Analysis of the Res Sisters Play by Tomson Highway - Essay Example

number THE RES SISTERS The Res Sisters is a play by Tomson Highway and published by Baraa Emad on December 8, In this play, the author demonstrates the kind of life lived by some sisters in Wasaychigan Hill Indian Reserve. The author has managed to bring out a picture of the sisters living in hard conditions, in their previous places of residence, and finally decides to come back to the hills. In this work, am going to discuss how unity helped the sisters in overcoming the unfavorable social conditions in Wayschigan. In the play, we are told that in the region where the sisters reside, there were a lot of drunken men and women, who used to cause discomfort to the sisters. After getting drunk, they would walk around making noise and talking immoral while others were fighting each other. This is evident when Philomena and Pelajia complaints about this and saying that she wants to go to Toronto. They later overcome this by stopping the name callings, towards themselves, and considering one another for consolation. The social conditions in the hills seemed to be harder when Pelajia complaints about men snatching away their neighbors wives. She also complains of the women snatching their neighbors husbands and sleep with them. Those involved in this have shown disrespect and caused discomfort to others, including the sisters, in the hills. Pelajia says, " …..Andrew Starnblanket and his brother Mathew. Drunk. Again. Or sounded like…." She continues saying, "…. Fighting over some girl. Heard what sounded like a baseball bat landing on somebodys back. My lawn looks like the shit this morning" (Tomson 59). This condition has made the sisters resolve their differences and stay in peace since this is the only way to their resilience. The sisters have been staying in a state of joblessness. None of them is employed, and we even see them relying mostly on charity so that they can get some finances to better their lives. In the play, we see them being idle all the day and having nothing to do so as to improve their living conditions. This is evident when Pelajia says, " … I will tell him there will be more jobs because the people have paved more roads to drive to work on…" (Tomson 59). The sisters are living in poor housing conditions. There houses roofs are poor and in bad condition relatively their neighborhoods. Comparing to the other houses they saw in Toronto and Espanol, they live in poor living conditions, and thats why Pelajia is planning to leave the hills and go to Toronto. They are forced to repair the roofs frequently. In the process of doing the repair, Philomenas dress, tears away, leaving her thighs exposed and Pelajia finds this shameful, if someone from the neighborhood happens to see. They have to bring the ladder frequently so as to climb and repair their roofs. Despite all this, the sisters decide to come together, assist each other in repairing the roof so as to make their house look better. This has made them to be able to overcome this challenge. The economic conditions in this place have become difficult, with the value of the dollar depreciating day by day. They have too complained of Bingos getting smaller and smaller all the day. This has led to some economic disorder in the hills since the purchasing power of their money has been lowered. With the cash they have, they can only purchase some limited commodities, which cant satisfy their needs. Despite this, they have resolved to remain in unity and assist each others in their difficulties. This has been able to cover the picture of the hard economic times they have been going through. Emily shares with Philomena and Annie on how her husband came home, sometimes back, and started quarreling with her. She says the husband started calling her names and insulting her. The husband took an ax and was targeted to hit her. Seeing the dangerous situation, she was forced to leave her kids and go back to the hills. She even go ahead and swear not to go back to her husbands place. After sharing this with other sisters, they console her and try to remove the pain from her. This has made her to heal the wounds of her previous life events. This is evident when she said, " ... use my brains, I used them alright… The night he came to me with an ax…." (Tomson 51). The sisters have been in constant quarrels with one another and name callings as well. This is evident in the play, when Emily calls Philomena some names. Philomena becomes angry and decides to fight Emily, Emily too decides to fight back at Philomena. This ended up creating a fighting scene and Pelaji comes in stop the fight. Pelajia admits that they have some problems, and thats what causing the fight. Pelajia says, " … Alright, alright, alright, it is obvious we have some problems here…." (Thomson 52). With the intervention of Pelaji, the sisters solved their differences and decided to live in harmony. Through this, their social conditions were improved, and they move together in improving their lives. The sisters were faced with the problem of poor roads leading to their homes. This deteriorated the social life of the neighborhoods, including the sisters. This is evident when Pelaji says, " … Ill tell him we will build paved roads all over the reserve with our prize money. Ill tell him the people will stop drinking themselves to death because they will have paved roads" (Tomson 59). Due to the problem of poor roads, the sisters have decided to come together and face the Administration around so as to strategize on how they can repair them. Due to this, the sisters have been able to come together in solidarity and improve their roads. In conclusion, we can say that the author has been able to demonstrate the resiliency of the sisters living in the hills. The author has managed to show that despite the hard social conditions on the reserve, the sisters have learned the true meaning of sisterhood in residing their differences, uniting and working together towards a common goal. Work cited Thomson Highway. The Res Sisters. Baraa Emad Publishers. 2014 Read More