Dear John Wayne
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"Dear John Wayne"
The great western hero of Hollywood, otherwise known as John Wayne, often enthralled audiences with his courage as he battled against bands of blood-thirsty savages. However, for Native Americans in the audience, these films were more of an unfair portrayal of the massacres of their ancestors. From a Formalist point of view, Louise Erdrich's poem, "Dear John Wayne," is her personal disapproval to the portrayal of Native Americans in western films, John Wayne's in particular.
The poem starts off with a depiction of the setting: "August and the drive-in picture is packed" (1). The whole beginning is mainly descriptive and with the use of the second person plural "we," the reader is immediately drawn into the poem. The plot becomes more personalized, especially for those who have ever been to a drive-in movie. Erdrich's intense imagery of a stereotypical western creates a plausible setting in which to present her views later on in the poem. Because we are included, it is easy to imagine sitting on the hood of a car, fending off mosquitoes while watching a western.
For the first three stanzas, the poem is mainly descriptive; the Indians portrayed as "ICBM missiles, / feathers bristling" like savage animals or weapons, while the settlers "die beautifully" (9-10, 14). John Wayne's face is described as big as the horizon, "a thick cloud of vengeance, pitted / like the land that was once flesh," developing his larger than life character (19-20)...