What do you consider is the purpose of Chapter 1?

Wagamese opens Indian Horse by establishes a framing device, a narrative technique in which a story is surrounded by a secondary narrative, creating a story within a story. The surrounding story is Saul’s adult life and his attempt to recover from alcoholism by telling the story of his own life; the primary plot of the novel, Saul growing from a boy into a man, is the story Saul tells.

The first chapter of Indian Horse is focused on adult Saul, and introduces several of his major conflicts. He is recovering from alcoholism, although his commitment to overcoming his addiction is rooted only in his desire to get out of the Centre and move on with his life. At the same time, he is grieving a lost past, a grief he shares with his generation, the first Ojibway children born into a world where white settlers had already destroyed the possibility of living an unthreatened traditional life. Finally, Saul’s “greatest sorrow” is the loss of his ability to see beyond the boundaries of the physical world. By introducing all these conflicts early on, Wagamese foreshadows the impact that Saul’s turbulent childhood will have on his adulthood.