An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son - Book Report/Review Example

For Joshua: An Ojibway Father Teaches His Son ‘For Joshua’ published in 2003, is a story that culminates as a letter of care and concern that Richard Wagamese- the author, writes for his child Joshua, as a result of his social undoing’s that he fears may ruin his role as a paternal parent. His main hope is that through this approach he will teach his son important life lessons by also telling a story of his childhood to adulthood transition (Obijway man). One would wonder, what was Richard Wagamese’s particular intent for this particular book to his target audience? What was the most appropriate message he was trying to identifying with or cut across to his intended audience? Well the answer to a larger extent lies with the avid reader and how he interprets themes embedded in the chapters. The major theme engraved in the book would be self-actualization and the various steps and ways to achieve this particular life virtue. These vital steps can become categorized as; vision realization, proper life choices, embracing cultural values positively, fighting of alcoholism as a symbol of unnecessary and destructive life social vices and its importance, as well as how to overcome life challenges. The major theme easily noted in this book is Self-actualization. What is self-actualization and what role does it play in one’s personal life? According to Maslow self-actualization, concept is borne out of individual growth and fulfillment towards obtainment of highest needs that play an important role in the respective individual life. It stands for self-growth potential to attain or reach the “ideal self” in order for one to function to the best of his or her ability. Wagamese story tells his journey from a difficult childhood to a successful career in journalism in his adulthood to earn him the title “Ojibway man” oozes the determination and dire need for self-identity which in other words is self-actualization (Wagamese, 2011). It can be true to say that one’s identity is better identified with the internal moral satisfaction and a sense of belonging as opposed to the outside appearances that the social setting and status show like the way of dressing and various defined lifestyles in general. This particular internal based self-identity is a process that culminates from childhood to adulthood that eventually results to holistic individuality or to simply a whole self-state. This is portrayed by Wagamese when he embarks on visual vision quest to get his act and life together before teaching his son how to successfully make a life journey despite of the societal views and other obstacles that always act as barriers. He writes to his son Joshua when he is ailed with alcohol addiction problem, “I was a drunk and never faced the truth about myself” this shows concern and regret of how alcohol was a negative influence in his life even as a father (Wagamese, 2011). His drinking was only a cover up for his self-destruction self-hatred behavior due to lack of self-identity. The letter to his son shows his willingness to change because he realized he had an obligation to positively impact his son to adopt a sense of direction towards self-fulfillment other than ending up like a drunk which is mere excuse for people who fail to reach their potential in life. The story he tells to the son contain various concepts and ideologies he adopted and enacted in his life’s journey so as to acquire self-fulfillment and success attainment to realize self-actualization. Vision realization is equally an important factor in achieving one’s objective and goals in life. Vision is the ability to visually perceive a dream of future successes that accompany that particular dream. It is very vital as a basic fundamental tool for success in various capacities and fields. A vision gives a clear picture of how ones success should look like if he or she desires to pursue a dream. Wagamese sat on a hill facing the Rocky Mountains for four days and formulated a vision quest that led him to properly define the concepts and challenges that illustrated his journey towards self-actualization (Wagamese, 2011). The hill Wagamese sat on represents the current pedestal that life offers to an individual to trigger a potential vision or obtain a vision scope to the next life phase this might be financial or social situations. Rocky Mountains represents the journey that the vision takes one through to achieve a dream, rocky and mountains as two different terms are used to symbolize the obstacles and challenges one faces on the way before achieving success. This was a clever way for Wagamese to educate his son while telling him a story of how to have a vision and purpose in life regardless of the social setting that appears to be less favorable for self-growth. Making proper life choices is an advantage that results to positive outcome in life. A proper life choice can be related to one’s career, family, lifestyle or education amongst other choices one makes in different phases in one’s life. A major life choice or decision is usually affected by a series of life outcomes that result from small choices one makes in his or her life journey. These series of life choices can be said to be experience because it combines both positive life choices and negative life choices. Experience gives one the wisdom to make a proper choice by discerning the negative and adopting the positive. As a concerned father with vast experience through his journey to adulthood Richard is keen to tell his son that “the journey is the teaching” (Wagamese, 2011). Life choices should not be made hastily or just appear as a mere means of saving one form a difficult circumstance it should be made carefully considering ones experience in his life journey. Growing up, Wagamese got raised up through foster homes and parents. This was not easy for his emotional nourishment and growing up because it was rather difficult for him to establish a proper self-identity, this is seen where he says “no idea where he belonged in the world Embracing cultural ties positively seem to play a big role in one’s emotional development more than physical development. This particular analogy appears to affect minority in a majority societal setting or land trying to seamlessly fit in with the new societal social prescriptions and social platform. Richard’s early life appeared to have been affected along segregation and racial lines because of his different culture, historical and social context. He got arrested quite a few times on baseless accusations that hinted racial attitudes by the Canadian police (Wagamese, 2011). Wagenese goes on to question why their people be treated differently yet they are also natives to the land like all other citizens, he believed that all the aboriginal people were custodians and ecologists hence they should be embraced and treated with respect and their cultural values upheld. Originality goes hand in hand with culture and values because it is from these two that one develops an early sense of belonging that will build base to further development. Wagamese states that his journey to self-actualization and fulfillment is not on the external influences that he has encountered in his life but on the fact that he embraced his Indian originality. Fighting alcoholism is a problem or stigma that is related to over consumption of alcohol. It is a poor practice that is associated with binge drinking. Many individuals turn to alcohol to cover their life insufficiencies or simply run away from their problems. Alcohol makes one to forget the real issues and induces a state of happiness, which makes one to adopt an apparent “don’t care” attitude. A large number of people from the Aboriginal community that the author comes from seem to suffer from the stigma associated with alcoholism. Due to the external and internal pressure they face as a community in finding their place in the society while maintaining their identity, they have resolved to binge drinking. Alcohol acts as a source of comfort due to the loneliness and unworthiness state of mind. Wagamese is affected by the alcohol addiction problem which makes him estranged from his son who is at the age of six when Wagamese is writing the book. The book is inspirational especially to those who are struggling with alcoholic problems the authors addiction story may act as a mindset change that may result to positive outcomes in my opinion. Even though we are given a notion that Wagamese has been struggling with his addiction or whether his problem came to an end eventually or not it is the effort to fight this problem that will matter to the son when he is of age to understand fully the letter written to him by his beloved father. Wagamese’s fight with alcoholism is symbolic as it can be viewed as finding light at the end of the tunnel for his self-identity crisis and individual wholesomeness. A virtue that a troubled community or an individual as one can subscribe to and experience change that will impact positively and rub all the atrocities of the past. After all what happens in the past stays in the past, what happens in the present is what matters. Overcoming challenges is a very vital step in life. Challenges are just but a must in ones journey to success and self-actualization. Challenges act as obstacles that must be overcome so as to achieve something of greater purpose. It is a deviation from one’s major purpose and goal that can be rectified, done away with and mended to overcome the obstacle and move on with the ultimate journey. Life choices and values determine how one overcomes challenges. Wagamese decides to fight for his son trust and affection through his fighting with alcohol addiction, his life story in general from being in various foster homes to his career success in journalism shows the extent of how he overcame challenges and achieved his desire of journalism as a career. Wagamese stresses to his son on the importance of overcoming internal emotional challenges other than the physical challenges because their repercussion are more severe on one’s life than the external physical ones for instance his alcohol addiction was related to his sense on loneliness and self-hatred. The best way for overcoming a challenge is to have a self-identity because then one stands for something and not for anything. Wagamese, sometime in his life might have succumbed to one of these challenges due his unstable emotional nourishment, but after envisioning his child’s future and his as well he embarked on fighting the challenge of alcohol addiction because he finally realized alcoholism was just but a an obstacle that was hindering his life’s happiness. Conclusion Richard Wagamese’s aim was to educate his son Joshua on the importance of self-actualization, self-identity, aboriginal cultural values, having a vision in life and importance of overcoming challenges. He also set out to portray and protect his aboriginal culture which is a native educative culture and society one that upholds social platform that cares for one another. Richard would have simply given up because of his rough and difficult childhood that saw him hop from one foster home to another with no self-identity and sense of belonging but instead he rose to the occasion and conquered the external challenges to become a renowned journalist in Canada. Wagamese blamed misdoings of the white man on his troubles but he came to understand that the problem was within him and he had to do something and resolve it. His fight with alcohol highlights his strong determination to overcome internal challenges as he strives to find the ultimate self-identity. I can attest to this as a selfless gesture that shows character that is out to do well to the coming generation mostly from the Aboriginal society and the community at large if not on a global scale. Wagamese’s book ends up to provide valuable life lessons to the reader by sharing his touching tale on the problems he has had to face and live with in his life. Reference Read More