Question

Part A How have Black Hawk’s cultural experiences shaped his view about the nature of the danger Native Americans face in their conflict with white people? His experiences have given him confidence that the conflict will continue without him, and that Native Americans will prevail due to their moral superiority. His experiences have made him feel that the only victory available to Native Americans is to choose death over a life of immorality and weakness. His experiences have led him to believe that to save their culture, Native Americans must oppose and defeat white people to avoid becoming like them. His experiences have caused him to conclude that Native Americans and white men become more similar as they fight, and that there is no hope for Native Americans. Part B How does Black Hawk’s rhetoric in this excerpt advance the viewpoint selected in Part A? We told them to let us alone; but they followed on and beset our paths, and they coiled themselves among us like the snake. They poisoned us by their touch. We were not safe. We lived in danger. We were becoming like them, hypocrites and liars, adulterers, lazy drones, all talkers, and no workers. He uses repetition and a dramatic tone to emphasize his point that white people are evil by nature. He uses a simile and figurative language to convey the idea that white people morally corrupt Native Americans. He uses a paradoxical statement to reveal a surprising truth about how Native Americans are changing. He uses compare and contrast to demonstrate how Native Americans are different than white people.

Answer 1

1. I would say the correct answer is B. His experiences have made him feel that the only victory available to Native Americans is to choose death over a life of immorality and weakness. Black Hawk obviously feels that there is no escape for Native Americans. The white men are superior in numbers and technology, and they have used deceit to defeat Native Americans and take their lands. He fought with honor and lost the battle, and now the only thing left for him is to die knowing that he did all that was in his power - and dying with honor is better than adopting the white people's ways.

2. In my opinion, the best answer is B. He uses a simile and figurative language to convey the idea that white people morally corrupt Native Americans. By using a simile, he compares the white people's grip and its effect to that of a poisonous snake. The snake itself is a metaphor for corruption and deceit. He then expands this simile by using figurative language - "they poisoned us by their touch". This word "poisoned" is a metaphor. He doesn't mean that the white people literally poisoned the Native Americans. He means that they morally corrupted them.

Answer 2

Number One was incorrect. The REAL answer for number 1 was "His experiences have led him to believe that to save their culture, Native Americans must oppose and defeat white people to avoid becoming like them" Number two was Correct