Abitibi Canyon Response Journal Lindsay Dorcas Joseph Boydens short story about the life on the reserve

contained a true aspect of the natives in Canada which showed a different side rather than the stereotypical life of natives. In his writing he shows the opinions both the native and workers have on each other as they see things differently and the other as an alien. The main focus was focussed on Remi, his mental and physical condition can symbolize the life of Natives in the way they are strained and ignored by society because of their physical and mental differences regarding culture and lifestyle. They are also not heard or taken seriously like many people who have conditions that restrain them from participating in society or being listened too He just went back to being a handicapped kid, his tongue thick when he talked, his mind searching hard for the words (Boyden 360). The significance of this grasps the role they have in Canadian society where they arent free to express themselves because they are frowned upon, its shown from that recent quote that they dont have the mindset or ways to act in society because of the cultural differences and lifestyle when they were brought up. The searching of the words symbolizes the Native people searching for their place in society and they will just become introverted when they believe they dont fit in. In the end of the story, Remi is taken away from his parents which is linked to the history Natives went through in Canada from the beginning of colonization to the late 90s when churches and governments thought it was smart to make the native people transition to white society in which case they would take the children from the homes and put them into residential schools. Colonization is evident in the short story, such as when Remi sounds like a preacher and when his mother often sides with white society and tends to not believe her mom, you get used to anything after a while (Boyden 360). As well as that when the explosion of the dam occurred though it was done by the two workers Darren and Matthew, Remi was plastered in newspapers Mentally handicapped Cree faces charges for Abitibi dam explosion(Boyden 367) as the culprit of the explosion while they didnt even mention Matthew and Darren. This signifies that society tends to blame Native people for being over dramatic and going to extremes to protest, as well as being used as a scapegoat for crimes and in general in Canadian Society. This also correlates to them being disciplined in court which ends up with them receiving harsher punishments for the crime which they may or may not have done. When he was taken away from the home of his parents, Boyden showed the truths of this circumstance because people tend to look at the parents for apparent uncivil living environments for the childs mishaps or being neglected, because people dont understand cultural differences. An example of the cultural difference is reflected in the beginning when they were talking about the lights on the sacred hill, the native people took it as the Manitous being angry but when the government investigated they said it was the northe rn lights playing tricks (Boyden 359). Boyden showed what life is like for the Native communities in Canada, and explains that both sides have their restrictions and stereotypes for the other group of people and that they truly dont understand each other which portray the opinions of both sides correctly.