Early Indigenous Literatures

Tangible revenge surfaces again.

While the story could have ended with the conclusion of the dream--the devil conquered and the girl comforted, we see here a turn to tangible revenge in the material world. Unsatisfied with the devil's vanishing, the child punishes him and his white interlocutors by destroying part of the bible. The bible is a contested space throughout the story. It is where her mother will attempt to comfort her later as well as the space upon which her battle in school is waged. Rather than disregard it altogether, Zitkala-Ša's narrative here demonstrates that power is to be gained by knowing the bible so intimately that her character can wreak her own havoc upon it.

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