The Clouds Threw This Light Analysis

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This narrative concerns growing up away from one’s father in one of the Indian cultures of the Pacific Northwest. It’s also an intimate view of a nonnuclear family; the author is interested in the family not as a static set of defined relationships but as a social network that adapts to the ever changing circumstances and needs of its members. Roger Jack worked as a counselor and instructor for the American Indian Studies Program at Eastern Washington University. His work has been published in several journals and anthologies, including Spawning the Medicine River, Earth Power Coming, and The Clouds Threw This Light. “An Indian Story” appeared in Dancing on the Rim of the World: An Anthology of Contemporary Northwest Native American Writing…show more content…
Junior was nine, Anna Lee eight; they had gone to the last day of the tribe’s celebration and carnival in Nespelem, which was what Aunt Greta and I had gone to Calgary to get away from for once. I sat quietly and wondered what Aunt Greta must have felt for my wrongdoing. The kids got louder as they told Dad about their carnival rides and games and prizes they had won. They shared their goodies with him, and he looked to be having a good time eating popcorn and cotton candy. I remembered a time when Mom and Dad brought me to the carnival. Grandpa and Grandma were with us. Mom and Dad stuck me on a big, black merry-go-round horse with flaming red nostrils and fiery eyes. Its long, dangling tongue hung out of its mouth. I didn’t really want to ride that horse, but I felt I had to because Grandpa kept telling Mom and Dad that I belonged on a real horse and not some wooden thing. I didn’t like the horse; when it hit certain angles it jolted and scared me even more. Mom and Dad offered me another ride on it, but I refused. “Want some cotton candy?” Junior brought me back to reality. “We had fun going on the rides and trying to win some prizes. Here, you can have this one.” He handed me one of his prizes. And, “Are you gonna stay with us tonight?” I didn’t realize it was after eleven

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