Universität Rostock

Institut für Anglistik/Amerikanistik

Comparison

,,The heartsong of Charging Elk" ­ ,,Black Elk speaks"

Martin Setzkorn

List of contents

1 Introduction 3

2 Characterization and appearances of the main characters 3

2.1 Charging Elk 3

2.2 Black Elk 4

3 Summary of the stories 5

3.1 "The heartsong of Charging Elk" 5

3.2 "Black Elk speaks" 6

4 Links between the books 7

5 Connections between the two texts especially connections in the travel to Europe 8

5.1 Atlantic as a border 8

5.2 Death song 10

5.3 The Buffalo Bill Show 11

5.4 The visions and spirit journeys 13

5.5 The Massacre at Wounded Knee 14

6 Narrative perspectives and the impression on the reader 16

7 Conclusion 17

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1 Introduction

In this paper I am going to compare the authobiography "Black Elk speaks"

written by John G. Neihardt with the novel "The heartsong of Charging Elk"

written by James Welch. Both books show a different perspective on the same

topic. "Black Elk speaks" shows the true history whereas the novel from

James Welch is fiction. But by reading both books I got the impression that

even "The heartsong of Charging Elk" could have really happened. By reading

the books a lot of connections or links get obvious.

The paper tries to discuss some of the connections. In the first part of the

paper the stories will be summarized and the main characters Black Elk and

Charging Elk will be described. In the center part of the paper some of the

connections and links will be compared more detailed. Here I will triy to point

out especially the connections they have during their travel to Europe.

In the last part I am going to discuss the interesting changes of the narrative

perspective and the resulting impression for the reader.

2 Characterization and appearances of the main characters

Both characters raise difficulties in their descriptions. The influence of the

dramatical changes of their homelands have impacts on them. The characters

change over time probably more than it used to have without these changes.

2.1 Charging Elk

Charging Elk is a beloved son. His father and mother are Oglala Indians. His

sister and his brother died in the struggle with the white men.

Charging Elk is described as a tall, strong man and has the typical stereotyped

Indian appearance that contents the dark skin color whereas his own is even

darker than the usual skin color of the other Indians. The Indians even picked

on him about that fact but his mother told him that he was the purest. That′s

why he is darker than the others. The long and dark hair means a lot to him.

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His appearence is even more outstanding from the

wasichu1

point of view.

From the wasichu sight not only his skin color, his dark long hair and his dark

eyes make him to someone different. He is described that way:

"He was at least four hands taller than the tallest of them ..."

(Welch, 2001,

p.12)

His character is dominated by friendliness. Other characters in the book

describe him as patient and with good will. The reader gets the impression that

these normally good charactertraits are sometimes misplaced. That is one of

the reasons why he sometimes has trouble to figure out who is a friend and

who is an enemy. It seems that the more the people get to know him the more

they rely on him and see him as a good friend.

He loves the nature and the animals and is very proud of his horse "High

Runner".

It is easy to see that he is changing during the novel getting more and more

responsible for him and others.

2.2 Black Elk

Black Elk is unlike Charging Elk not really described from other perspectives.

If he talks about himself he mostly describes his age and how early he had to

be a grown up. So the picture of him I am going to describe is more or less

grown by reading his story.

He is an Lakota Indian and believes strong in the Indian spirit. It seems that his

life is dominated by his visions and the power he takes out of the visions. But a

second point has much influence on his character. That is the continually loss

of his motherland. He constantly tries to stop the retreat and is always

searching for a way to get the life back his parents used to live and he lived

when he was a young boy. At first it seems that because of his visions he is a

1 Wasichu: A term used to designate the white man, but having no reference to the color of his skin.

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loner. But later because of the power he takes out of the visions he is more

and more respected and integrated in the Indian community.

3 Summary of the stories

3.1 "The heartsong of Charging Elk"

The novel describes the life of an Lakota Indian starting out in his homeland.

Still when he was a boy he had to move in with his parents to live at the Red

Cloud Agency. Later they moved to the Pine Ridge Agency. When he was

thirteen years old he left with his friend Strikes Plenty the agency to live at

Whirlwind Compound. There he lived far from the agency and from school.

They had constantly to retreat because of the wasichus who took more and

more over their place. He was forced to live in the badlands in a place called

Stronghold. This place could be easily defended and the white men, soldiers

and settlers were afraid of the Indians who lived out there. Charging Elk stayed

there for nine years. Learning the so called old ways of hunting and exploring

tought by two old medicine men. These years had a formative influence on

him. The life out there was getting more and more difficult. The changes which

resulted out of the wasichu dominance forced him to go back to the agency.

Otherwise, especially in the winters, it was really hard to survive.

Everything changes when scouts from the Buffalo Bill Show make a contest in

the agency where he has to ride and fight on his horse "High Runner". He is

chosen for the Show because of his perfect Indian skills and his perfect Indian

appearance.

Now for him starts a new adventure with a travel to Europe. In Europe he

works in the Buffalo Bill Show until he gets lost and has to live in a country

where he is not only a foreigner but also outstanding because of the fact that

he looks totally different than anybody else and is not able to talk their

language, and nobody speaks his language. He starts to live there at first with

the aim to return. During his days in Europe he is searching more and more for

a wife and a family. By trying to achieve the second point it seems that

achieving the first point gets more and more difficult. In the end he has the

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