Zitkala Sa

Mikaila Garfinkel
English 48B
1/23/09
Journal #5: Zitkala Sa


"Judewin had told me of the great tree where grew red, red apples; and how we could reach out our hands and pick all the red apples we could eat...The missionaries smiled into my eyes, and patted my head. I wondered how mother could say such hard words against them."

This quote uses the apples to describe the land that she yearns for so much, and eventually gets to experience. When she lives among the white people, where she is forced to assimilate, she realizes that her mother was right about the white peoples evil intentions. Her relationship with her mother is tarnished when she leaves to be educated but he white people, and it is only after her hardships, and detachment from her mother that she understands her mothers original feelings for the Whites, and the reason for her attempting to pass down this knowledge to Zitkala. This quote shows how easily children can be influenced. Sa is intrigued by the words of her young friend, and uses her friends experience to override her mothers. The missionaries make an even larger impact on Zitkala, for she doesn't believe that killing can come from such people that smile and desire for her to come learn, and live a more advanced life with them. Her mother, who once made the larges impact on her, is more of a nagging voice now. This quote shows how Zitkala is growing up, for it is a common action for children to desire other teaching then their parents when they start to grow older. Sa yearns to leave towards the East and be schooled, and doesn't take into consideration the hardship that would come from leaving her mother. It shows how the Whites were so deceiving to the Sioux and other Native American tribes, and unfortunately, Zitkala learns this lesson through her own personal experience, not her mothers words.

The reason for choosing this particular story to write about is because of the subjectivity of the symbolism, the meaning behind the "big, red apples." The apples are referring to the more advanced land, a land that she has never been too, and arouses curiosity. Once she lives the lifestyle she was so curious about, she discovers that the land is corrupt, and that her freedom lies only with her Native ways. The apples can represent a number of things. The first is the biblical reference, and the Garden of Eden. The apples could easily mirror the forbidden fruit, and the curiosity of Zitkala with the apples can easily mimic the story of the Adam and Eve. It is not a far fetched possible intention, for Sa was schooled in a Christian school, and so she was forced to swallow these stories at a young age. Another possibility behind the apples is the fact that apples rot. The beautiful image she pictured of the East disintegrated when she experienced it. Apples disintegrate as well, so the apples could easily be interpreted as the life of her dream; beautiful and big, and then rotted away once she live it. Although I do not know the time when the story was written, "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves" also struck a bell with me. The witch give Snow White the poisonous apple, which ruined the wonderful life she had with the dwarves (until of course her Prince comes, but it is a fairy tale after all). "Snow White" is an old tale, so I find it a possibility that Zitkala Sa could have heard similar stories when she was schooled among the White people.