I am going to talk about Maria Campbell's writing of "Jacob".... i really liked this piece although i found it hard to follow at time becuase of the language (dey for they and preeses for priests, etc). I found that after i read it again a second time using the notes i took in the margins i was fine and understood it better. I really liked how it talked about the oppression of their people by the 'white man', and how that oppression hs been passed down by story telling, i know this is off topic but i just watched lumumba and it the same deal, they pass on their history to thier legacy (their children) through stories.

I haven't read very much Native Literature in highschool or college, but I feel like "Jacob" would be close to the epitome of Native Literature. I thought throughout the poem Campbell especially tried to communicate the theme of tradition, family and values. It also gave the reader an idea of the life Natives had/have. "Sometime we even dance dah membering" and "We should never foget dem ole peoples." It was sad when the oppression of schools came up; it gave you a bit of knowledge about the hardships they faced as a culture. It was hard to follow at certain points because I didn't have any background information on Natives, etc., but I got the general idea. More importantly, I enjoyed how their history and culture was weaved into the story and character of Jacob.

I actually sort of had a different experience reading Jacob. I enjoyed it because of the way language was used. I think it's a lot like poetry, and if you hear it out loud it makes a lot more sense. I kind of read it out loud to myself and it was cool because it gives the effect of storytelling, as if you're hearing it firsthand, and I think that was the effect Campbell was going for. I agree with Kari though, the way schools stripped the natives of their identities in a way which they can never recover was pretty sad. Back to what I was saying before though, I really liked the story telling format that Campbell uses. It was fun to read.

"Jacob" was intriguing to me because I first started to read it and immediately realized that the wording was different. I thought it was interesting that it was actually written the way it was probably told in oral traditions. It almost makes this piece more authentic because it was not stripped of the language, I mean instead of writing "grandmudder" it could have been changed to "grandmother," but the effect of the piece would not be the same. The first time I read "Jacob" I had a very hard time understanding it. The language ("..my granmudder..page 844) was a bit hard for me to understand. The second time I read it outloud because looking at some of the words, I didn't know what they were, but when I read it outloud, it made a lot more sense. Reading it outloud, I almost felt as if I was telling this as a story to a bunch of people; I felt as if I was part of the oral tradition. Also like Lauren, when I read it with my notes I understood better, and enjoyed it. When I read it outloud, I got a greater sense of the storytelling aspect. I appreciated it even more because when I read it, I almost got an accent from the language and wording, which was kind of funny. I really enjoyed this piece because I got a great sense of what the native americans went through and even got a sense of their culture from this piece and the approach taken in it. I really liked reading it, and everytime I go over it I read it outloud because I feel like it was the way it was supposed to be presented.

I would have to say that the poem "Jacob" by Maria Campbell impacted me the most out of the Native writings we have read in class. Like some of the other students, I was a bit confused by the language and form in whcih Campbell chose to write the poem. I thought however, that writing in this way was the most effective element of this poem. While I was reading "Jacob", I could almost hear a native reading it to me. The way in which this was written gave a very good visual picture of what experiences these people had gone through. I liked the fact that this story was told in an upfront almost simplistic way. The narrator told their story how it was and that made it seem very real. I had known some of what the settlers had done to the natives once they had moved in on the native's land, but this poem went into greater detail about the specifics of what happened to the native people. I also liked how the point kept getting brought up about how the white people changed the natives real names, and if it wasn't for that, the natives would still have ALL of their stories to tell and pass down to younger and future generations.

I also have not read anything else by native american writers. The story that caught my eye the most was "Jacob" by Maria Campbell. What I realized first was that the wording was very different than I have ever seen. The spelling of "granfawder" and "granmudder" are really unique but seem to fit right with this type of writing. I really liked this piece because I felt that I got a good sense of what native american writing sounds like and learned a little bit about their culture.

I also enjoyed reading "Jacob" by Maria Campbell. Before taking this course I had not read anything written by a Native American writer, for a class or otherwise. I've been thinking a lot lately about Canadian identity and the hisotry of the Metis people. After reading "Jacob" and the introduction, I feel I may have a better understanding of this writing if I knew more about the Northwest Rebellion. One passage that stands out to me reads "My grandfawder his name was Kannap/ but dah whitemans dey call him Jim Boy." This is a significant example of how native people loosing their identity, both their name and the land. Also, the speaker writes "I tink dats dah reason why we have suhc a hard time/us peoples./Our roots dey gets broken so many times." I think here the word "roots" is referring to everything that makes up one's identity, including family, culture,and homeland.

Just a side note, after preparing my final essay, I have looked in great detail at native literature and can conclude that the natives are a huge part of the Canadian Identity. The literature appears with all different types of approaches and different emotions, at different time periods, etc. and they still all portray similar issues. I would go into more detail but I don't want to give away the content of my final essay...

Out of these four stories two stood out to me as very dissimilar in form and language, but alike in content and message. These two were Thomas King’s “Coyote Columbus Story” and Campbell’s “Jacob.” Having read King’s book Green Grass Running Water for English 182 I have a great respect for his dynamic storytelling ability and this short story is no exception. King’s Coyote has become one of my favorite comedic characters in literature as even when speaking about the horrific native genocide he can lighten the mood by saying, ‘What a very sad story, says Coyote. Poor old Coyote didn’t have anyone to play ball with.” This is an example of why King’s stories are so entertaining and powerful at the same time as he is able to get the message across clearly without being to assertive or offensive to his audience. As for Campbell’s story I felt that her style was much more direct; however the conversational manner in which it was written makes her story feel very authentic. The words used and the careful separation of lines really gives the reader a sense of the emotion that Campbell is writing with and I think she powerfully evokes empathy through her unique structure and her refusal to conform to modern literary norms.

Hi, i took this poem in my english a30 class and am recently doing it. just to make one note about the author of the poem she is actually really educated she wanted it from the perspective of a grandson though to emphasize her points and belief i think the poem refers to a central theme of history repeating itself- assimulation to the residential schools the strusture was difficult but basically it bulit suspense then hit you with a tragedy the finding out that his wife was his sister and the the wife killed herself and the somewhat resolution the stimuli was to bring forth awareness of what had happened because of residential schools is it fair that their children were taken away but yet the used the reaoning of god suffering and then he argues back but jesus was not taken away from his people. which is an accurate fact he willingly died for our sins ( i got to a christian school) the audience was a postcolonial movement and the format suggestthat the narator is not good enough but as i described the reason behind it you see it's clearly untrue but the stanza is in dialect and is very respectful.