My Name is Seepeetza by Shirley Sterling - Essay Example

One of the most influential works penned by Shirley Sterling is her semi-autobiographical novel named ‘My Name is Seepeetza’. Even though the novel is classified under children’s literature, it is also studied at the undergraduate as well as graduate literature course levels, thus revealing its importance and relevance to the present world. The novel is written in a diary format and the narrator is Seepeetza (Martha), an aboriginal Indian girl, who was sent to a residential school located in British Columbia during the 1950s. Sterling’s deft portrayal of her characters in the novel have highlighted her writing skills, but her real talent lies in how she has been able to bring a lot of issues faced by indigenous children during that time period and present it all in the voice of a 12-year old. Therefore, the story actually offers a detailed insight into the residential school system, which existed during the time, but more importantly, it highlights the subversive strength of the protagonist to face and overcome challenging situations in life. The author on a subtle note tries to provide the readers with an understanding of the issues and problems faced by her generation, but on the deeper side, she equips them with the power to face such situations and voice their thoughts without fear. The author’s ability to do so becomes evident from how a sixth grader overcomes situations of bullying, persecution, loneliness and terror. On the other hand, her positive attitude towards life becomes manifest when she demonstrates the capability to live another day with the sweet memories of her family. Literature also serves the purpose of providing readers with an opportunity to understand historical accounts through the perspective of different characters, the way they lived and the experiences in their lives. Seepeetza’s story is such an account, which offers the readers a detailed insight into the issues and hardships that an aboriginal girl faces in the residential school, and how she pulls through all of it with her resolute willpower. She also firmly believes that no matter if her name, clothes and other things that remind her of her family are taken away, she still has her memories and deep rooted tradition that simply cannot be extricated from her. Sterling provides various instances starting from the beginning of the story, which showcases how Seepeetza fights back throughout her stay at the residential school and overcomes the oppressive authoritarian system as well as the racist evils of the school. The primary theme of the novel is racism and how aboriginal children were treated in a time that believed in the superiority of the white race. Humans are all actually kindred spirits who live through the external bodies attributed to them by the Supreme Being. Thus, these spirits are supposed to recognize each other through their hearts and not through their eyes. However, during those time periods, it was the color of the person that determined how the society perceived him or her, and it is this perception that determined how the individual was to be treated. The saga of Seepeetza, presented in a diary form, with all its little diary entries shows exactly how even children were not exempted from the cruel constructs of the society based upon race, and how they had to lead their lives under scrutiny and ridicule of the authorities in the residential schools. For instance, the school is just a namesake and a cover for an institution that actually produces well-trained, domesticated girls who can work in the white households, however, Seepeetza and her friends do not let themselves be brainwashed and they practice their native tradition in some way or the other, thus, not succumbing to the oppressive ways of the school authorities. The residential school was a place that harbored ill feelings of the nuns that ran it, and it promoted an atmosphere that cultivated and built upon the common social evil of bullying. Seepeetza is thrown into the system of colonial education, being taken away and separated from home at the mere age of six, and since her first day of school, she has been constantly harassed under the oppressive regime of the school. In the beginning, Sister Muara enquires for her name, and she replies it to be Seepeetza, which makes the nun “really mad” as if the little girl had done “something terrible,” and she is yelled at to go and ask for her real name (18). Furthermore, the children have to follow such strict regulations that even so much as “stepping out of line,” talking or “looking at boys” ensues in guaranteed punishment (p. 13-14). Moreover, Seepeetza is constantly yelled at for even not being present in the moment, that is, when she is seen to be daydreaming or emotionally absent, thus stripping away the basic freedom of an individual to even have their own thoughts. However, the frequency of her being reprimanded itself shows that no matter how much scolding she gets she will not stop reliving her memories, and that with every scolding she receives, she only grows more attached to her family and tradition. Punishment is not limited to verbal abuse, but extends to being beaten with straps, thus inflicting authority and embedding fear in the minds of the children by scathing their skins. The author provides stark contrast to the ways of the nuns in the school and her family at home by stating that her “mum and dad never hit” them (p. 83). But even so, Seepeetza again overcomes the physical pain by traversing back in time to her family, and remembering the good times, thus looking forward to the summer holidays when she would be reunited with them. On the other hand, the persecution faced by the native children is one that cannot be overlooked either. Not only are they denied their right to be called their given names, but also they cannot even speak in their own language. They will face severe punishment lest they be heard conversing in their dialect. Furthermore, they were forbidden to have emotional ties with their siblings, thus, talking overtly with siblings also earned them undeserved punishment. The accounts of Seepeetza show that it was not just the authorities that humiliated and forced the children to forget their culture, but the older students at the school also ridiculed the protagonist. For instance, they called her a ‘dirty shamah’ and asked her how she felt to look like a white person, because, as opposed to other native girls, Seepeetza’s skin was white (p. 20). She provides an account of some boys who run away from the school, as the priest “was doing something bad” to them, and how they were caught and punished severely for trying to escape (12-13). Therefore, Sterling, through the limited voice of a young native girl, tries to bring to the fore the injustice done to innocent children, and thus, wants to make the readers understand the consequences of such events. Thus, it becomes clear that the young protagonist, like her friends and sister, was a victim of not just physical violence, but also psychological abuse that even though aimed at undermining her ties with her culture, actually only strengthened her deep rooted connection to her native traditions, culture and her family. Seepeetza is able to do so by acting out various instances that took place back at home, for instance, when she and her sister “started joking and laughing” like her mother and Auntie Mamie and Yay-yah used to when they would be “cleaning berries or fish together at home” (14). Another theme explored through the narrative is the loneliness and terror propagated in the residential school environment. The author provides several juxtapositions that bring to the fore the paramount differences in the school environment as well as that of her home. The school not only fails to provide proper amenities such as food, as well as a proper education to the children, but also is a completely terrible environment for a child to grow up in. Even though Sterling does not always explicitly state that there was not enough food and that children suffered from hunger most of the times, the protagonist’s constant recollection of home made food and her father’s hunting trips, which not just brought food to their family but also to the old people in the community, suggests to the reader about the children being deprived from proper food (66). At home, her family members lived in great harmony and shared everything, thus creating a warm loving environment, where Seepeetza felt safe and cared for, but in the school, the constant feeling was that of loneliness. For instance, the native girls are provided dolls at the school, which they are to play with, so that they get domesticated and become acquainted with the domestic sphere of life so that they can be used as maids in the white households. However, Seepeetza does not feel any less lonely with the old doll that has a “hard face and messy brown hair,” and she fights back to this oppression by buying the doll, as she knows it is not part of who she is (37). Furthermore, Seepeetza and her friends carry out a proper burial custom for the doll and eat a dried piece of wood, pretending it to be dried salmon, which is eaten during the funeral rituals. Therefore, this again shows how the protagonist respects and adheres to her culture and by doing so, she is able to fight back and overcome the situation or feeling of being oppressed. Thus, in conclusion, it can be stated that Sterling has done a remarkable job at portraying the life of native children in residential schools by bringing to fore the various harsh situations they faced. However, more importantly, she has been able to provide instances of how the protagonist overcame each situation and defied oppression and stayed true to her roots, starting from her decision to write a secret journal because there she could write whatever she wanted (11). The author follows a set pattern in narrating the saga, that is, she would start off by providing an account of something that happened on a particular day in the residential school, and would connect it with a memory of the protagonist, thus, showing that despite whatever had happened in the day, Seepeetza is able to overcome it and look on the bright side when she engages herself in her past warm memories of her family. Thus, reiterating the point that no matter what the authorities take away, no matter how much punishment they inflict, in the end, the oppressed can survive anything with their sheer subversive strength and the memories of their families at heart. Therefore, it becomes clear that My Name is Seepeetza’ is not just an incredible story, which accounts the injustices done by residential schools to native children during the 1950s, but it is a source of inspiration to the readers to stay true to who they actually are even in the harshest of situations and how to fight the odds despite whatever brainwashing and punitive techniques are used against them. Work Cited Sterling, Shirley. My Name Is Seepeetza. New York: Groundwood Books, 2011. Print. Read More