Dancing into the New Year

A new year has begun and with it comes a fresh start. Life doesn't give people many so I don't plan on wasting it. This semester, my English class is starting to study films and native culture. I know almost nothing about both! I am a little intimidated with the film study part. Dances with Wolves is the first movie I've really started looking at critically. There hundreds of little details that producers spend years getting perfect so the audience subconsciously reacts to the scene. Poses like the Christ pose means sacrifice. In the film Dances with Wolves, John Dunbar rides his horse into an open battle field in order to end his life. He is giving up and sacrificing himself. Having his arms outstretched and head up is iconic now. I noticed this pose before but I never put much thought into it. If he wasn't in this pose the significance and his state of mind would be harder to read. It wouldn't have the same impact on people. The other pose that I never paid much attention to was when John Dunbar runs his hands through the wheat. It shows the audience that he is at peace. I subconsciously felt this but I never would have caught it. Subtle actions make people connect with the characters and make the movie that much better. I know I will learn a lot more than a few key poses but it's something to start with.

I'm not quite sure how studying native culture fits in with senior literature and composition with communication but it should still be interesting. I know almost nothing about native people and their culture. I can confidently explain the pilgrims in detail but Native Americans and other cultures like theirs have always been a mystery to me. I, like every little girl, watched and loved the movie Pocahontas but that doesn't count. I didn't learn about modern Native Americans last year in history. I studies how they live today on reservations. Most of them struggle with addiction to drugs and alcohol along with terrible poverty. Seeing the pictures of some Indian reservations was heartbreaking. Throughout history, they have been a minority. I can clearly see that even in today's society. Native Americans are given many scholarships to college to help them out of the poverty. People also believe that taking children off the reservation will help them lead a better life but it is incredibly hard to do. It also isn't right. Taking children away from their culture isn't right. It may give them a better chance at an addiction free future but it takes them away from their culture. Where a person comes from gives them a foundation for where they can go.