Genre
Fiction
Setting and Context
Most books are set in Dakota in the 19th century when Americans were discriminating against Indians.
Narrator and Point of View
First-person narration from the point of view of Zitkala-sa.
Tone and Mood
Foreboding and romantic.
Protagonist and Antagonist
Zitkala-sa is the protagonist while white settlers are the antagonists.
Major Conflict
The work is a story about Zitkala-sa becoming a teacher in an Indian school after the completion of her college studies. She is picked on by the school director and the conditions in that school make her grow weary. However, she offers to go back home to recruit American Indians to the school. She resigns her position after finding out about the injustices the white settlers committed against her people.
Climax
The climax of the book, The Trial path is when the grandfather is made to ride on a wild pony through the village with a condition that if he falls, he will be murdered.
Foreshadowing
N/A
Understatement
Zitkala-sa acting like her mother getting angry about her going back to study does not bother her while she spends every day wishing she would tell her about her achievements and eventually writes to her.
Allusions
The Iktomi stories among other legend stories have been alluded to in the book, Impression of an Indian childhood when Zitkala-sa pleads with the elders to narrate the stories to her. “Ask them to tell an Iktomi story, mother.”
Imagery
The pale-faced woman showed them a picture of the king of evil spirits who would torture those who did not obey the instructions. Zitkala-sa described it like this, “I looked in horror upon the strong claws that grew out of his fur-covered fingers. His feet were like his hands. Trailing at his heels was a scaly tail tipped with a serpent’s open jaws. His face was a patchwork: he had bearded cheeks, like some I had seen palefaces wear; his nose was an eagle’s bill, and his sharp-pointed ears were pricked up like those of a sly fox.” The image of that devil made them scared to the core in the book, The School Days of an Indian girl.
Paradox
N/A
Parallelism
The way her mother spread bunches of colored beads on a mat is parallel to an artist arranging paints on his pallet bead.
Metonymy and Synecdoche
The name iron horse has been used to refer to a train.
Personification
In the legend stories, the animals have been given the abilities to talk, cook and even dress like humans as seen in the story of Iktomi and the duck.
