Essay Preview: Elk
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Heather Yi
01.22.07
ENGL 187
Response
Black Elk Speaks: The Offering of the Pipe
The excerpt from Black Elk Speaks, by Nicholas Black Elk takes on a more personal approach in the memoir compared to the distant and serious tonality of the memoir from The Woman Warrior. This excerpt begins with the memoirists personal introduction through his reference of his readers as “My friend” and progression to share the story of his life. In the given excerpt, there is only one character which is the memoirist himself.
This excerpt is written in an elaborate and personal style. The memoirists choice of words in referring to the person he is speaking to reveals that he is trying to make a connection with his audience which decreases the formality of this excerpt. The memoirists use of imagery, metaphor and personification indicates that this story takes place during the latter part of the memoirists life. In several parts of the excerpt such as “for what is one man that he should make much of his winters, even when they bend him like a heavy snow?” and “although I have made much meat in my time and fought for my people both as a boy and man, and have gone far and seen strange lands and men” indicate that the memoirist is most likely a sagacious man of numerous experiences in life.
His use of imagery such as “peoples dream that died in bloody snow” and “of a holy tree that should have flourished in a peoples heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered” helps the reader create a picture and make a deeper connection to the memoirists life. Although both Black Elk Speaks and The Woman Warrior are a story line rather than a pure description,