Even though this speech is a very short work, it contains as much emotion and meaning as a normal, full length short story. The main message that the reader gets when they read this is deep desperation and defeat of someone that was once considered strong by the people he lead and protected. When I read this in our literature books, I had the pre recorded voice read to me because to me, a speech, especially one like this, should be heard coming from someone else because that is how it was intended on being read to the listener. Even hearing it from some person hired by Glencoe Company to read it from a script was able to impart much feeling and emotion mostly because it would be hard not to read it without any emotion. I can not even imagine how moving it must have been to have heard it from Chief Joseph himself.
I do not think that this speech has or an show much similarity to the philosophies of Emerson and Thoreau. The main issue that I think that sets the two groups apart would be the fact that Emerson and Thoreau thought that one should be “Self-Reliant,” for Emerson, and Thoreau thought that if something is against a person’s morals, they should not participate in those rules. These two philosophies differ from Chief Joseph’s in this instance because he, as a leader, can’t be self-reliant. He has an entire tribe that he has to look out for and keep safe. In this instance, he had to make the decision to stop the suffering of his people by surrendering and giving in to the government’s orders, which would also be against Thoreau’s philosophy. On the other hand, it was the peaceful option so maybe Thoreau would have approved.
Joseph, Chief. "I Will Fight No More Forever" Glencoe Literature. By Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly Ann. Chin, and Jacqueline Jones. Royster. New York: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 533. Print.
No comments:
Post a Comment