A Note on Voice & Structure in *Indian Boyhood*

In this section of reading, Eastman shows us a switch in gender roles
through the story of Manitoshaw. All stories up to this one have shown
women to be domestic and the role of warriors left to the men and boys.
Before reading this section I had decided that most stories Eastman would
give us would be about men warriors and their trials and tribulations.
This story also comes after the story of Chotanka, one of the greatest of
medicine men. What is interesting to me is the fact that Eastman again
switches between 1st and 3rd person. The interesting part is that he
doesn't seem to have a structure as to when he switches to 1st or 3rd.
When it switches to 1st person I get confused as to whether it's 1st
person from Eastman's point of view or from the story tellers.

A reoccurring theme I see is war and death. Most of the stories include
the death of someone or war, and perhaps this is referring to the later
decline of the unassimilated Indians. Eastman also starts to introduce the
“white man” in his stories. If the chapters weren't labeled, we could
still be able to guess that perhaps the autobiography was nearing its end.
In Indian Life and Adventure, Eastman is telling us about the different
attacks and fights he experienced while growing up in a tribe. I think
these sections are intimate because they depict the losses that occurred
to him. Growing up amongst death and glorifying fighting seems like an
extreme way to live but it also seems like it was something he enjoyed.

As far as structure goes, Eastman seems to be following chronological
order. He started out with his birth and beginnings of how young Indians
are trained to be warriors. His stories now seem more graphic and as if he
has more duties because he is getting older. I think he gives us so many
stories about war because as a child he glorified this. He wanted to
become a noble warrior that brought home food and dominated other tribes.
I'm still confused about the 1st person and 3rd person switch up during
the story of Chotanka but hopefully this will be cleared up in class on
Friday.

~D.A.