Az Eszterházy Károly Tanárképző Főiskola Tudományos Közleményei. 1993. [Vol. 1.] Eger Journal of American Studies. (Acta Academiae Paedagogicae Agriensis : Nova series ; Tom. 21)
STUDIES - László Dányi: Belonging and Perspective: An Interpretation of Two Native American Short Stories
The former is narrated in the first person singular and the latter in the third person singular, but the narrators are both Native Americans. Being a Native American is an important determining factor from the Eurocentric point of view as it is expressed in Elaine Showalter's article. 2 Native Americans presently occupy a marginal status and they belong to a "muted group" as do, according to E. Showalter, feminist writers. If we accept that Native Americans and feminists are both muted in a way that they fall far behind the expectations of the Western Eurocentric value system, 3 it is even more difficult for a female Native American to accept the Western Eurocentric value system and its standards and to fit into them. In Patricia Riley's story the same events are viewed through various perspectives. Arietta, a Native American foster-child, is taken to a trading post by her white foster-parents, Mr. and Mrs. Rapier. Symbolism is connected with the name "Rapier",it is a particularly vicious sword since it is double edged. The parents want to impose their value system on Arietta. They know the girl would love the place as they have "sophisticated knowledge" about it from Hollywood movies. The parents think the place to be realistic but the girl realizes how fake everything is. The Indian in strange clothing is disturbing to Arietta but for the parents he is so authentic that they want to take a picture of the girl and the Indian. To make the picture more accurate Mr. Rapier walks back to the trading post and buys some genuine Indian arts-and-crafts and puts them on the girl. The girl knows how false these things are and she is shocked by seeing the vendors and the Indian man who also insists on her standing beside him for the photo. The fake Indian man and the vendors have fallen victims to commercialism which appears in the form of the Coke-machine at the trading post. They are exploited by the need to manufacture commodities and offer their services for money in order to survive. Charles Hudson concludes that "If the Indians could not produce commodities, they 2 Elaine Showalter, "Feminist Criticism in the Wilderness," in Modern Criticism and Theory, ed. David Lodge (New York: Longman, 1988), pp. 330—53. 3 Paula Gunn Allen, "'Border' Studies: The Interaction of Gender and Color," in Introduction to Scholarship in Modern Languages and Literatures, ed. Joseph Gibaldi, 2nd ed. (New York: Modern Language Association, 1992), n.p. 20
