lounge, and the "hordes of mosquitoes" they will have to fight off. After the first stanza, there is silence as the movie begins. It is a movie that is heavily ingrained with history of how they all came to be where they are. In the movie settlers are dying by arrows. The settlers and the Indians are fighting for land. After the film is over the speaker is left speechless. The narrator is disturbed at the fact the settlers wanted to take everything.

Could the Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) in the phrase "The Sioux or some other Plains bunch /in spectacular columns, ICBM missiles" relate to the underlying subtext (8-9)? At first I did not understand this phrase. Later I realized I was looking into it too much and realized Erdrich was trying to relate the Indians to something powerful. The most powerful thing she could think of was an ICBM which also conveniently looks like riders on horse back charging into battle in columns from an aerial view.

Way 2: Engaging with the text
I found alliteration in various places. The repetition of the "s" sound is apparent in "surrounded by the slow-burning spirals they sell"(3). Again the s is used in "scratching our mosquito bites speechless and small" and "the flip side of the sound track, still playing:"(33,37). The sound w is used in two lines: "where we want them, drunk, running.\They'll give us what we want, what we need."(39,40).

The assonance in the last words in the first two lines--packed and Pontiac--has partial rhyming. This was also apart in the words "playing", "running" and "everything"(37,39,41).

I went thought the first and second stanza counting the syllables but was not able to find a pattern. I noticed there are five lines in each of the first two stanzas, six lines in each of the next two stanzas, a one liner, six lines in each of the next two stanzas and a seven liner to conclude. The whole poem is arranged around the phrase "Everything we see belongs to us." (23). This has important meaning because it is what the narrator is leading up to; why did the settlers wanted to take everything?

[|The recording] of "Dear John Wayne" by Louise Erdrich is read by William Clements.

Way 3: Another Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
This poem is a free verse. A free verse is a verse "without regular metrical form or a uniform overall rhyme scheme" (Brown 93).

Way 3: Another Point about Form and Its Relationship to Content
The last word in the last stanza is skins, "Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins."(42). This word also appears in a line in the second from last stanza,"We are back in our skins"(35). This is to signify that we, who have skins, are human and should respect other humans.

The last word in another line in the last stanza is everything, "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything."(41). This words also appears in a line in the second from last stanza, "The dark films over everything."(31). This could represent the darkness that spreads over one that desires to obtain everything. The last stanza is 7 lines and stands out from the rest of the poem because the patter should conclude with two stanzas each with five lines. It is the important finale. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "The Sioux or some other Plains bunch / in spectacular columns, ICBM missiles" is a metaphor (8-9). It is a metaphor because it is comparing the Native American's charging with missiles--which are much faster. What is it about missiles that applies to a charging group(Brown 70)? A missile is defined as "an object or weapon that is fired, thrown, dropped, or otherwise projected at a target; a projectile" (Dictionary.com). The Native Americans are definitely aimed at their target. The mass of them moving together in columns could very well resemble a mass of moving missiles all locked on one target. Erdrich could have used "spectacular formation of ants". However, ants do not always move in single file and often scurry about searching for food. Erdrich wanted something tough and not something that could accidentally be stepped on. This passage contributes to the rest of the story being about the fight for the land. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "meaningful sunset" is a symbol used to describe where the Native American's feathers are bristling (10). It is a symbol because it is saying the sunset has meaning today because the battle that is being waged is of much importance. What is it about the word meaningful that applies to sunsets(Brown 70)? The definition of meaningful is "serious and important" (Dictionary.com). This battle is definitely important in the movie. Later in the poem it is mentioned "into the history that brought us all here" which implies the our history is important to remember. Erdrich could have used "in the fading sunset" but she did not want the Native American's image to be faded away. This passage relates to the story as a whole being about America's history. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The metaphor "arrows whining" is used (12). It is a metaphor because arrows do not actually whine when they travel through the air. What is it about the word whining that applies to arrows(Brown,70)? The definition of whine is "To utter a plaintive, high-pitched, protracted sound, as in pain, fear, supplication, or complaint" (Dictionary.com). The battle could signify a painful loss for one side. A plaintive expression of pain would be expressed if someone were to loose land from the outcome of this battle. Erdrich could have phrased it "arrows flying" but this would be more like describing an airplane. This metaphor relates to the the poem being about fighting. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The metaphor "death-cloud of nerves" relates to what the arrows whining through the air look like (12). It is a metaphor because arrows are not like the idea of building up nerves when a person does not have enough courage. What is it about the word nerves that applies to arrows(Brown,70)? Nerves are defined as "Nervous agitation caused by fear, anxiety, or stress" (Dictionary.com). The ongoing battle can produce stress, anxiety, and fear especially when the enemy sees arrows coming at them. Erdrich could have wrote "a death-cloud of sticks flying through the air" but this would not give much meaning other than what an arrow looks like. This metaphor relates to the poem being about battle. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The image "the arrows...swarming down on the settlers" relates to what the arrows are doing (13). This image calls upon our sense of sight. The reader can see the arrows swarming toward the settlers, each convening on their intended target. The detail that lead the reader to understand this is an image are the fact that there is an object doing something that the reader can sense. The image creates a sense of fear and a feeling of being cornered. Beneath the message, the narrator could be describing how the settlers are doomed. Since swarm is a verb, a similar verb like meandering would not have the same effect. The phrase helps the poem as a whole by describing the battle scene. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "tumbling like dust weeds" is a simile. The phrase relates the settlers to how they look when they are hit with arrows (14). The phrase is a simile because it uses the work like and compares two dissimilar things. The reader knows a dust weed rolls and continues rolling. When someone rolls head over heels it can look like a dust weed rolling in the wind but the rolling eventually stops. The reader envisions a settler charging into battle only to be stopped by an arrow, tumbling, rolling two or three times before coming to a standstill. The author could have put toppling over like a clown, but this would have sounding inappropriate for the tone of the poem. When thinking of the word toppling, the thought of somersaults comes to mind which would not sound right. At this point in the poem, the narrator is trying to describe what is happening in the movie. A battle scene is being painted. The specific language used are action words. This phrase contributes to the poem's detail of the settler vs Native American conflict. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "the settlers die...tumbling...into the history that brought us all here" is a image (14-15). The phrase is an image because the history, the settlers are tumbling into, is in the story. This history is not something that can literally be tumbled into. The history is the Native American and settlers battles that have taken place, not to be confused with the history in the movie or our current history. The narrator describes how the movie is reenacting a historic battle. The poet could have said "tumbling into barrels" but this would not have wrapped up the idea of what the underlying message of the movie was. This contributes to the poem as a whole because Erdrich is explaining what a Native American feels when he or she views a western movie. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "the heart is so blind" is a metaphor (26). The metaphor is comparing the heart to being blind that eyes that cannot see. The reader knows that a heart does not have eyes but people often relate the heart to emotions. Emotions of the heart search and seek out feelings the eyes that can search and scan. When a person's eye's are blinded they can no longer search. When you heart is deprived of the ability to relate to other people and know what their feelings are like, a person can be left in the dark--blinded. The Indian expresses that John is in the "dark" and cannot possibly feel how he feels (26). The author could have wrote " the heart can not see" but the author wanted to portray an effect that was more permanent--blindness. If the reader can not see he or see can just open their eyes again and they can see again hence not as effective. The underlying meaning of this message is that sometime people can not "see" no matter how hard they try. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "horizon of teeth" is a a metaphor (28). The comparison is teeth being straight like a horizon in the distance. John's teeth look like a horizon because all of his teeth are straight on the top and the bottom. The author could have said chicklet-like teeth but not everyone would know what a chicklet is and it would not have had the same impact. This phrase the author uses sends a visual to the reader as well as a message that John Wayne is pleased with how he stands. The author could have changed the language and said "John curled his lips in a smile" but this language does not describe John Wayne's signature smile. The phrase relates to the poem as a whole by portraying the message that the settlers were so relentless. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "again blowing in the true-to-life dark." is an image. The reader feels the dark consuming the movie viewers and the wind blowing over them as they realize where they are after the movie finishes. The poem does not specify the blowing is wind, but it is implied. The reader knows the feel of coming back to reality--the true-to-life--if the reader has ever been to a movie. The phrase has two senses--touch and see. The reader can feel the wind blowing and see the darkness in the absence of light. The movie viewers are left either stunned at this darkness or familiar to it, depending on how many movies they have seen. It is possible that the narrator has not been to a lot of movies because the experience is so vivid and seemingly having a big impact. It is possible this is the first movie the narrator has seen because the movie continues to echo mentally afterward: "How can we help but keep hearing his voice" (36). The image is important to the character in the poem as a whole. 

Way 4: Unpacking an Instance of Figurative Language
The phrase "his disease was the idea of taking everything." is a metaphor (41). The narrator is comparing the thought of taking everything to a disease. Taking everything is like being greedy. How is greed like a disease? The definition of a disease is "A pathological condition of a part, organ, or system of an organism" (Dictionary.com). Greed is consuming and once satisfied it wants more. Like the infection that takes over a body, greed spreads to every cell in the body taking over in a degrading way. Greed also destroys from the inside. Not recognizing greed will doom you just like not being able to diagnose a disease. Erdrich could have used a different word: his infection was the idea of taking everything--but this would have sounded awkward. The reader would ask how he became infected. Beyond it's literal meaning, this phrase relates to all the settlers as a whole. The narrator posses a question: Why did the settlers want to take everything? Diseases can spread as well, so the bulk of the underlying text lies in the fact that all of the settlers were being infected with this idea of taking everything. This phrase is the point the poem is getting to and what the poem is about. The next line goes on to explain what the diseas is doing to him in vivid detail: "cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins." (42).

Way 5: Analyzing the Setting
John Wayne did his first western in 1930 so this outdoor theater film could have taken place anytime after that (Encyclopedia Britannica). With mosquitoes being present, "hordes of mosquitoes", the time of the year must be warm enough to harbor mosquitoes. The setting takes place at a drive-in theater. There is a Pontiac that serves as a couch and a stand that serves spirals. At the drive-in there are Americans and Native Americans. The setting has to do with the speaker reflecting on the battle that was waged between the Indians and the settlers and how they came to be where they are right now. The poem is about how the settlers wanted to take everything. The setting of the drive-in theater is important because it signifies how practically everything is practically already taken.

Way 6: Identifying and Analyzing Point of View
This poem uses a first person point of view because it uses the word we throughout the poem. The a first person narrative is told through the eyes of the main character or characters. Line 32 is a good example of the first person that is used: "We get into the car."

The speaker is a Native American using the word "we". The speaker is with his or her friends. The reader learns the narrator is someone who likes to watch movies while lounging on the hood of a Pontiac: "We lounge on the hood of the Pontiac" (2). It sounds like they are having a good time. After the movie the speaker seems annoyed by John Wayne. The speaker believes the settlers idea of taking everything is like a disease: "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything" (41).

The point of view the reader is given is through the eyes of the Native Americans at the drive-in. The point of view that is excluded is the Americans present at the drive-in but it does not seem necessary to include. Including the American's point of view would take away from the focus of the poem.

With the addition of the thoughts of the Americans at the drive-in some insight would be gained from their perspective of the movie. The addition may be awkward because the poem is about the Native American's experience. Different perspectives from each of the members in the group of Native Americans may clarify and enhance the meaning of the poem for some readers. For as short of a poem as it is, the one perspective is just right. 

Way 7: Analyzing Complexity, Ambiguity & Difficulty
An ambiguity arises when the narrator says "arrows...swarming down on the settlers who die beautifully" (12-14). One possible way it can be interpreted is that the settlers are dying proudly with honor. Another possible way of looking at it is that the settlers actually look good dying because they are the enemy. The word "beautifully" is the word that is ambiguous in this passage. It is difficult to say what the true meaning of this phrase could be because the end of the poem is dark enough that it could mean the later. When the narrator says, "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything. /Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins" (41-42), the reader gets the feeling the narrator loathes John Wayne.  The phrase "Everything we see belongs to us" on line 23 is an ambiguity. The word everything is a vague word in certain aspects. Could he mean everything we see standing where we are? He could mean everything we see as far a we can travel. Does he mean land or also personal possessions? One interpretation could be that he believes everything he can see from his village and hunting grounds is their property.  The reason I had difficulty with this poem at first is because I had to look at it from through another person's perspective. The last two lines were especially different for me: "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything. /Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins" (41-42). I had to think about where the speaker was coming from. I took the phrase literally as being a disease and it was difficult to begin to image what the phrase meant. I now realize what these lines really mean and interpret them as disappointment for John Wayne materialistic ideals and destructive nature.

Way 8: Considering Canonicity
 This poem breaks from the normal canon because it is free verse. It has no "metrical form or a uniform overall rhyme scheme" (Brown 93).  This poem should be included into the canon because the reader must think about the text to figure out what is going on in this poem. The last two lines especially need attention to unraveled the whole poem. This poem contains many excellent metaphors and images which are marks of good literature.

I think this would be considered by a large consensus of people to be part of the canon because of it's aesthetic qualities listed above and because of it's cultural value, especially here in America. The relationship between Native Americans and Americans is very important part of history.

I believe this poem was intended to be a poem of literature because the author herself is a poet making it even more canon worthy. Literary poems "draw on a wide variety of literary devices such as imagery, metaphor and symbols to convey more complex ideas" (Brown ch. 2).

Way 9: Biographical Context
From the official Louise Erdrich Website, it can be found that Louise Erdrich is a very prestigious author: //"Love Medicine//, won the National Book Critics Circle Award" (Louise). This is evidence that this poem's author definitely wrote it with intentions of it being "art".

Way 10: Historical and Cultural Contexts
Historically, Indians were here in America first. The movie in the poem is about settlers wanting to take the land: "They'll give us what we want, what we need" (41). Being a Native American I would imagine it would not the most enjoyable movie too see. This probably why the narrator is angry at the end. Another reason the narrator could be mad is because the movie is inaccurate--settlers and Indians were constantly fighting. " Contrary to their frequent portrayal in 20th-century popular culture, few armed conflicts between travelers and Indians took place, although tense situations certainly occurred" (Encyclopedia Britannica).

Way 11: Theoretical Application
A psychoanalytic evaluation of the poem could ask who speaks in the italicized words in the poem (virtuaLit). How do the two actors talking in the movie relate to the narrator in the story? The id is the "primal instincts" of a human(Brown 215). Could the narrator be going back to some primal repressed thoughts in the final two lines? "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything. /Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins." (41-42). Could the narrator have some feelings from early childhood that were pushed out of the way because they were not comforting?

Way 12: Another Theoretical Application
A reader-response criticism of the poem asks the reader to ponder why there could be different interpretations of the text and why do they exist. Can an opposite viewpoint be explored? What if the reader knew nothing of the history of America or the who the Natives were. This kind of view would make it difficult to see why the narrator is thinks John Wayne is greedy. Without knowing the outcomes of the wars and the today's current situation the reader is lost.

Way 13: Unifying Interpretation
Dear John Wayne is a poem about a Native American, going to the theater and leaving with disturbed emotions. The movie, to the narrator, is a reminder of his or her origins. The narrator could be telling the reader to never forget your origins no matter who you are.

Another clear message is sent through the last two lines: "Even his disease was the idea of taking everything. /Those cells, burning, doubling, splitting out of their skins." (41-42) There is an underlying message that the text does not say explicitly: why did the settlers want to take everything?

- Works Cited Brown, James S., and Scott D. Yarbrough. A Practical Introduction to Literary Study. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall, 2005 __Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1).__ Random House, Inc. 29 Jul. 2009. .

Encyclopedia Britannica. __Native American.__ 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 24 Jul. 2009. . Louise Erdrich from HarperCollins Publishers. 