One-Two-Three Little Indians
By: Angelina, Rayeedah, Adittya, and Colin
Introduction
Angelina:
Good Morning, Class. My name is Angelina
Rayeedah, Colin, Adittya:
*Introduces themselves*
Angelina:
The story we analyzed is called One-Two-Three Little Indians,
a short story written by Hugh Garner.
Plot
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● The story is about a small family of Native Americans who live near a
trailer camp in Northern Ontario
● The family consists of a father (Big Tom), a mother (Mary), and an
unnamed baby
Angelina:
● Tom and Mary work at the trailer camp
● In the opening scene, Big Tom is at home with his baby eating dinner &
doing chores
● The baby is sick, and Big Tom notices that the sickness seems to be getting
worse
● This is the exposition
● Then, Mary enters
● Tom wants Mary to take the baby to a doctor tomorrow, but she says she
can’t, as she plans on scrubbing out a lady’s trailer in exchange for an old
dress
● The next day, Big Tom goes to the trailer camp nearby to sell baskets
● The trailer residents are racist towards Big Tom - one man took pictures of
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Colin:
him without asking permission, and said “I wish he’d look into the camera”
as if Tom were an exotic animal
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● Later that day, Big Tom speaks to Mr Cooper, the trailer camp owner, about
his sick child, but Mr Cooper is dismissive of the topic
Adittya:
● After that, Big Tom acts as a guide to Mr Staynor, a resident at the trailer
camp while he fishes
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● He brings his baby along, and gets worried as the baby gets sicker
● This is one of the smaller crises
● When Mr Staynor sees Tom's baby, he allows him to turn the boat back
● Tom asks for help from a group of trailer residents to get his baby to the
doctor, but they leave
● Big Tom decides to carry his baby and run to the doctor
● The time period in which Big Tom is running is the climax of the story
● He ran until nightfall, but it was too late
● The baby died
Now, as the short story nears its denouement, Tom returns home and goes to the
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trailer camp entrance to wait for his wife to return from an unknown location.
Mary returns, drunk, in a car with two men and another indigenous woman.
Rayeedah:
Angry and grieving, Tom grabs Marry by the hair and almost strikes her but
changes his mind at the last second. Mary looks into his eyes and realizes the
baby is dead. They returned to their cabin to mourn for their child's death.
As you can see, the structure of the story is linear, as there are no flashbacks in
the story (very clear beginning, middle, and end)
Setting
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Colin:
One-Two-Three Little Indians takes place in North Ontario, in the 1950s. The
place was mentioned in the story, but we made an inference about the time
period based on the term “Indian’ being used in the story. Since “Indian” is not a
socially acceptable term to use for Aboriginal people today, we can conclude
that the short story took place a fairly long time ago. Also, it was mentioned that
Big Tom used to work in the mines during the war, which ended in the year of
1945.
Colin:
Adittya:
Rayeedah:
*Big Tom*
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Characters
*Mary*
*Baby*
The unnamed, Native-born baby was the son of Big Tom and Mary. In the story,
he dies of pneumonia, due to poverty and discrimination. Since the Caucasians
believed that the Natives weren’t at their level of respect, they were reluctant to
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help Big Tom get his dying baby to a doctor before the baby’s untimely death.
Angelina:
-
A minor character in the story is Mr. Staynor
It is a bit unclear who exactly he is, but we made an inference from the
text that he is a resident at the trailer camp who uses the fishing service
at the camp
He’s depicted as a fairly nice person, as he allows Tom to head back to
shore to get a doctor for his baby, but that’s extent of his willingness to
help Tom
In this sense Mr Staynor is similar to most of the other characters in the
story, as he believes indigenous people aren’t worth helping
Adittya:
Imagesetters
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Point of View
● Although he is not the narrator of the story, the story is told from Big Tom’s
point of view because it follows him throughout the duration of a few days
● It is third person PoV because the story is written as if it is told by an
onlooker
● It is also limited because the narrator doesn’t know everything (for
example, at the end it was unknown where Mary went)
● Imagery is used in the story to contribute to the theme of racism and
poverty experienced by Native Americans
● An example of imagery is on pg 44: “After they had eaten, Big Tom pushed
the cracked and dirty supper things to the back of the table and took the
Angelina:
baby from its high chair carefully, so as not to spill the flotsam of bread
crumbs and boiled potatoes from the chair to the floor.”
● This example of imagery is at the very first sentence in the story, to make
Conflict
Adittya:
poverty they’re living in
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sure the reader’s first impression of our main characters is the state of
● Main Conflict was between Big Tom and society
● The sub-conflict was Big Tom’s Baby dying, which is significant because it
represented the main conflict
Resolution
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● The resolution is the death of Tom’s baby, as when he dies Tom’s struggle
to get the baby to the doctor ends and so does our suspense
● The resolution in this story is significant because it represents the lack of a
happy ending for indigenous people in Canada
● Indigenous people have suffered many hardships (having their land taken
away from them, having their children placed in residential schools)
● Although it is widely recognized that injustices were done to them, there is
Angelina:
still no happy ending
● Many Native Americans live in poverty and struggle with losing their
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culture, but no one is trying hard to help them
● This is similar to in the story how people acknowledged that the baby was
very sick but didn’t go out of their way to help
Symbols
Psychological
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Rayeedah:
We found several symbols in our Short Story. The first one being the title,
“One-Two-Three Little Indians”. This title refers to the three Native Canadians
highlighted in the story; Big Tom, Mary and their baby. The word “little” in the
title represents the minority status Natives were given in society, which is the
main focus on throughout the story. The last word, “Indians’ refers to the name
that Native Canadians were given, due to Christopher Columbus.
Another symbol is the Mary’s relation to her sick baby. It represents Native
traditions, and how they are losing their cultural customs, because of the racist
society. With the baby’s health declining, and Mary, who represents one of the
many Natives to slowly give up their traditions) simply overlooks and
dismisses the baby’s condition. This relates to Native overlooking their
traditions and ignoring their Historic beliefs because they are becoming
adapted to the British way of living.
A third symbol is related to the quote on page 45, “A women promised me a
dress tomorrow if I scrub out her trailer.” This represents the fact that others
expect natives to be happier with less, forcing them to do more work for little
in return, demoralizes Native by making them believe their work isn't worth
much.
Adittya:
● Big Tom (the dad) is motivated by the baby and his love for the baby
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● Mary (the mom) is more selfish and mostly cares for herself
● Mr.Staynor and Mr.Cooper are motivated by a desire to run their
business (the trailer camp) because when Big Tom was trying to get
their help to get him to a doctor they kept saying that the baby is as
fine a “bear cub” and were more focused on getting Big Tom to relay
messages to Mary about what she should clean next.
● Yes, the theories of Freud are applicable to this story because the Freud
theories can fit into many of the decisions made by the characters and
what made them think that way.
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● ID = Fits into Mary’s decision process because she knew that the baby
is sick and that she needed to go home right away to help take care of
the baby but instead she was drunk and enjoyed herself instead of
using her SuperEgo and facing reality and doing the right thing. She
also mostly cares about the silk dress she was going to get after
cleaning a woman's trailer.
● SuperEgo = Fits into Big Tom’s decision process because he does what
the SuperEgo states and he faces reality and does the right thing and
(tries to) take the baby to go see the doctor.
Sociological
Angelina:
● Big Tom has a very damaged psychological state as he just returned to
"the woods after three years in the mines during the war," he had been
damaged by the experience. And not getting any of the money or
anything brought him pain and distrust.
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Th
● Hugh Garner had a hard childhood and his family was really poor.
Hugh Garner is a very strong believer of equality and does not want
race to separate the way people are looked upon or treated. Hugh
Garner he writes about the working class, and his writings reflect his
knowledge and sympathy for minority groups and the struggles they
face as they are seen to be lower than the majority standard.
● This is a very important approach to the story, as the story
addresses the societal issue of racism and the imbalance of
power between the white people and the indigenous people
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that is caused by racism
● An example of racism in the story that we already mentioned in
our synopsis is, at the beginning of the story while Tom was
selling baskets, one white was man taking pictures of Big Tom
without asking for permission, and saying “I wish he’d look into
the camera”
● Another example of racism is on page 48: “His voice was kind,
with the amused kindness of a man talking to a child”
● This was said when Mr Cooper, a white man, was talking to Tom
● These examples go to show how Caucasian people don’t think
of Aboriginals as equals - instead, they think of them as animals
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or children
● It’s also important to note that the Aboriginal people in the
story have a very accepting attitude towards the racism they
face
● For example, on page 48, when Tom was trying to get the
attention of Mr Cooper, the trailer camp owner, it says “Cooper
turned and looked at the Indian standing beside him, hands in
pockets, his manner shy and deferential. He showed a vague
irritation as though he sensed the overtone of servility in the
Indian’s attitude.”
● Racism has convinced Tom that he is inferior to white people,
hence why he was standing in a shy manner and had an
attitude of servility
● Another example is that when Mr Staynor calls Tom’s baby a
“papoose”, which is an offensive word for an indigenous child,
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Tom winces but doesn’t say anything about it
● This shows that Big Tom is so used to the racism he faces that
instead of trying to fight it, he goes along with it, because he
thinks it’s a battle he can’t win, which is actually really sad
sh
● As you can tell from the synopsis of the story and what I’ve just
said, there is a difficult relationship between Big Tom, his son,
his wife and society
● Like I said, this is mainly because of their race, but partially
because of their class
● However, these are not two separate things
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● Big Tom’s family’s class is influenced by their race, due to the
fact that Native Americans experienced so much discrimination
and it was nearly impossible for them to have a high social class
● Big Tom’s family’s economic condition is also determined by
their race, which then determines the direction of their lives
● An example of this is Mary wanting to scrub out a lady’s trailer
to receive an old dress
● This action shows the economic condition they are in, because if
they weren’t poor, Mary wouldn’t content herself with the
leftover belongings that are no longer of value to the trailer
residents
● Mary’s willingness accept cast-off garments strengthens the
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common idea of the white characters in the story that
indigenous people are less deserving of respect, just as Big
Tom’s shy and submissive manner also strengthens this idea
● This short story affirms the social order it depicts, since the
white people living as the superior ones and the indigenous
people are working as their servants (cleaning up after them)
● Lastly, the struggle of the protagonist, Big Tom, is symbolic of a
larger class struggle between all Native Americans and the
dominant white society, because, as we know, the society in the
1950s was more racist than it is now, and the discrimination Big
Tom’s family faced was the reality for many indigenous people
at the time
● The last residential school closing in 1996 is evidence of that
● All of this means that the microcosm of the story reflects the
macrocosm of the society in which it was set
Th
Philosophical
In this short story, theure is a Philosophical Approach attached to it. The
implicitly stated moral of One-Two-Three Little Indians, is that racism and
discrimination towards minority groups can cause these groups of people dire
consequences. This is known because in the story, due to the Non-Native
characters’ behavior towards Big Tom, Mary and the baby, Big Tom wasn't
able to get the medical attention his son needed, because of the lack of money
and support he was given. Also, it drove Mary to move away from her
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Rayeedah:
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Historical
Colin:
Conclusion
Thank you for listening :)
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Rayeedah:
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traditions, and take on the white culture, just as he moved away from her
responsibility to her baby. All this caused the infant to lose his life. Although,
despite all the discrimination, Big Tom seemed to be accepting of them and
went with the flow. To gain more customers, he wore feathers on his head
because it seems more accepting for the whites and gains more customers.
The conceptions of good and evil portrayed by the story is that the white or
european cultural people are the evil groups, as their are racist towards the
natives and don't provide them with help and suppressed them. The Natives
are the so called good groups, the protagonists, being suppressed and trying to
get by with what they have. The main conception is the good always lose,
despite their good behavior.
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