The Red Girl’s Reasoning

By Pauline Johnson
By Charlotte Cotter
Story:
This story is about the cultural differences regarding marriage between Native Indians and
Americans. A newlywed couple Christine, a Native American Indian, and Charlie, a white
American experience conflict between their marriage. The main problem is that Charlie
doesn't think that they are legally married because they didn’t have the normal american
customs and got married through native traditions. As he argues and contemplates the
legality of their marriage his wife leaves him because he doesn’t respect her native
customs, says she embarrassed him in front of his friends, and he disrespects her family
and ancestors by assuming they all weren’t technically married.
Cultural Background:

The Author of this story was originally from the Six Nations Reserve near Brantford,
Ontario. Her father was a Mohawk chief and her mother was an American novelist. She
eventually changed her name to Tekahionwake (her grandfather's name), but published all
her story’s under the name Pauline Johnson. She was part of the Haudenosaunee tribe and
some of their cultural values include sharing labor, maintaining duty to their families,
being respectful and thankful to nature, and to protect the earth and the culture for the
future generations.
Essential Question:

In this story Pauline Johnson, a Native American writer addresses the historical challenges
faced by their communities by taking areas of cultural disagreement between Native
American Indians and Americans. Johnson turns it into a story outlining the social
injustices and judgment Natives face in society in the past and now. This story outlines the
disagreements between the legal matters of marriage of American cultures and Native
cultures.
Christine:
- “ Personally she looked much the same as her sisters, all Canada through, who are the
offspring of red and white parentage-- olive-complexioned, gray-eyed, black-haired,
with a figure slight and delicate, and the wistful, unfathomable expression in her whole
face that turns one so heartsick as they glance at the young Indians of today”(Johnson).
- “Do you mean to tell me, Charlie- you who have studied my race and their laws for
years- do you mean to tell me that, because there was no priest and no magistrate, my
mother was not married? Do you mean to say that all my forefathers, for hundreds of
years back, have been illegally born? If so, you blacken my ancestry beyond-beyond-
beyond all reason”(Johnson).

Indirect characterization tells the reader something about the character by having other people
or things tell us more about the character and what they think of her or how she acts, looks,
and feels. In this case we can tell Charlie likes Christine because she is delicate and pretty.
Charlie:
- - “It was a happy, fair face, good to look at, with a certain ripple of dimples somewhere
about the mouth, and eyes that laughed out the very sunniness of their owners soul. Their
was not a severe nor yet a weak line anywhere. He was a well-meaning young fellow,
happily dispositioned, and a great favorite with the tribe at Robinsons Post”(Johnson).
- “Yes, disgraced; you have literally declared to the whole city that your father, and mother
were never married, and that you are the child of— what shall we call i— love? Certainly
not legality”(Johnson).

Indirect characterization in this story tells us characteristics in this character that he might not
give us directly. We can tell by what other people have said or thought about him that he is a
pretty good looking guy, but has some anger issues and an unsteady relationship with himself
and beliefs.
Conflicts:

The main type of conflict that’s present in this story is Man vs. Man. The conflict in the Red Girl's
Reasoning is the cultural differences between Native American Indian marriage and American
marriage. The couple, Christine and Charlie argue about the legality of their marriage and the
marriages of Christine's parents and ancestors based on the way they got married without a priest.
Charlie comes from customs like having a priest to officiate your wedding, saying wedding vows,
getting married in a church and other catholic customs. While his wife comes from little customs, not
having a fancy wedding, keeping is short, not having a priest, and not getting married in a church.
Symbolism:
Symbols in the text:
- Marriage
- Family

Marriage symbolizes the union of two hearts and it's a symbol of strength because you vow to
have someone present and their by your side for the rest of your lives. Family symbolizes
having people you love support you and to love you through the good and the bad times.

The symbolism in the text contributes to my overall understanding of the story and culture
because the key moments in this story revolve around the marriage of Christine and Charlie,
and her families culture.
Theme Throughout the Story:

The theme throughout the story is, if you can't always respect and value your partners life
views no matter what than your not meant to be. In the beginning of this story Charlie was
respectful and valued Christine's cultural values and accepted her for them. But towards
the middle and end of the story he judged and disrespected her values and that’s the reason
she left. She didn’t want to be in a relationship with someone who dishonored her and her
families views. The development of the theme contributes to my understanding of the
essential question because it helps me focus on the important details and shows me what I
need to look for in the text to answer the question.
Final Thoughts:

Overall I thought the story The Red Girl's Reasoning was good because of the way it was
written and told by a Native American women. I thought it explained the ways in which
people used to think of natives and stereotype their culture. Johnson constantly weaved
throughout the story how Native Americans were treated with social discrimination due to
their different culture ways, and showed how Americans reacted negatively towards it.
Thinking their cultural ways were the only right way of doing things and that different things
were seen as sceptical, untrustworthy and weird.
Works Cited:

Red Girl's Reasoning PDF:

Johnson, P. (n.d.). A red girl’s reasoning. Chrome.

https://canlit.ca/wp-content/uploads/2016/02/red_girls_reasoning.pdf