Everyone needs to feel accepted. In Ramona by Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona was never accepted by her foster mother and it gave her an empty feeling inside. In this novel, Ramona goes through many emotional and physical journeys until she is truly happy in her life.
In the novel Ramona, who is half white half Indian, is taken in by her foster mother’s sister, who is Spanish. At this time in life, the white European men were just coming to the Americas and taking it over. The Spanish disliked the white Americans and also the Indians. For this reason Senora Moreno, the woman who took Ramona in, never admitted the fact that Ramona was both white and Indian and never accepted her or loved her as a true mother should.
When a group of Indian’s come in to work on the senora’s estate, Ramona finds comfort in the leader of the tribe. Alessandro is the strongest and most beautiful Indian Ramona has ever seen. He is even more handsome than the senora’s son Felipe. When Alessandro and Ramona decide to get married the senora throws a fit and will not accept their marriage. Ramona is forced to leave with Alessandro to go back to his home in Temecula, an Indian village. The new couple is in for a surprise when they realize that the village has been taken over by the white men. The couple must now travel from village to village finding refuge and a place to stay for very short periods of time. They go through cold weather, droughts, the loss of their baby, and eventually all this leads to the insanity of Alessandro. Now Ramona has finally found acceptance in the Indian village, but it shortly fades from her memory as she temporarily loses her feelings, memory and her identity watching her baby die and also watching her husband die. Now Ramona is left with no one except her second child when Felipe comes to her rescue and takes her away from all the suffering and pain.
The Essay on Educating Indian Girls
In Robert Trennert’s essay, “Educating Indian Girls at Nonreservation Boarding Schools, 1870-1920”, there is an argument on the federal government’s policy on sending young Indian girls to schools to be “Americanized.” During the 1870s, the government provided education for Indian youth of both sexes. The schools started in 1878 when Captain Richard Henry Pratt, in charge of a group of Indian ...
Although this book was interesting it carried out too long. Many parts may have seemed boring because every little detail was described and some of these details weren’t that important to the book. This novel would be targeted at a more mature audience who likes to learn about history and different people’s perspectives. This would be a good book for you to read if you like a little romance, history, action, emotional journeys, and tragedy. This book should be read by a more mature audience who has an open mind and who will be able to and willing to understand the concepts of all the circumstances that these characters faced.
