Blog #4: Confused and Stuck Between Two Extremes

Catlin really loved studying the Native Americans. He loved to use them as the subjects of his paintings. During the time period he was painting, there was a clash between the Americans and the Native Americans. The N.A. were trying to be more involved with the way the white men were intruding and stealing their lands. In this particular painting, Catlin demonstrates how the N. A. tried to blend in with American culture, but often got ideas mixed up.
The two different directions that the men (who are actually the same man but we’ll refer to them as two separate people for now) are facing are quite symbolic. The man on the left is going towards the Capitol in Washington DC and he is dressed in his traditional outfit. The man on the right is facing his village, represented by the teepees, and he is dressed in “white men’s’” clothing. This shows how he first tried to take part of his culture with him to the Americans and then ended up leaving like one of them.
The changed Indian on the right is obviously confused. He has exchanged his peace pipe for a cigar, and his robe for a suit. His feathered headdress has become a top hat with a feather in it. He is also carrying a cane, something Indians wouldn’t normally do. He was able to fit in as far as looks went, to a point, but it is obvious that he doesn’t completely understand this new culture.
A few last parts to these changes are the gloves and umbrella and the flask. This may be a gentle joke on the part of Catlin at showing just how confused the Indian is. Not only is he wearing the clothing wrong, but he also has feminine characteristics on him now. The flask in his back pocket suggests that he is also drunk, perhaps not literally, but figuratively, and has just made a fool of himself in Washington, trying to fit in.
Catlin takes all of these little details and combines them to describe the way the Indians came to the white men. They tried, and for the most part wanted to ally with the Americans, but the cultures were just so different that the outcome was ridiculous. Catlin was able to capture all this in this one painting.

Comments

[Stephanie Gunter]

Audrey,
First of all I would like to commend you on how you introduced the two men in the painting, you help your readers understand the importance of the direction that the two men were facing, which signified where they traveling. I think that this is a very important part of understanding Catlins view of the Native American at the time. I think that you could have made your argument of Catlin viewing the Native Americans as being basically confused if you were to seperate the attire of the two men in two different paragraphs and then compare and contrast, a person who hasnt seen the picture might not be able to understand the signifigance in the change. Including the actual picture might also help, if the reader visually saw the picture then they will be able to understand more of the signifigant similarities and difference of the two men. Finally, a rewording of your thesis statement would also help your argument. In your thesis you stated that the Native American tried to blend in with the white americans "but often got ideas mixed up", this statement is a little unclear, a person might think that the native Americans mixed the white american views with their own rather then being confused on how to be white, which you show throughout the rest of your paper. I think that your argument in your post is strong just try to reword your thesis so that it matches with what your talking about