Elk

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 memoirist's 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 memoirist's 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 memoirist's use of imagery, metaphor and personification indicates that this story takes place during the latter part of the memoirist's 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 "people's dream that died in bloody snow" and "of a holy tree that should have flourished in a people's heart with flowers and singing birds, and now is withered" helps the reader create a picture and make a deeper connection to the memoirist's life. Although both Black Elk Speaks and The Woman Warrior are a story line rather than a pure description,