1.

In the short story,”Growing up as a native”, written by Carol Geedes, the conflict that the
story revolves around is men vs environment, specifically men vs society. The conflict starts
out when the narrator was in her early childhood years,living in the wilds of Yukon
surrounded by a tightly knitted Tlingit First nation community. The Tlingit community
encountered a bulldozer constructing a highway for the defence of a supposedly Japanese
invasion, which subsequently lead to “the beginning of the end of the Teslin Tlingit people’s
way of live…the speed and force of which the Alaska highway was rammed through the
wilderness caused the tremendous upheaval for the Yukon people''(pg.47,Geedes). The
bulldozer was a symbol for the beginning of the intrusion of the western culture. Later in life,
the narrator moved to a predominantly white high school,where she experienced the clash of
culture differences and discrimination. For example, she “[wasn’t] allowed to join anything
the white kids started” , being the object of humiliation “because of [her] secondhand clothes
and moose meat sandwiches”, “constantly being rejected”, and “ the prevailing attitude [of]
Indians being stupid”. Because of the rejection she faced, she was negatively influenced by
the tough crowd and was “more likely to be leaning against the school smoking cigarettes
than joining in”(pg.50, Geedes), which in turn becomes a cycle of affirming her identity of
being inferior. Things faced a downward point when the principal informed her parents that
she should drop out of school at grade 9, so she started working menial jobs. The
experience in her high school was greatly detrimental to her self identity,undermining her
potential , and affirmation to her culture and identity as a Native American. Things begin to
resolve when she discovered her true potential through a friend showing her reading list for
university and found that the books she read aligned with the reading list.In turn, she applied
to a university for English art and philosophy major, which in exaltation, succeeded despite
having a substandard of gr.9 level of education, thus the journey of self and cultural
acceptance and pride begin, as she learned that she is no inferior than people from the
western culture. The conflict contributed to the theme of self acceptance despite people’s
opinion, the theme of colonialism,reader’s empathy, acceptance and understanding for the
difficulties of the first nation people, and also made her into an advocate of indigenous
culture, rights,and pride. (She probably discovered the bright side of her culture in her
university era through the deepening understanding of western culture and comparison)

2.The suspense in the short story was built first in the form of foreshadowing, introducing the
main conflict and theme of the story in pg.47, when a men in the narrator’s community
encountered a bulldozer while hunting in the bush, symbolising the first encounter between
indigenous and western culture, from that point on,the western culture caused an irrevocable
upheaval in the way of live of the Tlingit community, mirroring the event of when Christopher
Columbus arrived in the land of America. The suspense of the story is heightened when the
narrator and her community move to Whitehorse, presumably controlled by the influence of
western culture. This is the juncture where she encountered the discrimination ingrained in
the western society. The narrator later introduced us to the dilemma event in her school,in
which she was torn between reading aloud the book as her teacher ordered her to or not,
confirming the values of her culture as her teacher ordered her to read aloud to shame her
older cousin’s inability to read(Page 49).The event is a symbolism of the conflict of
indigenous people of either confirming, and betraying values of her native culture for the
values of the western culture which she was forced to assimilate in, or the values of her
native culture in which she will receive punishment,rejection, and humiliation of. In the end,
despite her teacher “yelled at [her] to read” and “smashed her pointing stick on the desk to
frighten [her]”(pg.49). In the end, the teacher told her she was disgusted by her action, then
dismissed her from school, and she walked away with “tremendous confusion on top with
humiliation”. The theme and climax was reinforced when the narrator entered a
predominantly white high school,in which she was welcomed with furthermore discrimination,
ostracisation and bullied by the white kids, later even dismissed from school by grade9 from
the principal because of the stigma that indigenous people are inherently inferior in terms of
intellectual capabilities. At the end of the story, the narrator discovers she has the potential
of becoming a university student , which the final suspension lies in the mystery of whether
or not she could successfully apply to the university, and she did.

3.The ending of the short story ended in a delightful and hopeful tone as the main
character’s conflicts were resolved, the state of turmoil of the native people has been slowly
receding, renewed interest in cultural tradition, and “a small glimmer of hope that [more
native people] will overcome the obstacle that tripped [them] up ever since sharing the
land”(pg.51).Although the author said, “[A]s some say [indigenous] culture are going through
the renaissance period”(pg.51), the author also addressed that the discriminatory and land
claim issues against the native people hasn’t ceased yet.As a non native reader reading the
short story, it made me rethink my whole perspective on the indigenous issue. The sentence
“Too many non-native people have refused to try to understand the issues behind our land
claims. They make complacent pronouncements such as "Go back to your bows and arrows
and fish with
spears if you want aboriginal rights. If not, give it up and assimilate into white Canadian
culture."(page 51) The sentence caught my attention in particular since I don’t understand
why the indigenous people are so fixated in reviving their culture. Why can’t they assimilate
with the western way of living? It’s all in the past and I don’t understand why they mind
sharing the land with western culture. Land is not a property to someone in the first place to
begin with.The short story provoked my curiosity in understanding the whole picture. Also
the sentence at the end,”especially knowing your place in your nation” puzzled me, as I don’t
quite understand the importance of it. For me, identity shouldn’t only be overly fixated in your
nation or culture.There is one trait I discovered about aboriginal people through the short
story is that many of their identity is center around their ethnicity, which for me is also
confusing because I think growing up surrounded in North America culture would make them
more culturally “American” than “aboriginal”

4.The timeline of the story is around ~1940-1965, setting place in Canada. The overall tone
of the short story is ponderous with the end ending in a hopeful note. The story starts out
with the narrator reminiscing about her early childhood and home. She didn’t remember
many details about it,but the feeling of acceptance and security was the first thing when she
thought of her home. The introduction of the story form a bright contrast in tone with the
story that the conflict later revolves in. The plot of the short story consists of a logical
arrangement sequence of events for the readers to follow through and feel stronger
emotional connection to the character: