Task 2 page 123
There are several things that shows the Tsali`s lack of awareness of the white
man`s ways. One of them being the underestimation of the white man`s greed.
Another one is how he thought he could explain the white man how God gave
him his land, and how that meant it could not be sold by anyone. Those are
just a few examples, there are more in the story but I won`t write all of them
since that would take too much time and would become uninteresting for the
reader after a short while.
- “Even though the missionary and the trader try persuasion at first, the
author shows their greed. How?”
He shows it by writing that they threatened Tsali and that they came
back with soldiers to force Tsali off his land.
- “How are the white men and the Cherokees respectively described in this
story? Make notes.”
The white men are described as foreign devils with only one thing in
mind, gold and riches. They won`t stop at anything to achieve their goals
even though this means inflicting pain and death to the natives.
The Cherokees are described as naïve, innocent and in peace with the
land. They are shown as peaceful, loving and caring.
- “Note down keywords to make a characterization of the missionary”
The missionary is greedy and very mean, he feels superior to the Indians
and that they don`t deserve the rich land they were given by their
ancestors.
- “Is this a story of conflicting values? Show how with examples from the
text”
The story IS about conflicting values, the Indians care for the land, only
want what they need and don`t want to be rich. They just want to be
happy and have all the things they need to be able to survive.
The white men on the other side, they want glory, riches, and land for
themselves and of course large amounts of gold! They DO want to be
rich and do not care how they achieve it, the goal justifies the means.
A good example from the text is:”The Tsali says to the missionary that he
doesn`t understand why they want his land, since it is very hard to grow
crops on the land. Then the missionary answers, “You stupid Indian, they
have found gold on your land!” And explains that the white men doesn`t
want the land for its fields, but for the shiny mineral below ground and in
the river.