PART 3!!

The novel seems to be moving fairly quickly now and there is a lot of new information that develops.  When Bromden talks to McMurphy by accident, he ends up revealing a lot of information about his past.  I think that McMurphy sparked a memory of his father when he offered him the gum.  When he is talking he discusses much about his childhood and how the Native community he lived in, and how people came to talk to his father about buying the land.  He also refers to the Combine again, and how his people were treated poorly, and the ones who wanted to purchase the land were making fun of the places they lived in, basically stating they weren’t fit to be occupied.  Although a valid point was made that their houses were cooler than the people that lived in “normal houses”, so instead of judging one culture’s way of life, it should have been embraced for their intelligence. 

            

            I wish I could retract a statement that I made at the beginning of the study of this novel.  I said that I thought that the Native-American population should be cut off from their government benefits.  I also stated that they didn’t deserve it and that they needed to get over what had happened in the past.  This passage in the novel has definitely given me a different perspective on the Native-American society.  Bromden’s statements about what was going on in that time really opened my eyes as to how they may have felt during that time, as well as today.  I was selfish, and didn’t really consider how people may have had their entire lives turned upside down, all because of the “white man’s” wish to expand to aid their population growth, completely disregarding another culture’s way of life.  I didn’t even think that Native-Americans have constantly had to change how they have been living for many, many years, and the impact that it has had on them.

          

             I am glad that the government still does support the Native-Americans such as giving them benefits, as well as respecting their hunting permits, and giving them their Native Status card to further make their lives a bit easier.  I think that it’s great that they still try and protect their culture, although there has already been an enormous change compared to how everything used to be.  The only thing that I disagree with is when people abuse these benefits that are given to them.  I think that if they are used in the ways that they are intended that it is a wonderful thing. I disagree when people take advantage of the fact that extra bonuses are given to them to help them.  It does slightly anger me when people who aren’t Native-American may have to work extra hard to get where they want to be, without extra assistance ever even being an option for them.  Other than that I hope in the years to come, that the Native civilization continues to be preserved, and does not become a memory of what it used to be.