Question

In line 81, Blaeser says, "With school began my double life." Explain how Blaeser has two lives. How do her two lives relate to her previous statement, "My memories entangle themselves oddly among the roots of several cultures"?

Answer 1

Blaeser, in "Rituals of Memory," expresses being torn when she was in school, as school signified the beginning of her acting differently while in school and while out of school. She was both German Catholic and Native American, and her family pulled her in a different direction than she wanted to go. To compensate, she learned both German and a Native American language, Anishinaabe, and she considered later in life how the German and Native American communities of her rural Minnesotan home coexisted.