Keeper 'n Me
Base XP: 600
If you were lucky enough to hear Richard Wagamese when he visited our school a couple of years ago, then you are already familiar with his storytelling, his heart, his humour, and his hurt.
"Wagamese was one of Canada's foremost Native authors and storytellers. He worked as a professional writer since 1979. He was a newspaper columnist and reporter, radio and television broadcaster and producer, documentary producer and the author of twelve titles from major Canadian publishers." (From Goodreads) Unfortunately he died of suicide in March of 2017.
Keeper 'N Me doesn't shy away from serious issues in the contemporary Indigenous Canadian experience. It deals with a boy who was removed from his family and raised in a series of foster homes, and his journey to try to reconnect with both himself and his culture.
Your major project from this novel is an essay (or other format composition) that addresses this prompt:
With reference to the text, discuss Richard Wagamese's use of character, conflict, imagery, and/setting to illustrate theme in Keeper 'n Me.
Synopsis from Goodreads:
When Garnet Raven was three years old, he was taken from his home on an Ojibway Indian reserve and placed in a series of foster homes. Having reached his mid-teens, he escapes at the first available opportunity, only to find himself cast adrift on the streets of the big city.
Having skirted the urban underbelly once too often by age 20, he finds himself thrown in jail. While there, he gets a surprise letter from his long-forgotten native family.
The sudden communication from his past spurs him to return to the reserve following his release from jail. Deciding to stay awhile, his life is changed completely as he comes to discover his sense of place, and of self. While on the reserve, Garnet is initiated into the ways of the Ojibway--both ancient and modern--by Keeper, a friend of his grandfather, and last fount of history about his people's ways.
By turns funny, poignant and mystical, Keeper'n Me reflects a positive view of Native life and philosophy--as well as casting fresh light on the redemptive power of one's community and traditions.