The Rez Sisters
The play The Rez Sisters is written by one of Canada's most celebrated playwrights, Tomson Highway. Highway was born in 1951 in northwestern Manitoba. He went on to study at the University of Manitoba and graduated from the University of Western Ontario, with honors in Music and English. Native Literature is inspired by "contemporary social problems facing native Canadians today; alcohol and drug abuse, suicide, wife battering, family violence, the racism of the justice system, loneliness, rejection, youth awareness, as well as modern-day environmental issues."(P. 172 Native Literature in Canada.) Highway once said, "We grew up with myths. They're the core of our identity as people."(P. 172 Native Literature in Canada.) I am going to focus on the image and identity of Native people as seen through the play The Rez Sisters.Identity is "how you view yourself and your life." (p. 12 Knots in a String.) Your identity helps you determine where you think you fit in, in your life. It is "a rich complexity of images, ideas and associations."(p. 12 Knots in a String.) It is given that as we go through our lives and encounter different experiences our identity of yourselves and where we belong may change. As t
After reading this wonderfully written play I do believe that our culture plays a very important role in how we as people form our identity and determines where we feel we belong. Nanabush had a great deal to do with the women keeping their current identities and since of belonging. I feel that if we believe in a spirit and surrender or lives to them they will take care of us just as Nanabush did in this play. During the play we learn that the Rez Sisters make life bearable on the reserve by playing bingo. From this we learn about their lives and dreams. We learn what they want individually in life, and where they would go and what they would do if they had the opportunity. The play gives the reader in sight to what each of the woman want. Marie-Adele is a 39-year-old woman who says if she had the money she would, "Buy an island." (P. 36 The Rez Sisters) I fell she wants this because she wants to escape from everybody, the reserve and from the regular population. Veronique is the mother of one of the other characters in the play, Zahaboonigan, who is mentally disabled. Veronique wants to buy a stove and cook for everybody on the reserve. She wants to take care of her own, the younger generation and maybe give them a better chance at life. As the play continues the seven women, Pelajia, Philomena, Marie-Adele, Annie, Emily, Veronique and Zhaboonigan confirm that the biggest bingo in the world is coming to Toronto. All of them have no extra money to get there so they all band together and do anything they are skilled at to raise the funds. They all work very hard and raise the money to get all seven of them to Toronto to join in the biggest bingo in the world. They load up a van they borrowed and head off to the big city. his happens we may gain or relinquish new values and from this identity and image our influenced. "A bad self-image and low self-esteem may form part of identity...but often the cause is not a loss of identity itself so much as a loss of belonging." Social ps
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Approximate Word count = 1355
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)
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