Moving Camp Too Far by Nila NorthSun - Essay Example

Moving Camp Too Far by Nila NorthSun The poem “Moving Camp Too Far" was written by Nila NorthSun. NorthSun is a Native American residing in India, and she has published three poetry works. Her poems are connected to her ancestors and ethnic challenges. “Moving Camp Too Far” is a nonfiction poem that reveals the Native Americans and the ancestors of the author. She did an incredible work of writing the poem in an easy way but with a hidden meaning. The poem has a significant impact on the way the author scrutinizes things in the present society. The author wrote the poem during the Indian Movements, and she narrates the way she is sad for losing her heritage. NorthSun reveals the life of her ancestors and she still lives it in a way; thus NorthSun feels ill-fated for things happening in her life. Although the Native Americans have lost their cultural heritage, traveling to powwows would be a way of maintaining their culture active. The poem attempts to reveal the way Native Americans have truly lost their cultural heritage, and the speaker’s fear is that her culture may be lost. Therefore, travelling to powwows would enable the speaker to maintain her heritage; thus, she quotes “I can travel to powwows’ (NorthSun Ln 16). A powwow is the place that the speaker could go to party and experience things that take place in the contemporary society. The speaker claims that in case she travels to this place, she could eat the meat of a buffalo in the tourist hotel. Therefore, “I can eat buffalo meat at the tourist burger” (NorthSun Ln 18-19) is the imagery that addresses the way her cultural heritage is significant. The word used in the first stanza “moving camp too far” (NorthSun Ln 1) reveals the way the author feels that her heritage will be lost. Thus, the narrator believes that Cultural Evolution, in an assimilation form is fateful but unavoidable. This is because in case the Native Americans will lose their cultural heritage, then their life would be seen in the distortion by the majority of cultural heritage of the White Americans. The speaker uses allusion to rewrite history, but with few instances of literary devices. The author starts her poem with an allusion “I can’t speak of many moons (NorthSun Ln 2-3). This allusion reveals the way the author admits her innocence of relating things to her ancestor’s cultural background. The orator never played the part in buffalo hunting and even performed ghost dance nor fought in the battle. However, the orator captures the sense of the reader in the midst of the poem where she quotes “I can eat buffalo meat, at the tourist burger stand” (NorthSun 18-19). This reveals the way the speaker begins to admit her innocence of those things that relate to her ancestor’s cultural background. Hence, the speaker is able to maintain her lost cultural heritage through other means even despite the changes and loss of her cultural heritage. Moreover, the speaker attempts to reveal the way modernity cannot limit her cultural establishment. This is because she has experience of things that her ancestors performed in spite of being unable to involve directly in ancestral activities. Thus, the speaker quotes “I can dance to Indian music, rock-n-roll hey-a-hey-o (NorthSun Ln 20-21) instead of dancing the “ghost dance” (NorthSun Ln 11). These allusions reveal the way the speaker is able to maintain her cultural background even though modernity has changed everything. Therefore, the reader may judge the speaker that she is innocent of Cultural Evolution. However, from the way she narrates the poem, the speaker is convinced that her cultural heritage is part of her innate composition. Therefore, it is not easy for the speaker to be inexperienced (Barnet, William and William 121). Additionally, when the speaker mention about the eagle, this could be an allusion towards the Native American themselves. The author quotes “I can see an eagle almost extinct” (NorthSun Ln 13-14); thus, the eagle is an allusion that reveals the way the culture of the Native Americans is disappearing. The allusion “slurpee plastic cups” (NorthSun Ln 15) reveal the way the eagle, which means Native Americans, is almost extinct because of pollution. The slurpee is an American Company that manufactures products such as plastic cups, basins and many other products. Therefore, the speaker equates the Native American with the extinction of eagle by pollution to reveal the way cultural heritage is lost. Thus, the traditional lifestyle will vanish because of the influences of modernity because of assimilation. The speaker wanted to clearly indicates a racist generic prejudice in the society by using eagle. This is because the eagle is used as a trademark of the products manufactured by Slurpee Company. The allusion used such as “but” in between the first and the second stanzas of the poem reveals some typecasts, which the speaker feels that do not literally characterize Indians. The speaker uses some literature styles in writing the poem such as imagery and rhyme. The speaker uses rhyming language in the fourth, last stanza, which is “rock-n-roll hey-a-hey-o” (NorthSun Ln 21). The structures of words take the reader back to music history when the rock-n-roll was first introduced in the music genre. The illusion “hey-a-hey-o” makes the reader think immediately of the ancestral tune used during the music genre (Pike and Ana 159). Other rhyming words are revealed where the speaker starts the sentences with the word “I can,” which starts from the midst of the poem to the end. This reveals the way the speaker is ready to defend and maintain the cultural heritage of her ancestors. The speaker also used some imagery to construct a mental image of comparing objects with other things, thus presenting a literary meaning of her work. For instance, the speaker uses the allusion eagle in her poem to represent the Native Americans. Moreover, the scene where she went to eat the buffalo meat is imagery that represents taste. The speaker uses satirical language or irony in her work in order to engage the reader in the poem. Irony is significant in literature because it captures the attention and the feelings of the reader; thus making the poem interesting. The poem is full of irony because it reveals the way the speaker regrets abandoning his cultural heritage. Satirically, the society where the speaker has lived throughout her entire life is the exact heritage that she wishes to liberate herself from. Throughout the entire poem, the speaker interweaves unique punctuation and uses juxtaposition rhythmical language. Thus, the speaker is able to convey the message of cultural erosion and the impact of modernity in shaping the attitudes and culture of the speaker. This is revealed in the end of the poem where the speaker uses an allusion, “I can & unfortunately, I do” (NorthSun Ln 22-24). This allusion aligns with the theme of her poem and reveals the way the speaker is aware of the impact of Cultural Evolution, but, unfortunately, she has nothing to do. Moreover, the speaker uses calm poetic language, and the noticeable accountable in the tone of her language catches the attention of the reader. This makes the reader to develop empathy towards the narrator. Therefore, one should be careful when reading the poem because there are unique ways through which the speaker was writing the poem. One can notice the position and the deliberate lack of standard punctuations throughout the poem. When taking a glance at the poem, one can realize that the way the speaker structures the poem without following the normal writing rules. For instance, the poem lacks proper punctuations such as lack of capitalization and the full stops at the end of the stanzas. The author’ witty use of language or dialect leaves the reader with the rhetoric questions of the importance of the poem. While the author decided not to capitalize letters throughout her poem, amusingly, she even did not capitalize her own name, hence wrote it, nila northSun. The author formats the sentences in a unique way throughout the poem by separating the sentences using indents in separating the second lines from the first half. This brings attention to the reader on the ways she structures her work. For instance, the allusion used such as I can’t speak of, I can’t tell of, I don’t know extra reveals the way the speaker has never become familiar of being part of the Indian culture. Therefore, the speaker attempt to bring a clear picture of the way she grew up as a Native American in the Indian territory without understanding some cultural practices especially the rituals practiced by Indians. This is clearly indicated where she quotes “moving camp on travois and the last great battle” (NorthSun Ln 4 and 6). Travois in the real sense means the frame that Indians uses in restraining horses, and it was mostly commonly practiced by the indigenous people. This reveals the struggle to understand the culture of Indians and the struggle of attempting to maintain her cultural heritage of her ancestors. In conclusion, the speaker wanted to bring the theme of cultural erosion and the way people have lost their cultural heritage because of modernity in the contemporary society. Therefore, she tries to narrate the ways some of them make attempt of restoring and maintaining the cultural heritage of their ancestors. The author employed varied use of literature styles in writing the poem such as imagery and rhyme. She used satirical language in her work in order to engage the reader in the poem. The speaker used calm poetic language and the noticeable guilty in the tone of her language as well as unique formatting of sentences in order to catch the attention of the reader. Work Cited Barnet, Sylvan, William Burto, and William E. Cain. Literature for Composition: Essays, Stories, Poems, and Plays. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print. Pike, David L, and Ana M. Acosta. Literature: A World of Writing: Stories, Poems, Plays, Essays. Boston: Longman, 2011. Print. NorthSun, Nila, Moving Camp Too Far. Albuquerque, NM: West End Press, 1997. Print. Read More