FREE ESSAY ON BURY MY HEART WOUNDED KNEE

BURY MY HEART WOUNDED KNEE

Shawn Sanders 4-28-98 AA Character assignment Dee Brown, the author of the book Bury my
Heart at Wounded Knee, more often than not uses indirect characterization to describe
those in his book, although it is not his only method of displaying the characters to the
reader. For example the Sioux war leader, Roman Nose, who once stated, " I will ever
surrender my land to the Whites," displayed his stubbornness by not only declaring his
resistance but also through his actions against the White people to keep his land. Roman
Nose's actions were, obviously, to send his warriors against the United States Army. Dee
Brown, in fact, uses this combination of direct and indirect characterization throughout
the book for most all of the main characters in each chapter especially the antagonists.
General Sheridan, a commander in the army at the time, was quoted saying that, "The only
good Indian I've ever seen is a dead Indian," and later proved his liking for "good
Indians" by slaughtering hundreds of unarmed Native Americans. The methods used by the
author in the book are quite effective overall in characterizing the characters in his
book and give the reader a good insight into the natures of the people being depicted.