The Education of Little Tree Literary Elements

Autobiographical Fiction; Native American fiction

the Midwest, 1920s, during Prohibition

The narrator and the point of view are that of the author whose life forms the basis of the story told in the novel.

Reminiscence and fondness

Little Tree is the protagonist, and the missionaries who try to make him stay in an Indian Boarding School are the antagonists.

There is a conflict between the Native American communities and the Christian missionaries who are determined to force their youth to assimilate into the Euro-American culture.

Little Tree becomes a man shortly before the start of the Great Depression and lives with the teachings of his grandparents in his soul.

Granma's note shows that she was foreshadowing her own death when she wrote to Little Tree about his grandparents waiting for him.

Yhe missionaries are said to be trying to assimilate the Indian children, but this is actually an understatement; they did not want to merge the two cultures, but worked to wipe out the ancestral teachings of the Native Americans and teach only the culture of European Americans.

The author alludes to The Way, which is the key teaching of the Cherokee.

The imagery is predominantly nature based, as the author paints a picture for the readers of wide open landscapes where nature and man live in harmony.

It is a time of Prohibition yet the mountain folk are open about their moonshining.

There is a parallel between the message that Granpa gives Little Tree about returning in his next life, and the note that Granma leaves him in which she tells him that she and his grandfather will wait for him and return together to create an even better life than they had this time.

The Hollow is the place in which the Native American community live and also the term used to describe Little Tree's community members.

In the Cherokee tradition everything is nature is personified, having the same feelings, power, intentions and emotions as their human counterparts.