Exploring the Meaning of Alienation: Insights and Interpretations

What does alienation mean to you? Being alienated means to be isolated and choosing not to be with anyone. It can also be someone who is not like the rest and is different. Alienation can be when you walk into a place, and people stare at you because you don’t belong there, resulting in fright of socializing with others. In the novel, Blue Winds Dancing, the narrator starts noticing a difference between the two landscapes.

Thomas Whitecloud becomes alienated because he cannot see how he can live in both worlds without relinquishing his own pride.

These civilized white men want us to be like them-always dissatisfied- getting a hill but wanting a mountain. " In this quote, Thomas Whitecloud explains what he comes to realize during his journey, he is defensive to White culture, due to willful pride. These differences can be felt internally and externally as the narrator searches how to deal with society in a respectful manner. Thomas Whitecould chooses to combine the two different cultures, "my people are not inferior nor are they uncivilized" and agree with the rest of society that you must be one or the other.

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I can identify with Thomas Whitecloud because I have been through a very similar experience. At a young age, I moved thousands of miles away from home, to America, without knowing any English or anyone except my mother and older sister. My first day of school was the day after getting here. After going to what would be my new school in the morning, and signing papers with my mother, I walked into my new class.

Alone, isolated, and alienated was what I felt as I walked through those doors for the first time.

People could tell by just looking at me that I wasn’t from anywhere around there. The worst part is that I could not communicate with anyone because they all spoke English, and I only knew Portuguese. I can be on familiar terms with Thomas White cloud because those experiences were very similar. Thomas Whitecloud and I were trying to find a place where we would fit in, a place where we belonged. Thomas Whitecloud and I both felt like we didn’t belong at that place, like we were not being accepted, we felt embarrassed, and different.

I felt like this was the way it was going to be forever. But I was at school for a reason, to learn. Unlike Thomas Whitecloud, I quickly learned this whole other language and culture. That then allowed me to communicate with my peers. I mastered this new language, English, in a short amount of time. And little by little my classmates started communicating with me, even if it was saying “Hello”, or asking a question about homework. Unlike Thomas WhiteCloud, I was able to meet my classmates, and get to know them.

Now that I have been able to analyze this subject, I have gotten a lot of things out of this story. It really is sad that citizens cannot learn to live between one another and feel happy and not feel so lost and isolated in society. The novel, "Blue Winds Dancing" is an example of this because Thomas WhiteCloud has a difficult time trying to find a way to live in both worlds without giving up his pride for his own culture. There is nothing wrong with wanting the best of both worlds.

I really look up to Thomas Whitecloud because throughout the story, he did not give up on himself and his culture. Many people would take the easy way out, since it’s the most convenient, and try to fit it even if it means to forget about who they really are. People can become depressed, or they can start to hate themselves, or become detached from the world because of alienation. Feeling alienated can also lead to a person to go with in themselves, which is not a good place to be and very painful to recover from.

Being alienated can also lead to loneliness which is a dangerous place. It is important to socialize with people, friends, and family, because it can also make a person more confident. It is important to feel connected with different types of culture and people. There is no good effects of alienation, it makes people feel unwelcomed, like an outcast, like a loner, and shunned. This is how society is, but it is not how society should be. Before acting, think about what affects it will the people around you, and yourself.