Keeper and Me Essay

NBE3U

23 Dec, 2012

There are so many people who want to belong and be a part of something but it all begins with relationships. According to the book, Keeper N’ Me by Richard Wagamese Garnet (the main character) never really found a place of belonging with anyone around him. Garnet did not really have a good relationship with his many foster parents and as a result was a downside for him. Eventually he basically lived out in the streets and his identity rapidly changes. When Garnet arrives at the reservation, his family is thrilled to see him again. He had many struggles with relationships starting from foster homes, the streets and white dog but these relationships helped him to actually fit in and belong. In this story Garnet gets taught a lot about tradition and gets guidance from Keeper. Tradition means the handing down of beliefs and customs from generation to generation. Passing on tradition is very important for the Ojibway culture because they do not want to lose their traditions. In Richard Wagamese’s, Keeper N’ Me, we see how tradition shapes identity with religious practices and spiritual identity and we see that through symbols. Secondly, we see cultural practices and identity through internal conflict. Thirdly we see values regarding to the environment and ways of seeing the environment through setting.

The Ojibway people take their religious practices very seriously and are very dedicated to their beliefs. They see their culture slowly moving to the white society and for this reason very protecting. This makes a smaller amount of new Objibway Indians to get involved in the religious practices. The new Indians that are entered into this new culture and are guided by their elders and tradition is passed down to keep their culture alive. In the beginning of the book Garnet did not have any culture or identity. “I didn’t remember a thing about my early life and when I disappeared alone into the foster homes I disappeared completely from the Indian...