Native American Elements Of 'The Dancer'

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Bailey Dabney 5th Period 9/29/13 Native American assignment Elements of “The Dancer” Have you ever had someone label you? Gorgeous? Unpleasant? Cruel? Enjoyable? Cool kid? Failure? Chances are you have. It is hard to avoid getting labeled because people are always judging you no matter what. The story “The Dancer” is about how a little girl came from a wicked past and got labeled a sociopathic along the way. Even though she got labeled, she overcame that through dancing and finding her Native American roots. There are many attributes of Native American literature in Vickie Sears’ story “The Dancer”. Traits found in this story include that the best way to learn is through experience, observation, listening and doing, oral traditions are important and maintaining traditions, native language and culture. In Native American culture one of the best ways to learn is through experience, observation, listening and doing. This happens in the story between Clarissa and Molly Graybull. Throughout the story Clarissa was fixated on Molly Graybull. “Clarissa watched her move around-around-around.” (251) Clarissa was doing this so that she could observe Molly Graybull and hopefully became a fantastic dancer like her. “When Molly Graybull showed up beside her, Clarissa took a seat.”…show more content…
Vickie Sears’ did a great job on explaining the Native American Elements throughout the story while explaining how Clarissa overcame her label. Clarissa started off as an unstable child, but now through her Native American culture she made a huge turn around and became a great dancer just like Molly Graybull. Clarissa learned dancing through experience, listening, observing and doing. Oral traditions were very important to Clarissa so she attended the women’s traditional. Last but not least Clarissa maintained her traditions, native language and culture by practicing dance and expressing that she was

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