Black Elk Speaks Essay Example for Free

gloomy elk Speaks EssayBlack red deer Speaks is about a Native Ameri go off boy that has visions and these visions help him with the religious aspects of live. He has these visions that tell him what to do and shows him the path to righteousness. These visions can also be seen as storys, which be stories that try to let off something. Every refinement has their own arrangement of myths. Black Elk Speaks is also a very symbolic book, because it has the use of umteen objects or commonwealth that represent other things. In the American culture, as well as other cultures around the world, ar also very symbolic.The American culture is very various in that thither are many different cultures that have entangled and created the American culture. The American culture is not something that is easily explained, because it is so mixed with many other cultures from around the world. At first there were American Indians and they brought along their tribes and myths and rituals. T hen came the British and over time the Chinese because of the California gold rush. In time America was in fit out with many different nationalities and ideas. These ideas were slowly but surely blended together.As for example, when the British shared their meal with the Indians they were also sharing their culture and food. The exchange of food and other ideas brought the two distant worlds closer. The to a greater extent consequential ideas are what does all this exchanging of food and ideas symbolize? A symbol is something such as an object, picture, written word, sound, or particular mark that represents something else by association, resemblance, or convention(Wikipedia, 1).The object used in Black Elk Speaks is a pipe, given to them by a young and very beautiful woman, which symbolizes assumption and companionship. Now, my friend, let us smoke together so that there may be only good between us (Black Elk Speaks, 5). Black Elk and Neihardt have a smoke together to share th eir friendship and trust between the two. The pipe can also symbolize peace amongst people and/or tribes. Another act, such as the killing of a bison, might be seen as bravery, integrity, courage, pride. The American culture changed drastically when more cultures were included, such as the Chinese and African Americans.Slaves brought in from Africa, which meant that they brought along their culture and tendencies to America. Even though thraldom was not the right thing to do, it brought a new culture into America and made it more diverse and developed. For example, superstitions are something that has shaped the culture as well. Spilled salt, walking on a lower floor a ladder, a broken mirror, etcetera are all superstitions that are said to lead to severe luck. When someone does one of these things they believe that bad luck is upon them. This causes them to act in a different behavior.Something bad in the future happens they may flex and blame it on the bad luck. Maybe some of the things that happen are just coincidences but culture has taught us to believe that it was the bad luck caused by the spilled salt, broken mirror, or walking under a ladder. Another big symbol in Black Elk Speaks is the four bay wreaths tied to the pipe that Black Elk and Neihardt smoke. It represents the powers of the four quarters of the universe. There are four ribbons tired to the pipe and each ribbon is a different color, which symbolizes a different power.Black is for the west, the source of the rain red is for the east, the place of the break of day star that gives wisdom white is for the north, source of cleansing wind and yellow is for the south, the places of summer and growth. Myths are other big thing that shapes a culture. Black Elks visions are like the myths in this story. In his vision, a bay horse greets Black Elk. He then tells Black Elk that he lead tell him a story of the life history of himself. The horse walks in a circular accomplishment Behold me he said, My life-history you shall see. Behold themTheir history you shall know (Black Elk Speaks, 19). Each side that the horse goes to there are twelve horses that are each in a group of different colors. The horses to the north are white, those to the east are sorrel, those to the south are buckskin, and the ones to the west are black. The horses will take Black Elk to his Grandfathers. The sky fills with dancing horses that change into diverse creators and lead a formation of the horses from the four directions. They arrive at a cloud those changes into a tepee with a rainbow door, which inside the six Grandfathers are waiting.A myth is like a traditional story which usually contains some sort of hero or event. In this myth, the vision that Black Elk is having, is an event that is occurring. A bay horse appears in front of him and shows him the way to meet the six Grandfathers. Sometimes myths may sound like a fairy tale. For example, in quaint China, there was once this monke y that was very troublesome and cause destruction to the heavens. He was punished and border under a mountain. After about several hundred to a thousand years a monk comes along to save the monkey and there starts a journey of adventures and evil to obtain immortality.This is a myth because it is a legend of a hero that is punished for his crimes and therefore pays his debt by serving under his master. There are many aspects of a culture. The American culture is very diverse and tough to explain in one short answer. There is no true American culture because it is just a mixture of different cultures from around the world. Black Elk Speaks shows the forms of myths and symbols and how they contribute to American culture. Black Elks myths and symbols are very similar to those of the American culture.