Karan Victor Kumar 1/21/14

Journal #1:Deer Dancer Deer Dancer takes place in the middle of a cold winter. The story beings in a poorly lit bar during the coldest night of the year. They are also the only bar open during this time, considering the weather. It is written in a first-person point of view, were the narrator describes the bar as a tough place were people who carry guns, knifes, and overall outlaws tend to hang out and drink. It is later relieved that is bar in on a Native-American reservation, and the patrons of this bar are all part of the community, hence they have their own laws and rules they follow. It is implied that the bar is not the best condition. It is also later relived that the narrators brother went to law school and has white friends, and even claims to follow his own laws (which I assume are the laws of the outside world), which the narrator finds repulsive. This is a clear example of how the narrator and his fellow patrons feel about the white-man. Throughout the story, the bar is continually described as a lower class bar, where locals and misfits hangout. To me, this is a symbol of the Native-Americans in general and their struggle to survive with the cold winter as a reminder of the harsh and brutal realities of life. The bar represents reservations and the continual state of decay they are in. Another examples quoted from the book says every place shut down but not us which to me is a reference to many reservations dwindling in size and eventually disappearing all together. One this particular night, a women enters the bar, begins to dance, and eventually removes all of her clothing much to the dismay of the bar patron. One patrons wife even attempts to attack the women. To me, this is a symbol of betrayal. The woman represents the white man and their continually efforts to distract and dwindle the Native-American community; in the book the narrator is quoted as saying No one knew her, the stranger whose tribe we recognized is an example of the NativeAmericans giving a detailed account of their encounters with the white man. To Native-Americans, the white man is a follow human however they do not know which tribe they come from, hence why the women in the story looks familiar to the patrons and even go as far as claiming her to be from the Deer tribe. When the woman removes her clothes and the patrons are enchanted but her dancing, is a interpretation the white-man wooing the natives with their modern technology and friendly attire. In the end the women leaves and the patrons are still in the same shabby bar, left with their drinks and darkness. Overall I found the story to be quite informative in such a short amount of pages. The story tells of the harass and true struggles many of these natives have to face and an understanding of a bleak future, which many natives currently feel is the outlook of the entire Native-American race.