Louise Erdich is of Native American ancestry. The “Western” is a genre of film much reviled for its historical depiction of Native Americans. John Wayne was the embodiment of the American West, and was considered the living symbol of American machismo and patriotism. “Dear John Wayne,” is Erdich's indictment of the culture that celebrated the images personified – or so the stereotype has it – by Wayne in the films that denigrated as subhuman Native Americans while glorifying in their destruction. It is fair to suggest that the narrator is Erdich herself, imbued as she is with a strong sense of her American Indian identity.
Films depicting the conflict between white settlers and the indigenous tribes on whose land the former routinely settled often provided crude depictions of those tribes. “Dear John Wayne” is narrated by an individual who, together with at least one other person – and probably only one, given their position “on the hood of the Pontiac”...
(The entire section contains 559 words.)
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