Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese is a novel that chronicles the life of Saul Indian Horse, a Canadian native and member of the Fish Clan, a tribe located near the Winnipeg River. . Saul grew up in the early 1960s and at that time in Canada, indigenous issues were at the forefront and racism towards indigenous people was very common in their daily lives. As Saul grew up, his identity was heavily influenced by hockey and the Saint-Jérôme Indian Residential School. The motifs of the Wagamese story reflect the identity of Saul Indian Horse. The main motifs that reflect Saul's identity are residential schools and hockey, the other motifs in the novel such as racism, the death of children and community intertwine with the two main motifs. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get an original essay The book's most explicit motif is the game of hockey, it becomes a large part of Saul's identity as his Love for the game develops throughout the novel. Saul discovers hockey at the Saint-Jérôme Indian residential school thanks to the help of a new priest, Father LeBoutillier: “'Have you ever heard of hockey?' That's the first thing he said to me. I was sitting on the steps behind the kitchen while the other children played in the freshly fallen snow. 'No. What is this?' I asked. “It’s a game,” he said. "Perhaps the greatest game. It's played on ice with skates and it's very fast, very exciting." After this exchange, Saul reads books about hockey and asks questions about hockey, Father answers all his questions. Watching the older boys play, Saul sees hockey as a rush or chaos, but he can see the excitement in the boys as they play. Saul then begs to play hockey, but is refused because another priest, Father Quinney, only allows older boys to play. As a result, Saul then asks to clean the ice every morning, which is permissible for him. After that day, Saul cleans the ice every morning and then learns hockey in secret since he is not allowed to play hockey. Saul hides a hockey stick in the snow and uses frozen horse poop as hockey pucks. Saul does this for the rest of the winter, and next winter his new job will be looking after the team's equipment. This new job allows Saul to become familiar with skates, and then Saul slowly learns to skate. “I was a little boy with oversized skates and in the world hockey created, I found a new home.” Saul learns a new skill every day and one day one of the team members got injured while playing a scrimmage, and Saul volunteered to take his place. Everyone was surprised that he claimed he could play hockey because he had no connection with the boys who played hockey and had been training in secret all along. Saul surprised the team with his talent and he was able to join the group. Saul becomes so good at hockey that he gets the opportunity to leave boarding school for a new town and play with a team of older boys. Saul's love of hockey is a large part of his identity because it differentiates him from his ancestors. But through hockey, Saul experiences relentless racism that becomes detrimental to his struggle to stay true to his identity. The motif of racism connects the two main motifs that reflect Saul's identity. In Indian Horse, Saul faces many different forms of racism. The first form of racism Saul suffered was his kidnapping and sending to Saint-Jérôme withthe ban on speaking one's own mother tongue. During Saul's stay at Saint-Jérôme, he is beaten and mistreated by racist priests and nuns. In hockey, Saul experiences a lot of verbal racism from Canadian hockey opponents, they never miss an opportunity to insult him. In Toronto, there was racism from sportswriters who referred to him as “Rampaging Redskin,” even when they praised his skills. In games, people in the stands join in with other racist slurs and terms. Saul was beaten verbally and physically every time he played hockey: “I was constantly taunted. They called me Indian Whores, Horse Piss, Stolen Pony. Elbows and knees were constantly flying at me. I couldn't play a change that didn't include some sort of low shot, threat or curse." For a time, Saul is able to ignore the racism of the white Canadians he encounters in hockey. But eventually, their torture overcomes his mastery of aggression, and Saul throws in the towel and fights back. Saul was then kicked out of the NHL despite his extraordinary talent as a hockey player. Saul's main struggle is racism. He turned what could have been a brilliant hockey career into years of fighting, soul-searching and drinking. In Indian Horse, there are many different types of communities that Saul has become a part of. In the beginning there were the tribe of Saul near the Winnipeg River and the tribe of Gods Lake. Through hockey and residential school, Saul found community: “In the spirit of hockey, I believed I had found community, refuge, and refuge from everything dark and ugly in the world.” After his hockey career, when Saul left home, he reunited with his colleagues and later the people at the New Dawn Centre. When Saul returned, he had the community of Manitouwadge, but this time he had the entire community. These communities taught Saul different things during his time with them and it shaped him into the person he is. In the novel, Saul had the courage to admit that he needed others. Saul does not find himself alone in the face of his trauma, there is always a community who comes to share their problems with him. The most important motif in this book and which most shaped Saul's identity is the Saint-Jérôme Indian residential school because it introduces most of the other themes of the story: hockey, racism, the death of children, abuse and trauma. In Saint-Jérôme, Saul witnessed the deaths of several Indigenous children who were victims of mistreatment in Saint-Jérôme: “I saw children die of tuberculosis, flu, pneumonia and broken hearts in Saint-Jérôme. I saw young boys and girls die standing upright. I saw fugitives brought back, frozen like boards. I saw bodies hanging from the rafters by thin ropes. I've seen severed wrists and the cascade of blood on the bathroom floor and, once, a young boy impaled on the tines of a pitchfork he'd stuck in himself. »Saul was able to contain his sadness over the children's deaths. which he witnessed or heard about when he was still a child and did not know how to feel about the deaths of his fellow Natives. When Saul discovers hockey, it becomes somewhat of a distraction from noticing the deaths of children until in the last third of the novel, Saul remembers a girl from Saint-Jérôme. The girl's name was Rebecca Wolf, she had a sister named Katherine who died one night and Saul never found out what happened. The next evening, Rebecca sang a traditional Indigenous mourning song in Ojibway: “It was a mourning song. I could tell by the feel of the syllables. Her agony was so pure that I :.