TERM: FIRST TERM
SUBJECT: LITERATURE IN ENGLISH
CLASS: SS 3
REVISION: LITERARY TERMS AND DEFINITION
SUBJECT MATTER / THEME / MOTIF
CHARACTER / CHARACTERIZATION
These literary terms that will be discussed later are seen also to be the conventions of creative writing or concrete issues considered when appreciating a literacy work. That is, a proper understanding of these terms would yield proper appreciation and understanding of any world of art. In other words, students of literature should have a proper understanding of what these terms mean, to be able to discuss the aspects in a work of literature. And these terms are:
Background which can be seen as the situation of a play, novel or poem, is a combination of the circumstances, the setting inclusive, out of which emerges the story’s action. It also includes the motivation and the stimuli which give rise to the choices open to or made available to some characters in a novel or play. It was the background (situation) of oppression and domination of blacks by whites in South Africa that gave rise to the spineless (timid) characters that we often meet in South African Stories of the apartheid era.
Setting is the particular location where all the actions in a piece of fiction or drama take place, at a particular time or under certain psychological and moral conditions. These features serve as the plat-form against which characters live and pursue their life goals. Moreover, setting is an important factor in the author’s choice of subject matter and certainly is influential in the implementation of his theme(s). A story may have a physical, socio-psychological, temporal or metaphorical setting. The physical setting of a story is its realistic background, its geographical environment. It is the physical location of the occurrences in the story. This may be localized in a known or imaginary/unfamiliar place. In drama, the physical scenery presented on stage is also part of its physical setting. The physical features of the places such as the flora and fauna, the jungle, the hills and mountains, the landscape etc. are important in tangible setting. Such other details as sounds (including music and background noises) and odours are also part of physical setting.
The socio – psychological setting of a piece of literature has to do with its social emotional atmosphere, the cultural state of a period. It includes the language spoken and the way it is spoken, the norms and the customs, occupations, attitudes, religious outlook, the moral and state of value, the living conditions, the quality of human relationship, the intellectual and emotional environment of the characters, the economic and social class formations prevalent at a time etc. These influence the characters and inform their motivations and actions in a work.
Setting is temporal when it is simply a reference to historical times such as in Renaissance England, at the turn of the century post – independence era in Africa, the Nigerian Civil War period etc. It is metaphorical when it tends to objectify or vividly show internal states.
It is important to note that the kind of setting a writer adopts is a function of his intentions, themes or notions. A writer could also utilize all these levels of setting in one work or could make use of some.
Plot is the sequence of actions which constitute the nucleus (centre) of the story and conveys the theme. It is what the characters do or what is done to them as the story progresses. As bones hold up our mass of flesh and remain the only easily observable features on an x – ray film, so is the story’s plot, its structural framework. A plot is a carefully thought-out plan in which all the events, all the actions and reactions of the characters contribute towards the forward leap of the story.
It is the plot that imbues (gives) a story with a recognizable form, a definite structure or shape. A simple plot has pyramidal shape made up of an exposition, complication, conflict, climax and denouement.
It is necessary to explain the various parts of the simple plot:
(i) Exposition (Development): At this point, the author establishes the background of the story, paints and builds up the setting and introduces the readers to his character.
(ii) Complication: Here something throws spanner in the works. That is, some unexpected event disrupts the plans of the chief character.
(iii) Conflict: This is a clash between the hero and the villain in particular, or the clash of all opposing forces in the story in general.
(iv) Climax: It is the highest point of tension and intensity in a piece of fiction or drama. It is also called the turning-point because it is after here that the reader descends the slope of the story’s actions. A conventional plot usually has one climax while a more complex one would have more than one climax.
(v) Denouement (Resolution): It is the unraveling or unknotting of the events. At this stage in the narration, the tense situation is resolved or contained through the action or inaction of certain characters. The simple or conventional or well-made plot is only possible when we have a subject matter and theme which can be expressed by a linear or straight forward development of events. That is, because X happened, Y took place, and because Y took place, Z occurred etc.
SUBJECT MATTER AND THEME AND MOTIF
The subject matter of a work of literature is simply the issue the author discusses in his work.
And this issue is made up of the particular actions, characters and settings which the author chooses for his work.
In other words, these make up the subject matter, the surface facts. From the fore-going, a novel’ssubject could be a place, a situation or the quality of the human condition. It could centre on the adventures of a character with the opposite sex, a flashback into childhood, the modern Nigerian city (always the subject matter of many of Ekwensi’s novels), the Nigerian civil war (already the subject matter of many Nigerian novels), undergraduate life the travails of long spinsterhood or the embarrassment of chronic bachelorhood, barrenness etc. Out of a subject matter there could be many themes, themes being the abstract ideas that the subject matter exemplifies. No theme is possible without a subject matter because it is in the relationship of the former to the later that the ultimate truth the writer has in mind is made obvious.
The theme (thesis) of a novel, poem or drama is the message it wishes to impart, some overt or subtle philosophical pronouncement it strives to make. The subject matter of Sola Owonibi’s “Homeless Not Hopeless” is composed of the mere facts of the action, character and setting of the poem; while the truth the author aims at namely, the economical, social and spiritual importance of the beggars in the African society, constitutes the theme. The subject matter, or simply subject, is the area of a story’s focus while the theme is the author’s attitude towards it. For example, if the subject of a story is poverty, the theme may be the deprivations caused by it or the disadvantages to which a poor person is exposed in a developing country.
Motif should not be confused with motive. It is derived from Latin movere, motum-meaning to move. It is a particular idea or dominant element running through a work of art, constituting part of the main theme. It is a type of incident, device or formula which recurs frequently in a piece of creative literature. Very many authors aware of these motifs make use of them in their stories, poems or plays. For instance, the motif of a beautiful lady who rejects all her handsome suitors but marries an ugly or non-human one is derived from folklore. Motif or the German leitmotif (a guidingspirit) is equally applied to the frequent repetition of a significant phrase or set description or complex of images in a particular work. If the theme of a work is the author’s statement of value for or against the events constituting the subject matter of a work, its motif is a recognizable incident which recalls a similar incident in oral or written literature or attracts a historical or bible comparison. In the example we gave about the subject matter of a work being poverty and the theme being the deprivations it gives rise to, the motif could be the biblical incident between Lazarus and the king’s dogs which such a theme recalls.
Theme is occasionally used interchangeably with motif even though ‘theme’ has to do with some underlying doctrine implicitly or explicitly stated in an imaginative writing and which the author persuades his readers to behold. Somehow, every creative writer has his own notions about life and humanity. We call this notion a writer’s philosophy of life which in a good artistic work is often hidden from a lazy reader or the reader who is merely interested in the story. Cyprian Ekwensi’sJagua Nana has two controlling ideas (themes) namely, the city corrupts young people and secondly, those who are morally deficient must pay for their short comings while one of its easily perceivable motifs is ‘the wages of sin is death’
CHARACTER AND CHARACTERIZATION
M.H. Abrams speaks of the characters in a literary work in this vein: “the persons presented in a dramatic or narrative work who are interpreted by the reader as being endowed with moral and dispositional qualities that are expressed in what they say – the dialogue and by what they do – the action.” In drama or fiction, there would be no story or plot without a character or characters. Without characters, there would be no action since the events are determined by them. The conception of, and manner of presentation of characters have a lot of influence on the stature of apiece of creative writing as much as the significance of the story’s events and patterning. Character means both the people (including animals) who appear in a novel, play or poem and the description of the personality of any of these figures, particularly those traits which have significant effect on the development of the work.
To build up characters who are realistic and credible, who enjoy our love and affection or elicit our hatred or condemnation is probably one of the most herculean challenges that confront the imagination of a creative writer. In conventional terms, the most important character in a story about whose fortunes and misfortunes we are most desirous of knowing is the protagonist, also called the hero or heroine, whether or not there is anything heroic in his or her experiences or actions. The protagonist is often at the centre of the story’s action and controls the universe in which his actions or inaction provoke one form of crisis or the other. In the process of the hero trying to tame his universe, he usually meets some resistance. The reader is often desirous of knowing how he faces these obstacles and what he experiences in the attempt. Sometimes we so get immersed in identifying with him that we laugh when he overcomes and sign when he is disadvantaged.
The character in opposition to the protagonist is called the antagonist or the villain. He opposes the hero and tries to foil him in his plans. He makes every effort to soil the hero’s good name andreputation, and / or snatch his lover or mistress from him. The foil of a character contrasts him; his role in the novel or play is essentially to serve as a mirror of behavioural contrast to the chief character. The hero’s goodness stands in bold relief if the antagonist is shown to be mean, cunning and devilish. However, the antagonist need not be an ‘evil’ character in the way that the protagonist may not have to be a ‘good’ personality. For example, in The Merchant of Venice by Williams Shakespeare, the protagonist is shylock, the resolute money-lender, while the antagonist is the kind-hearted Antonia.
Two main characters exist in literature. There are the round and flat or static characters. This is in fact the only way we can conveniently say it because human personalities are difficult to be neatly classified, the human person being capable of adopting a combination of roundness and flatness if he so desires, and depending on the circumstances before him. The roundness of character indicates that a literary character is dynamic, complex, developing, life-like and multi-faceted. A round character grows and changes as the narrative progresses. The growth may be physical – from childhood to adulthood; it may be mental /psychological – from ignorance to knowledge, or from naiveté to sophistication. A round character is not usually in the same state of innocence or ignorance with which he is associated at the beginning of the novel or play. Towards the end, he now exhibits a new consciousness, a new awareness and can now behold reality with new eyes, capable of surprising the reader in a convincing manner.
The other type of character is the flat or simple character, also referred to as one-dimensional, non-developing or simple character. Flat characters are quite predictable and never really grow or change in the course of the story. Often static characters are minor characters, but this need not be so.
The stock character, on the other hand, may be round or flat. His distinguishing quality is that he is a character type which recurs repeatedly in a particular literary genre. He is an archetypal model, the typical character specimen whom authors try to portray as prototypes.
Characterization is the effort made by a creative writer to erect credible characters. Authors adopt a number of methods in characterization. There is exposition in which the writer or narrator steps into the tale to let the reader know about the character such as his physical attributes, his motives and his traits. Another is the dramatic or scenic or showing method, the author presents the character as he acts, reflects, talks or interacts without any attempt to tell the reader the type of person the character is.
The writer allows the character to reveal himself through his words and actions. Characterization could be advanced by the author’s use of some characters to inform his reader about the other characters. In that way the writer is further removed from the scene, and in that way increases his level of objectivity in the story. A writer does this by pitching characters against one another in dialogues at which they talk about their fellow characters.
There is also stream of consciousness method by which the writer merely records the state of a character’s mental activity as it traverses the present and the past, as it reels off the character’s mental torture or excitement. Though this approach, the writer appears to be showing us the character’s mental film of feelings, thoughts and memories which flows or streams. In the end readers learn about characters by what they do, what they say and what others say about them. In one work, a writer may use all these techniques or some of them.
LANGUAGE AND STYLE
This has been variously defined as “the manner of linguistic expression” (M.H. Abrams), “the patterning of language” (Richard Taylor), “way of writing “(A.F. Scott), “that which intervenes between the artist and his material” (Victor Jones), “the expertise which goes into your creation” (Chukwuemeka Ike) etc. While some authorities seem to anchor style on language, some consider it as being constituted by the overall presentation and achievement of effect in a work. But it has a lot to do with the manner of writing with which a creative writer is associated. Hence, there is a popular adage which says that the style is the man himself. “Style is the final result of what the author does with the materials he employs – his characters, the environment of the story, the narrative perspective (is it in the first person or in the omniscient voice etc?), the organization of the events and actions and the implementation of linguistic devices. Style includes a creative writer mannerism and rhetoric, his effective use of language for the decoration of ideas and for painting features in bold relief, presenting facts with charity and brevity, the utilization of wits, ironies and jests and the arousal of emotions in others, for, as F.L. Lucas says in his Style, “without emotion, no art of literature; nor any other art.”
Style possesses two principal ingredients: the content as shown in the expression of ideas and the way this is done; and the consistent and unique manner an author deploys various devices and strategies so as to make his work memorable. To examine a writer’s style demands a consideration of all that he does in a piece of creative writing with a peculiarity associated with him. In addition to a characteristic portrayal of characters, setting, narrative points of view, events and actions which we pointed out in the preceding paragraph, there are also the author’s use of dialogue, his humour, powers of observation, the length and variety of his sentence structure, his fidelity or otherwise to linguistic conventions, the words and word-types he employs, the paragraphing and figurative use of language.
Discussions on style often tend to centre on the author’s levels of language deployment: the high (or grand), the middle (or mean), and the low (or base, or plain) styles. A writer may employ the three levels in the same novel or play, depending on his characters and the cumulative effect he has in mind. It is the duty of an author to ensure that the level of style in a literary work is appropriate to the speaker, the occasion and the dignity of the literary genre in question. The high or grand style is associated with formality in language, consisting of elaborate sentence patterns and figurative ornamentation, tight, united statements, balanced constructions and consciously designed statements. The middle level is akin to informality in language use which would include the language of domestic conversation and the classroom, ordinary speech rhythms, loose constructions, short, simple and compound sentences, phrases and clauses which often stand on their own, declamatory statements and the admittance of interjections, and asides which interfere with the movement of the basic sentence construction. The low level is the illiterate / vulgate speech exemplified by regional dialects, slang and artisan vocabulary.
We may also classify styles according to literary epoch - Augustan style, metaphysical style etc. It may be derived from the source of its influence – the Biblical style; or from a type of use, say the journalistic or the scientific style; or it could be traced to the influence of a specific author – Shakespearean, Miltonic, Achebean, Soyinkanetc styles. It is after the consideration of all these stylistic facets that an author’s style may be described in a number of ways. These include its classification as possessing the ‘ornate’, ‘episodic’, ‘poetic’, ‘elaborate’, ‘forceful’, ‘florid’, ‘gay’, ‘sober’, ‘dull’, ‘pace/racy’ etc. style.
POINT OF VIEW
Point of view in a story is the author’s expressive devices, his models of narration. It is associated with the theme, but more precisely it is the outcome of the subject – theme relationship. An author’s chosen theme or themes have a direct impact on his viewpoint because just as point of view is the angle from which a story is narrated, an author’s theme is informed by his chosen perspective. In drama and poetry, the point of view is often easily identifiable, but in fiction this is not always possible. The fact is that narrations have narrators who may act as filters standing between the author, and the story events, on one hand, and the characters and the author, on the other.
Every story then could be told in a number of way or a combination of some of them. The three
common approaches are the use of one of the character in the story; the use of a third person, an outsider who is not a participant in the story events; and lastly, the story could ‘tell’ itself without the intervention of anybody whatsoever. The use of one of the characters is also referred to as the personalized point of view; the third person narrator (persona) is the omniscient view in which the third – person pronouns (he, she, they or it) are used in reference to characters in a story; and there is also the non-intervening narration, also referred to as the objective point of view in which the narrator merely introduces the characters to the reader without any effort to describe them or to reveal their inner thoughts and motivations.
(i) The Participant/Personalized Point of View
This is equally referred to as the first – person point of view. In this narrative technique, the writer appoints one of the characters who is both a participant and a narrator. Such a character is usually the story’s protagonist. He uses ‘I’ or ‘We’ in places. The voice is his own, not necessarily the author’s. He is not necessarily the author’s favourite and what he says, the follies he commits or the fortunes he makes may not necessarily enjoy the author’s support. In addition, the first person narrator in any work of literature must not necessarily be a major character. That is, a minor character can enjoy the right to be the narrator in a piece of literature.
(ii) The Non-Participant Narrator/Third Person/Omniscient Point of View
The narrator here is omniscient, he is everywhere. He is not a character in the novel. The story told in the omniscient viewpoint uses the third person (he, she, it or they) in describing the characters and their action except when they are conversing. The omniscient narrator is an outsider who enjoys the characteristics of God omniscience. He sees and knows everything, and can and does enter the minds of the story’s characters to reveal their fears and hopes. He knows the past, the present and the future of the characters.
The non-participant narrator or the third-person point of view is sub-divided into three: the editorial omniscient narrator, the neutral omniscient narrator and selective omniscience (stream of consciousness). In editorial omniscience, the author, in addition to a full knowledge of his characters, intervenes from time to time to say one or two things about his characters. In neutralomniscience, the narrator makes no comments on his feelings about anything instead he makes available the much he knows about each character without passing value judgement on them or on their actions. In the third type of omniscience the narrator has access to very few of the characters, sometimes to one of them. This is called selective omniscience or stream of consciousness technique because of the narrator’s restriction to one character or two whose formed and unformed thoughts, emotions and dreams he is able to make available to the reader by occasionally penetrating their consciousness.
(iii) The Objective/Camera Point of View
Like in the omniscient narrator model, the objective /camera/disappearing author point of view uses the third person pronouns but has no omniscient narrator. The author does not intervene in the course of the story. It is described as ‘camera’ because the author does no more than present the characters as they act and converse with one another. The author makes no attempt to describe them or to penetrate the recesses of their consciousness, or to judge their actions and reasons for doing what they do. It is the reader who makes all the deductions based on what he hears the characters say or do and what the characters say about other or what they do to one another. There are neither authorial intrusions nor the summarization of events in parts. One incident gives rise to another without intervention from any quarters whatsoever. The result is that there are usually a lot of conversations, almost resembling what happens in a drama.
(iv) Multiple Points of View
This is the use of more than one point of view in the same story. It can lead to the complexity of a work. A story written in the first person could also have a substantial number of passages in which the stream of consciousness is employed by the narrator to dissect his own thought. It is also possible that an author whose point of view is omniscient could have passage of stream of consciousness, some letters or even diaries.
RHYTHM, METRE AND SCANSION
Apart from inventing new pictures/images reflecting one or more of the sense impressions, poets quite often arrange their diction with the purpose of achieving a special kind of beat, pulse, movement or rhythm. This is especially true of English poetry before the 20th century. This is not to say that rhythm is not important in 20th century poetry, for there is a sense in fact in which every good poem has an inherent rhythm, even if it is irregular. J.P. Clark’s “Ibadan” may possess irregular rhythm, but it does suggest that the arrangement of buildings and structures in the city is irregular and confused:
running splash of rust
and gold-flung and scattered
among seven hills
like broken china in the sun.
Rhythm in words or drumming in wave motion or in landscape refers to the repetition of pattern, particularly when it is done with some amount of variation and movement. Rhythm is a natural process such as we experience in our breathing, speaking, walking, pounding, etc. in the existence of day and night; in the appearance and disappearance of the moon or the seasons etc. In English speech, the voice falls more heavily on some sounds than on others. English poetry has alwaysmade use of these rhythmic patterns. Therefore, whenever we read a poem, we should try to observe the words that are emphasized or repeated, and the general pacing of the poem. Essentially that is what rhythm in poetry is about. Rhythm in poetry expresses emotion and suggests or aids the determination of a poem’s theme.
In English poetry, the regular beats are referred to as the foot or metre. Until very recently, English poems were written with an eye on certain rules of rhythm known as metrical laws. Metre refers to the pattern of accented and unaccented syllables in a line. This is possible because English as a language is syllable – timed. In other words, every English word is composed of phonemes which are either stressed or unstressed (account and unaccented). For example, con/duct (noun) and con/duct (verb). When we read a poetic line aloud, our voice is never at the same level throughout; we vary and modulate it. The pitches fall on particular syllables according to the nature of their phonemic weight.
Sometimes a whole word is taken to be a syllable as in come, put, quick, John, eat, hell etc. At other times, the word is regarded as possessing two syllables and so is divided in a manner that the accent falls on the first or second syllable. For example, quickly, report, rapport etc. Thus is a poetic line, one would expect to find a number of accented and unaccented syllables arranged in an identifiable order or pattern, known as the metre. It is the arrangement of the feet in a line of the stressed and unstressed syllables that determines what the metre of the whole poem is;
(i) The Iambus/Iambic Foot (0-): consists of one unaccented (unstressed) syllable followed by one accented (stressed) syllable.
(a) That time of year thou mayst in me behold
When yellow leaves, or none or few do hang.
(b) The curfew tolls the knell of parting day.
(ii) The Trochee/Trochaic Foot (- 0): consist of one accented syllable followed by one unaccented syllable.
(a) There they are, my fifty men and women.
In a cavern, in a canyon.
(iii) The Anapest /Anapestic Foot ( 0 0 - ): two unaccented syllables followed by one accented syllable. It is also called running rhythm because of its prevalence in swift movements.
And his cohorts were gleaning in purple and gold.
(iv) The Dactyl /Dactylic Foot (-0 0): consists of one accented syllable followed by two unaccented syllables
(a) Half a league, half a league,
half a league onwards
(v) The Spondee /Spondaic Foot ( - -): One stressed syllable followed by another stressed syllable.
(a) All whom war, death, age, ague, tyrannies
Despair, law, chance hath slaine
(vi) The Pyrrhic/Pyrrhic Foot (o o): two successive unstressed syllables as found in the second and fourth feet of the first line below:
Scansion is the marking of strong and weak stresses where they fall in the various syllables. To scan a passage of poetry is to plod through it line by line, noting its component feet while indicating where the strong and weak pauses fall within the poetic line. It is the measuring and marking of lines by taking them foot by foot for the purpose of establishing their metrical pattern.
This is the repetition of the same sound, usually but not always, at the end of two or more lines. Rhymed words must have the same vowel sounds, or similar consonantal sounds preceding the vowels or they must enjoy parity of accents. These would ensure a perfect rhyme.
(a) There is sweet music here that softer falls
Than petals from blown roses on the grass,
Or night dews on still water between walls
Of shadowy granite, in a gleaming pass;
Music that gentler on the spirit lies
Than tired eyelids upon eyes.
(Tennyson, “The Lotos Eaters”)
The rhyme scheme in the above passage is ababcc. There are a variety of rhyme schemes including abab, aabb, abba, acbc etc. The portion of the poem cited below has the rhyme scheme of aabbcc.
(b) Two neighbor, who were rather dense,
Considered that their mutual fence
Were more symbolic of their peace
(Which they maintained should never cease)
If each about his home and garden
Set up a more substantial warden.
(William Soutar, “Parable”)
A verse/poem without any rhyme is referred to as blank verse while the free verse is a poem which disregards the traditional nations of rhyme and metre, and rather relies on the nature of the content to achieve its poetic form.
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There are 3 different assignments listed below:
Assignment 1) What was your favorite single fragment or poem from Sappho? Why? Be specific. Then, select at least two separate, lines/phrases from any of Sappho’s poetry that you found interesting, provocative, memorable, etc. Briefly explain what it was about these lines that you appreciated. Identify and explain 3 specific literary elements found in any of these poems. You could find examples of symbolism, tone, alliteration, point-of-view, personification, hyperbole, ambiguity, etc. Must be 250 Words. Must be in MLA Format.
Assignment 2) In your own words, briefly describe the scenario Plato depicts in his allegory. Consider the following questions as you explain the allegory: for example, what happens to a person when first emerging from the cave? How do others respond to those who try to leave the cave? What does the light (and/or the darkness) symbolize? How can knowledge be painful, and ignorance comforting? Incorporate at least one direct quote from the literary text
correctly introduce the quote, and provide an in-text parenthetical citation afterwards
include a works cited entry for “The Allegory of the Cave” at the bottom of your response Must be 300 Words. Must be in MLA Format
THE ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE ( This reading goes with Assignment 2 )
Socrates: AND NOW, I SAID, let me show in a figure how far our nature is enlightened or unenlightened:–Behold! human beings living in an underground den, which has a mouth open towards the light and reaching all along the den; here they have been from their childhood, and have their legs and necks chained so that they cannot move, and can only see before them, being prevented by the chains from turning round their heads. Above and behind them a fire is blazing at a distance, and between the fire and the prisoners there is a raised way; and you will see, if you look, a low wall built along the way, like the screen which marionette players have in front of them, over which they show the puppets.
Glaucon: I see.
Soctates: And do you see, I said, men passing along the wall carrying all sorts of vessels, and statues and figures of animals made of wood and stone and various materials, which appear over the wall? Some of them are talking, others silent.
Glaucon: You have shown me a strange image, and they are strange prisoners.
Socrates: Like ourselves and they see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the cave?
Glaucon: True how could they see anything but the shadows if they were never allowed to move their heads?
Socrates: And of the objects which are being carried in like manner they would only see the shadows?
Socrates: And if they were able to converse with one another, would they not suppose that they were naming what was actually before them?
Glaucon: Very true.
Socrates: And suppose further that the prison had an echo which came from the other side, would they not be sure to fancy when one of the passersby spoke that the voice which they heard came from the passing shadow?
Glaucon: No question.
Socrates: To them, the truth would be literally nothing but the shadows of the images.
Glaucon: That is certain.
Socrates: And now look again, and see what will naturally follow if the prisoners are released and disabused of their error. At first, when any of them is liberated and compelled suddenly to stand up and turn his neck round and walk and look towards the light, he will suffer sharp pains; the glare will distress him, and he will be unable to see the realities of which in his former state he had seen the shadows; and then conceive some one saying to him, that what he saw before was an illusion, but that now, when he is approaching nearer to being and his eye is turned towards more real existence, he has a clearer vision, what will be his reply?
And you may further imagine that his instructor is pointing to the objects as they pass and requiring him to name them, will he not be perplexed? Will he not fancy that the shadows which he formerly saw are truer than the objects which are now shown to him?
Glaucon: Far truer.
Socrates: And if he is compelled to look straight at the light, will he not have a pain in his eyes which will make him turn away to take and take in the objects of vision which he can see, and which he will conceive to be in reality clearer than the things which are now being shown to him?
Socrates: And suppose once more, that he is reluctantly dragged up a steep and rugged ascent, and held fast until he’s forced into the presence of the sun himself, is he not likely to be pained and irritated? When he approaches the light his eyes will be dazzled, and he will not be able to see anything at all of what are now called realities.
Glaucon: Not all in a moment.
Socrates: He will require to grow accustomed to the sight of the upper world. And first he will see the shadows best, next the reflections of men and other objects in the water, and then the objects themselves; then he will gaze upon the light of the moon and the stars and the spangled heaven; and he will see the sky and the stars by night better than the sun or the light of the sun by day?
Socrates: Last of he will be able to see the sun, and not mere reflections of him in the water, but he will see him in his own proper place, and not in another; and he will contemplate him as he is.
Socrates: He will then proceed to argue that this is he who gives the season and the years, and is the guardian of all that is in the visible world, and in a certain way the cause of all things which he and his fellows have been accustomed to behold?
Glaucon: Clearly he would first see the sun and then reason about him.
Socrates: And when he remembered his old habitation, and the wisdom of the den and his fellow prisoners, do you not suppose that he would felicitate himself on the change, and pity them?
Glaucon: Certainly, he would.
Socrates: And if they were in the habit of conferring honors among themselves on those who were quickest to observe the passing shadows and to remark which of them went before, and which followed after, and which were together; and who were therefore best able to draw conclusions as to the future, do you think that he would care for such honors and glories, or envy the possessors of them? Would he not say with Homer,
to be the poor servant of a poor master,
And to endure anything, rather than think as they do and live after their manner?
Glaucon: Yes, I think that he would rather suffer anything than entertain these false notions and live in this miserable manner.
Socrates: Imagine once more, such an one coming suddenly out of the sun to be replaced in his old situation; would he not be certain to have his eyes full of darkness?
Glaucon: To be sure.
Socrates: And if there were a contest, and he had to compete in measuring the shadows with the prisoners who had never moved out of the den, while his sight was still weak, and before his eyes had become steady (and the time which would be needed to acquire this new habit of sight might be very considerable) would he not be ridiculous? Men would say of him that up he went and down he came without his eyes; and that it was better not even to think of ascending; and if any one tried to loose another and lead him up to the light, let them only catch the offender, and they would put him to death.
Glaucon: No question.
Socrates: This entire allegory, you may now append, dear Glaucon, to the previous argument; the prison house is the world of sight, the light of the fire is the sun, and you will not misapprehend me if you interpret the journey upwards to be the ascent of the soul into the intellectual world according to my poor belief, which, at your desire, I have expressed whether rightly or wrongly God knows. But, whether true or false, my opinion is that in the world of knowledge the idea of good appears last of all, and is seen only with an effort; and, when seen, is also inferred to be the universal author of all things beautiful and right, parent of light and of the lord of light in this visible world, and the immediate source of reason and truth in the intellectual; and that this is the power upon which he who would act rationally, either in public or private life must have his eye fixed.
Glaucon: I agree, as far as I am able to understand you.
Socrates: Moreover, you must not wonder that those who attain to this beatific vision are unwilling to descend to human affairs; for their souls are ever hastening into the upper world where they desire to dwell; which desire of theirs is very natural, if our allegory may be trusted.
Glaucon: Yes, very natural.
Socrates: And is there anything surprising in one who passes from divine contemplations to the evil state of man, misbehaving himself in a ridiculous manner; if, while his eyes are blinking and before he has become accustomed to the surrounding darkness, he is compelled to fight in courts of law, or in other places, about the images or the shadows of images of justice, and is endeavoring to meet the conceptions of those who have never yet seen absolute justice?
Glaucon: Anything but surprising, he replied.
Socrates: Anyone who has common sense will remember that the bewilderments of the eyes are of two kinds, and arise from two causes, either from coming out of the light or from going into the light, which is true of the mind’s eye, quite as much as of the bodily eye; and he who remembers this when he sees any one whose vision is perplexed and weak, will not be too ready to laugh; he will first ask whether that soul of man has come out of the brighter light, and is unable to see because unaccustomed to the dark, or having turned from darkness to the day is dazzled by excess of light. And he will count the one happy in his condition and state of being, and he will pity the other; or, if he have a mind to laugh at the soul which comes from below into the light, there will be more reason in this than in the laugh which greets him who returns from above out of the light into the den.
Glaucon: That, is a very just distinction.
Socrates: But then, if I am right, certain professors of education must be wrong when they say that they can put a knowledge into the soul which was not there before, like sight into blind eyes.
Glaucon: They undoubtedly say this.
Socrates: Whereas, our argument shows that the power and capacity of learning exists in the soul already; and that just as the eye was unable to turn from darkness to light without the whole body, so too the instrument of knowledge can only by the movement of the whole soul be turned from the world of becoming into that of being, and learn by degrees to endure the sight of being, and of the brightest and best of being, or in other words, of the good.
Glaucon: Very true.
Socrates: And must there not be some art which will effect conversion in the easiest and quickest manner; not implanting the faculty of sight, for that exists already, but has been turned in the wrong direction, and is looking away from the truth?
Glaucon: Yes, such an art may be presumed.
Socrates: And whereas the other socalled virtues of the soul seem to be akin to bodily qualities, for even when they are not originally innate they can be implanted later by habit and exercise, the virtue of wisdom more than anything else contains a divine element which always remains, and by this conversion is rendered useful and profitable; or, on the other hand, hurtful and useless. Did you never observe the narrow intelligence flashing from the keen eye of a clever rogue–how eager he is, how clearly his paltry soul sees the way to his end; he is the reverse of blind, but his keen eyesight is forced into the service of evil, and he is mischievous in proportion to his cleverness.
Glaucon: Very true.
Socrates: But what if there had been a circumcision of such natures in the days of their youth; and they had been severed from those sensual pleasures, such as eating and drinking, which, like leaden weights, were attached to them at their birth, and which drag them down and turn the vision of their souls upon the things that are below–if, I say, they had been released from these impediments and turned in the opposite direction, the very same faculty in them would have seen the truth as keenly as they see what their eyes are turned to now.
Glaucon: Very likely.
Socrates: Yes, and there is another thing which is likely. or rather a necessary inference from what has preceded, that neither the uneducated and uninformed of the truth, nor yet those who never make an end of their education, will be able ministers of State; not the former, because they have no single aim of duty which is the rule of all their actions, private as well as public; nor the latter, because they will not act at all except upon compulsion, fancying that they are already dwelling apart in the islands of the blest.
Glaucon: Very true.
Socrates: Then, the business of us who are the founders of the State will be to compel the best minds to attain that knowledge which we have already shown to be the greatest of allthey must continue to ascend until they arrive at the good; but when they have ascended and seen enough we must not allow them to do as they do now.
Glaucon: What do you mean?
Socrates: I mean that they remain in the upper world: but this must not be allowed; they must be made to descend again among the prisoners in the den, and partake of their labours and honors, whether they are worth having or not.
Glaucon: But is not this unjust? Ought we to give them a worse life, when they might have a better?
Socrates: You have again forgotten, my friend, the intention of the legislator, who did not aim at making any one class in the State happy above the rest; the happiness was to be in the whole State, and he held the citizens together by persuasion and necessity, making them benefactors of the State, and therefore benefactors of one another; to this end he created them, not to please themselves, but to be his instruments in binding up the State.
Citation and Use
The text was taken from the following work.
Plato, “Republic, Book 7,” in PLATO IN TWELVE VOLUMES, trans. Paul Shorey, vol. 5 and 6, 12 vols. (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1969), http://data.perseus.org/citations/urn:cts:greekLit:tlg0059.tlg030.perseus-eng1:1.
The use of this translation is governed by Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 United States License.
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Chhatrapati Shivaji Raje Bhosale, the seventeenth-century king who founded the Maratha Empire, is invoked by Maharashtrians with the words ‘राजे तुम्ही परत या’(Raje, please come back).
For societies to perpetuate, they require a past to thrive on. Historical figures—for example, Greece’s Alexander, France’s Louis XIV or India’s Shivaji Maharaj—are essential to any society. They transform into canonical icons and are woven into the fabrics of culture, collective and public memories through family histories, statues, traditional and popular theatrical plays and performances, and now even films and television serials.
Shivaji as a ruler is celebrated, especially in Maharashtra, as charismatic, just and noble. Though the Maratha Empire was dominant in western and central India in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the nationalist movement from Maharashtra after the nineteenth century attempted to transform Shivaji into a national hero. The impetus lay in appropriating him as a torchbearer of Hindavi swarajya (self-rule of Indian people) before British colonisers took hold of India. However, there were also other narratives spun around him; writer, social activist and anti-caste reformer Mahatma Jyotirao Phule celebrated Shivaji as the king of commoners. Such varied historical narratives in the form of plays and performances and fictional novels are part of popular culture.
The complex history of India from the Middle Ages until British colonial rule further contributed to the various imaginings of Shivaji—for in that cluster of centuries, the Indian subcontinent was fragmented and ruled by various sultans, nawabs, rajas and maharajas. Regionalisation led to the decline of the Mughal Empire after the death of Aurangzeb, and the local upper caste and class bankers made circumstances favourable for British colonisers, who were initially interested only in trade. During the reign of the Marathas, the power structure changed and de facto power was bestowed upon the Peshwas, who were mostly Brahmins by caste in contrast with the monarchy of Shivaji and his lineage (Shivaji’s caste is a debated issue: some claim that he was a Shudra king while others claim he was a Rajput).
With the Peshwas in power by the eighteenth century, caste hierarchies became even more rigid and the ‘just rule’ of Shivaji’s reign, a nostalgia. The Third Battle of Panipat, fought between the Maratha Empire and the Afghan king Ahmad Shah Abdali and his allies in 1761, paved the way for the British to take over administration in the Indian subcontinent. Jyotirao Phule, in the preface of his text Gulamgiri, writes about the drawbacks of the British government’s policy on higher education and exposes the Brahmin monopoly in all strands of the society. He explains that though the British policy of universal education appeared on the surface to be egalitarian, their choices and ethnographic practices reinstated caste hierarchies. Phule writes:
Perhaps the most glaring tendency of the Government system of high class education has been the virtual monopoly of all the higher offices under them by the Brahmins. If the welfare of the Ryot is at heart, if it is the duty of Government to check a host of abuses, it behoves them to narrow this monopoly, day by day, so as to allow a sprinkling of the other castes to get into the public service. Perhaps some might be inclined to say that it is not feasible in the present state of education. Our only reply is that if Government look a little less after higher education and more towards the education of the masses, the former being able to take care of itself, there would be no difficulty in training up a body of men every way qualified and perhaps far better in morals and manners.
Before the British brought to India the scientific and ‘rational’ education of the West, history writing was a form of storytelling with mystical interventions as in the case of bakhar (a form of Marathi historical narratives and memoirs). Prachi Deshpande, in her remarkable work Creative Pasts, recounts the layout of the bakhar-writing tradition of the seventeenth century. She points out different narrative strategies adopted by the kings and their courtiers to project a certain image while being entirely conscious that it would be remembered as history. She stresses the role of scribes—mostly Brahmins—in the Maratha courts and their politics of narrativisation—including popular-culture beliefs, myths of Goddess Bhavani, importance of the scribes’ role in ruling, and rejection of the Muslim conventions of writing interspersed with the historical facts and evidences. Similarly, Stewart Gordon unambiguously draws onto the historiography of the Marathas from the 1600s to the present.
Bakhars treat Shivaji as a deific figure inspired by goddess Bhavani. This approach is also exemplified in the SSC board history textbooks in Maharashtra. For example, the class four history textbook is completely dedicated to Shivaji and the saints during his time, albeit without any sociopolitical meanings. An entire chapter is dedicated to Shivaji’s childhood friends and his oath-taking, and most of the textbook focusses on his heroic deeds rather than concrete historical events. Such narratives from the ‘rational’ as well as the archaic sources enter into the realm of popular culture through performative mediums such as plays and performances.
Powada is one of the oldest traditional forms of ballad singing from Maharashtra where stories of great warriors are narrated, enacted and sung. It comprises a chorus, with the leader, called the shahir (from Arabic shayar, meaning poet), narrating the story in verse and singing. (Fig. 1) The chorus repeats the lines from the song with a leitmotif of ‘jeejeejeejee’. Along with lavani and tamasha, powada is employed in popular culture, especially in rural Maharashtra. Deshpande writes in her book Creative Pasts that powadas adapted from the bakhars and vice-versa. Of late, bakhars have been adapted into plays and films usually based on Shivaji.
Sayajirao Gaikwad, a scholar from Shivaji University, Kolhapur, traces the etymology of the word ‘powada’ and offers various interpretations. He suggests that it might have come from the Kannada pawad, which means miracle or superhuman action, but settles on the Sanskrit etymology of pravada, which means ‘to tell’.
Powada as a narrative storytelling form is seen to be interspersed with references to local gods and goddesses to make it familiar and magical for the audience, as it is a part of the everyday culture as opposed to the elite court cultures of the past. Take, for example, this powada by Shahir Pirajirao Sarnaik from Kolhapur:
कोणी मानीत नाही कोणाला
देवादिकांची, देश, धर्माला
जुलुम जबरदस्ती अन्यायफार
असा भूमीवर वाढता भार
देवाला घ्यावा लागतो अवतार . . .जी जी जी
या न्यायाने शहाजीराजे व जिजाईचे पोटी शीव-अवतार झाला
Nobody is respected
Not the gods, not the nation, not religion
Atrocities and injustice is abundant
This way the earth is getting heavier
The gods are then forced to incarnate . . .
Due to this justice of the Gods, ShahajiRaje and Jijabai[Shivaji’s parents] gave birth to the incarnation of Shiva
Shivaji’s birth has clearly been mythologised as the incarnation of Lord Shiva to appeal to the audience. Similar narratives can be seen in the spectacular play Janata Raja (The Knowing King) which has been performed in Marathi since 1985. The three-hour mega play—written and directed by noted author, orator, Maratha history scholar and Padma Vibhushan awardee Balwant Moreshwar Purandare, also known as Shivshahir (Shivaji’s poet)—has staged over a thousand shows in India and abroad. Translated into Hindi as Raja Shiv Chhatrapati, the play propagates Shivacharitra (the life of Shivaji) throughout the country. At the age of 96, Purandare continues to work towards propagating Shivcharitra to younger generations.
Purandare founded the Maharaja Shivchhatrapati Pratisthan, under the leadership of Rajmata Late Sumitra RajeBhosle on April 7, 1967. Among many other activities, it produces and manages shows of Janata Raja. (Fig. 2)
Janata Raja requires—unlike theatre performances in auditoriums—a huge open ground to accommodate a huge automated stage, 250 artists, animals, fire shows and thousands of spectators. (Fig. 3) The play is a depiction of the life of Shivaji, with dances and songs, animals and fire on stage. As the name of the play suggests, various facets of Shivaji’s character—not only as a king, but also as an individual—are depicted, with multiple scenes from his life.
The mahanatya (mega play) was one of its kind, with its massive stage and plenty of actors. Later, mahanatyas based on the lives of Saint Dnyaneshwar, Krishna, Chhatrapati Sambhaji, etc., were experimented with but none saw the success Janata Raja sees.
The play uses the folk art forms of Maharashtra, predominantly the tamasha where actors narrate stories through songs and dances, especially lavani (a popular music genre in Maharashtra). The play unfolds with the shahir and his phad (chorus group) narrating to the spectator on one hand and the actors demonstrating on the other. The play begins with a powada, where the shahir seeks Lord Ganesha’s blessings. Like the powada and mythological narratives, the play also calls Jijabai, Shivaji’s mother, the incarnation of Goddess Bhavani (dialogue quoted from the play: ‘And the Bhavani of Maharashtra appeared before us as Jijabai’). In another instance, an actor playing the character of a young Shivaji says to his friends, ‘We are the sons of Goddess Tulja Bhavani’, and then turns to the huge sculpture of Bhavani at the centre of the stage and invokes her to grace the gondhal (a dramatic narration of mythological stories in praise of a hero). Poetry and dramatic art go hand in hand; metaphors and mythologies are pleasurable to the ears and heart and their aesthetics cannot resist creating political efficacy.
Shivaji Underground in Bhimnagar Muhalla is a more recent Marathi play, produced by Rang Mala, a theatre group comprising mostly farmers belonging to the small district of Jalna in Maharashtra. The play was written by Rajkumar Tangde, a member of the group, and directed by actor–director Nandu Madhav. It breaks the traditionally mystical and exaggerated hagiography of Shivaji and draws attention to his ideas of rule and justice through a Dalit perspective rather than making him a hero of a specific clan, caste or religion. It critiques the use of Shivaji’s image by political parties to push for their agenda and lure the masses. The writer of the play, in a telephonic interview, said that the play received several threats from dominant regional parties when it was performed in May 2013 for the first time in Maharashtra.
Shivaji Underground uses satire and comedy and a normal proscenium stage as its apparatus. It starts with mythical characters of Indra and Yama. Yama is sent to the earth to find Shivaji and bring him, along with his ideas, to heaven. However, when he meets Shivaji, he is tricked by the king who flees, leaving behind his turban as security and a promise to be back. Yama waits and eventually embarks on a journey to earth to find Shivaji. During the journey, he sees a lot of political campaigns which use Shivaji’s image to their benefit. He finally reaches Bhimnagar Muhalla—a Dalit and Muslim dominated neighbourhood—in a small village, where people actually strive to understand Shivaji as a warrior king and not the incarnation of any god.
Powada is employed as a narrative form in this play as well, but one sees a version of Shivaji who is secular and a great administrator. At the end of the play, Yama is unable to find Shivaji and offers the turban to the audience as a symbolic gesture, with the message: ‘May the turban fit all the heads and all the heads be enriched with Shivaji’s ideals.’ (Fig. 4)
In spite of turbulence and threats from political parties, Shivaji Underground was able to complete its 700th show in May 2018. By using the same popular form of powada, this play paints Shivaji’s portrait as more realistic and humane and values his ideas rather than the mythic paraphernalia that the bakhar histories and narratives add to it. A modern play indeed, it also projects the ideals of Phule and Ambedkar and the methodology that they propounded—demystification and subversion and the use of satire. Such an approach highlights the gaps in the dominant narratives and calls for various approaches to history.
The living tradition of powada, which is a constant element when it comes to depiction and mimesis of Shivaji even today, emerged from the gondhal (the invocation of gods at festivals and family events by a group of performers called the gondhalis who sing in chorus) tradition of Maharashtra as noted by Prachi Deshpande. It became a tool of information and narrative dissemination to the masses while the bakhars were more inclined to administrative rule. Deshpande elaborates on how powada drew from the bakhar narratives and vice-versa. Thus, one sees how the elements from popular culture and myths, were interspersed in both the bakhars and powada to make them accessible for the commoners.
Shivaji has been appropriated variously through contemporary theatrical plays and performances. His transformation from a historical figure into a national hero and then an icon has been made possible through these vivid representations. Movies, biopics, popular TV serials and Shivaji statues also contribute to the portraiture of Shivaji in the twenty-first century. Other examples of popular culture representation of Shivaji in Maharashtra are car and bike stickers which have ‘Raje tumhi paratya’ (Shivaji, please come back to life/come back from the heaven) written or ‘Himmat asel tr adva’ (Stop me if you have the guts). (Fig. 5)
A Marathi film, Me Shivajiraje Bhosale Boltoy (I, Shivajiraje Bhosale speaking), took Maharashtra, especially the Marathi population, on an adrenaline ride. It focussed on how the successor of Shivaji Bhosale, basically the Marathi manus (man), has been a coward in comparison to the ‘glorious’ Maratha history. It talks about migration of people from rural areas of India to Mumbai to find work which has resulted in the deterioration of the common Marathi. The protagonist is taken into a lucid fictional dream where he meets his ancestor Shivaji who harangues him on bravery and asks him to fight for his right. Thereafter, every incident in the protagonist’s life is affected by Shivaji’s advice. Such scenes lead to an understanding of how Shivaji is perceived by the people in popular culture.
The life of Chhatrapati Shivaji Bhosale is not limited to textbooks but comes alive in performances and in the everyday life of Maharashtra where he is worshipped, idealised and idolised for his principles and governance. His 'swarajya' is remembered.
 Shivaji was one of the many rulers belonging to the Hindu religion in the subcontinent. In one of his letters to Dadaji Naras Prabhu of Rohidkhore, dated April 17, 1645, Shivaji first wrote about ‘Hindavi Swarajya’. However, J. V. Naik mentions that the authenticity of this letter is debated by scholars. The concept of ‘Hindavi’ as used in the seventeenth century and its employment today may have gone through an evolutionary phase. Balgangadhar Tilak then used the term as the rule of the Indian or Hindu people. While looking at such concepts of sovereignty one needs to keep in mind that identities go through evolutionary processes. Hindavi swarajya can thus mean ‘self rule of Indian people’ or ‘self rule of Hindu people’.
 Phule, Gulamgiri, 1873.
 ibid., 10.
 Deshpande, Creative Pasts, 19–39.
 Gordon, ‘Introduction,’ 1–10, 1993.
 Gaikwad, ‘Swatantryottar Marathi Powade.’
 For further reading please refer to ‘Chapter 6’ in Deshpande, Creative Pasts.
 Translation by Aishwarya Walvekar from the play.
 Deshpande, Creative Pasts, 40–70.
Deshpande, Prachi. Creative Pasts: Historical Memory and Identity in Western India, 1700–1960. New York: Columbia University Press, 2007.
Gaikwad, Sayajirao Chaburao. Swatantryottar Marathi Powade. Kolhapur: Shivaji University, 2016.
Gordon, Stewart. Introduction to The New Cambridge History of India: The Marathas 1600–1818. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1993.
Naik J. V. ‘The Foundation of Swarajya.’ In Shivaji and Swarajya, edited by Indian Institute of Public Administration, 43–57. Bombay: Orient Longman, 1975.
Phule, Jyotirao. Gulamgiri. Pune: Poona City Press, 1873.


Parks that Celebrate Native American Heritage
The land where the United States of America lies is vast, comprised of many cultures dating back millennia. Today, national parks across the country preserve and share the stories, histories, heritage, and traditions of Indigenous peoples and the National Park Foundation is proud to support projects, programs, and research that continues to explore the multifaceted history and culture of native people. Join us in visiting just a small sample of the national parks that honor and celebrate Native American heritage and history.
Alcatraz Island was used for camping and gathering food, as well as seclusion and isolation, over 20,000 years ago by Indigenous people. Over 10,000 Indigenous people, later called the Ohlone, lived in the coastal area between the San Francisco Bay and Point Sur before the European colonizers from Spain and Portugal began exploring the area in 1542. By 1801, all of the Ramaytush Ohlone had been incorporated into Mission San Francisco de Asis, and about 80 percent of their population had died from disease or poor living and working conditions.
In November 1969, a group of Native American activists in San Francisco’s Bay Area called Indians of All Tribes, Inc. occupied Alcatraz Island in a powerful act seeking to reclaim their ancestors’ space. Approximately 100 people occupied the island to protest government policies that stole the land from Indigenous peoples and destroyed their cultures, garnering national attention for the movement. The Occupiers wrote messages of peace and freedom around the former prison island and discussed plans to build a cultural and education center for Native Americans. In June 1971, federal marshals arrived and forcibly removed the remaining Occupiers from the island.
Today, Alcatraz Island, part of Golden Gate National Recreation Area, commemorates this watershed moment in the movement for Native American civil rights with an exhibition that premiered in 2019, upon the event’s 50th anniversary. Red Power on Alcatraz: Perspectives 50 Years Later tells the story of the 19-month occupation of the island and can be explored digitally.
Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve
When Lieutenant Joseph Whidbey described what is now Glacier Bay National Park & Preserve in 1794, he made sure to mention the native people who paddled out in their canoes from what is now Point Carolus to meet his boats. While it is difficult to know how long human inhabitants had been in the area when Whidbey set ashore, we do know that there were people living in the nearby Groundhog Bay over 9,000 years ago. It appears that lower Glacier Bay was habitable for many centuries, up until 300 years ago when a final glacial surge would have forced human inhabitants to flee their homeland.
Today, descendants of the Indigenous people who occupied Glacier Bay before the last glacial advance, now known as Huna Tlingit, embrace their homeland, its resources, and retain strong connections to their culture and traditions. Working with the park, Huna Tlingit have resumed their tradition of harvesting gull eggs, an important traditional food source, as well as constructed Huna Tribal House, or Xunaa Shuká Hít (roughly translated as “Huna Ancestor’s House”), a gathering place where tribal members can reconnect with their treasured homeland and visitors can learn more about Huna Tlingit history, culture, and traditions. In February 2020, with support from NPF and The Conservation Fund, the park added a 150-acre cultural site that will be managed in collaboration with the Hoonah Indian Association. The land will provide opportunities for tribal members to engage in traditional cultural practices and support public access to fishing, hiking, and camping opportunities.
Natchez Trace Parkway
Just 10 miles northeast of Natchez, Mississippi, along Natchez Trace Parkway, lies the second largest Mississippian period ceremonial mound in the United States, known as Emerald Mound. Built between 1200-1730 A.D. by Mississippians, a widespread American Indian population living in the Mississippi Valley and southeastern U.S., the flat-topped mound was used for ceremonial purposes. Emerald Mound covers eight acres and reaches heights of 60 feet as two secondary mounds sit atop a primary mound. All of these were built by hand, though many mysteries remain around exactly how mounds were constructed.
Descendants of the Mississippians became the Chickasaw Nation, the Choctaw of Oklahoma, the Mississippi Band of the Choctaw, and others. Mounds, like Emerald Mound, are some of the most prominent remains left on the landscape by these communities and are enjoyed by visitors today. There are seven mound groups along the Natchez Trace Parkway in Mississippi, and an established trail at Emerald Mound allows visitors to climb to the top of the mound to survey the surrounding countryside.
In partnership with Conservation Legacy, a 2019 NPF Service Corps grant supported the work of Love Your Park Conservation Corps (LYPCC) program, which focused on infrastructure and stewardship projects at various locations, including Natchez Trace Parkway. The LYPCC improved and preserved trails and unique visitor experiences, working on projects and improvements identified by the National Park Service as critical to visitor use and safety.
Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore
The name of Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore comes from the Anishinaabek (Odawa/Ottawa, Ojibwe/Chippewa and Potawatami/Bode’wadmi) story of Sleeping Bear, in which a mother waits for her cubs by the shores of Lake Michigan. The area is rich in history, stretching all the way back to the Paleo-Indian period in 11,000 B.C. when hunters romaed the banks of the lake, close to the edge of retreating glaciers. Artifacts dating back to the Archaic period, from 8,000 to 600 B.C., suggest wide-ranging social and trading networks reaching as far as the Gulf Coast of Florida. Woodland pottery found in the area, dating from 600 B.C. to 1620 A.D., suggests that people used the land for seasonal hunting or fishing sites, not necessarily settling in one spot.
Today, the park continues to work with Anishinaabek partners to expand the storytelling about the area’s landscapes and the people who lived there. Visitors can explore these stories and more through the park’s programs, scenic trails, and recreational opportunities.
A 2020 NPF Open OutDoors for Kids Hybrid Learning grant helped the park revamp its formal education program, including the development of a menu of 5-8th grade curricula and engagement activities. Through distance learning programs, self-guided content, pre- and post-visit activities, and a design challenge, students were able to explore and learn about Anishinaabek culture and its place in the park, as well as the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
Tumacácori National Historical Park
Nestled in the Santa Cruz River valley, Tumacácori National Historical Park preserves a wealth of cultural histories, including the Spanish colonialists, who built the park’s recognizable stone missions, and the O’odham, Yaqui, and Apache people who also called the area home. The agrarian Sobaipuri, a branch of the O’odham (sometimes known as Pima) used the valleys along the Santa Cruz and San Pedro rivers to farm corn, beans, and other crops, as well as gather foods such as mesquite, agave, and cactus.
A large and diverse tribe, the O’odham occupied lands stretching thousands of square miles. Upon the arrival of the Spanish, the Yoeme (Yaqui), who had been in the Santa Cruz Valley well before the Spaniards, recognized opportunities to work within the Mission system that sought to convert Indigenous peoples to Catholicism, often working as freighters, cowboys, and miners. The Apache people, related to the Athabaskan people who had made their way from current-day Canada to the American southwest, got a reputation for raiding, stealing, and attacking the mission system's stationary communities.
Descendents of the Sobaipuri live among the O’odham people today, including the Tohono O’odham and Akimel O’odham subgroups. Their oral histories have been important in expanding storytelling in the park, including the work of National Park Service historical research intern Dorien Scheets. Through the support of the National Park Foundation, Dorien is exploring the links between Indigenous women and the Mission system, using archeological analysis of mission artifacts as well as the oral histories to create a new guided walking tour in the park.
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park
Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park protects some of the most unique biological and geological landscapes in the world, including two of the world’s most active volcanoes. But the histories and moʻolelo (stories, myths, and legends) of the islands and their people are just as unique and fascinating. Polynesians from the Marquesas Islands were the first to settle Hawai'i, some 1,700 to 800 years ago, bringing with them essential items for survival, including pua'a (pigs), moa (chickens), mai`a (banana), ko (sugar cane), and the seeds and saplings of niu (coconut). After some time, Polynesians from the Society Islands also arrived in Hawai'i and became the new rulers. After contact with southern Polynesia ceased, a unique Hawaiian culture developedon the islands, distinguished by a highly stratified society and a system of laws, known as kanawai, that enforced the social order of the islands.
Over several hundred years, the people of Hawai'i cultivated traditions that were passed on through generations and continue today, including chronicling their history through oli (chant), mele (song), and hula (dance). Visitors to the park today can discover windows to the past through places like Puʻu Loa, one of the largest petroglyph fields in Hawai'i, or Kaʻauea, a site referenced in Hawaiian chants and oral histories now featuring a reconstructed hula platform and hale, a traditional style Hawaiian house.
Thanks to a 2020 Open OutDoors for Kids Hybrid Learning grant from NPF, students who live in volcanic areas are able to complete a hybrid learning program from the park to learn from each other and the park. Students learned about geology, culture, and the natural history associated with each other's homes. The curriculum, focused on the comparison of volcanoes and the communities around them, connected students to the park's volcanic landscapes, as well as each other.
Navajo National Monument
First crated in 1909, Navajo National Monument protects the remains of three large pueblos dating back to the 13th century. However, archeological evidence suggests that in addition to the villages around the pueblos there have been human inhabitants in the region for thousands of years. Early hunters and gatherers moved around a large region seasonally. Later inhabitants began to settle in villages of semi-underground pithouses about 2000 years ago, as they grew maize and other crops. Farmers began building above-ground masonry houses, and eventurally Ancestral Pueblo culture emerged.
The park's three pueblos – Betatakin, Keet Seel, and Inscription House – were all built in large, natural alcoves within the Navajo Sandstone Formation.The pueblos provided shelter from the elements, and the canyon's steambeds were great for growing corn, beans, and squash while canyon streams provided water. It is unclear exactly why the pueblo villages were left, though it may have been partly due to a prolonged drought, but all the villagers had moved on by 1300.
Today, the land surrounding the park is part of the Navajo Nation, as the Navajo, or Diné, moved into the area around 1800. Visitors to the park can take a self-guided tour of the Betatakin Cliff Dwellings along the 1-mile Sandal Trail or meet up with a ranger to hike a more demanding tour of the area. Make sure to contact the park before heading out, as tours can be affected by severe weather conditions.
Bering Land Bridge National Preserve
A unique and remote park, Bering Land Bridge National Preserve protects a small remnant of the 1,000-mile-wide grassland that once connected Asian and North America. During the last Ice Age, plants, animals, and people moved between these two continents, and the prehistoric artwork found in the area today depicts many animals such as woolly mammoths, steppe bison, and more. While the bridge between the two continents flooded around 10,000 years ago, the communities founded by those who traversed the bridge remain. Cultural group sof the Seward Peninsula remain closely tied to the ancestors who first crossed over from Siberia, who led mobile lifestyles, living off the land and sea's natural resources up until European contact in the 19th century.
Commercial whaling, fur trade, and mining forever changed the Alaska Native groups that had inhabited the land for thousands of years, including the social organization, health, and subsistence lifestyle for the Inupiat communities. Over time populations have recovered, working hard to preserve and promote the cultural traditions such as subsistence living, or using the wild, renewable resources for food, shelter, fuel, clothing, tools, or transportation. The park's protection of resources within Bering Land Bridge helps support these lifestyles as well as communicate the importance of Alaska Native heritage holistically.
Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site
The Knife River region of North Dakota ahs been home to various peoples for an estimated 11,000 years, and Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site preserves and interprets the area's rich history and culture. Early written records document how the Hidatsa, a combination of three distinct groups (Awatixa, Awaxawi, and Hidatsa) each with their own dialect and origin, lived in earthlodge villages for nearly 500 years. Visitors today can see the shallow depressions in the ground where some of these earthlodges were built and maintained by Hidatsa women. The Mandan and Arikara (or Sahnish) joined the Hidatsa in settled villages and together these communities pioneered agriculture on the Northern Plains landscape.
Tribes from across the Northern Plains journeyed to the villages along Knife River, including the Sioux, Cheyenne, Crow, Assiniboine, and Ojibwe, as well as traders, explorers, and artists. The villages became an exciting and cosmopolitan place, but foreign visitors brough new diseases that dramatically altered the communities and cultures of those living in the Knife River region. Visiting the park today, you can discover the stories of those who lived and worked in the villages, including Sacagawea (or the "Bird Woman"), a Lemhi Shoshone woman who was likely taken captive by a Hidatsa raiding party and who later joined Meriwether Lewis and William Clark on their expedition west. Examine artifacts in the park's museum and explore a full-scale reconstructed earthlodge, a Hidatsa garden, and village sites.
In 2019 an Open OutDoors for Kids Field Trip grant from NPF brought students to the park for hands-on activities to learn about parks and village life in and around the Hidatsa earthlodge. Students enjoyed interactive activities including an Atlatl demonstration, traditional stories and flute music with a Hidatsa Elder, storytelling and artwork with an Arikara Elder, Plains Sign Language demonstrations, and more.
Lassen Volcanic National Park
The landscapes of Lassen Volcanic National Park, with its jagged peaks and steaming fumaroles, tell the story of the area's eruptive past. But just as volcanic activity shaped this land, so too did the people who have lived and traveled through it. Native American groups, including the Atsugewi, Yana, Yahi, and Maidu camped here in warmer months when hutning and gathering potential was at its peak. Artifacts left behind from their stays in the area, including stone points, knives, and metals, as well as replicas of their basketry and hunting devices are displayed today in the park's Loomis Museum.
Descendants of these tribes still live in the area and are valuable partners to the park as they continue to educate visitors on both their historical and modern tribal cultures. Selena LaMarr (given name: Boonookoo-eemenorra), or "Boonie" as she was known by park staff, was the first woman naturalist at the park and a member of the Astugewi tribe. LaMarr gave cultural demonstrations to visitors from 1952 to 1972, and her nieces later continued the demonstrations. Today, visitors to the park can traverse this landscape in a variety of ways, from backpacking in the summer months and fishing in the fall to ranger-led snowshoe tours in the spring and winter.
In 2021, NPF partnered with HIstoriCorps and Great Basin Institute to deploy a service corps crew to Lassen Volcanic National Park. Over the course of eight weeks, the crew restored the park's historic Twin Lakes cabin, monitored and cleaned up backcountry campsties, interacted with park visitors, and participated in a survey of the park's America Pika population, all providing critical support to the park as it sees increased visitation.
Casa Grande Ruins National Monument
In the deserts of Arizona lies Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, the nation's first archeological preserve. A popular destination in the late 19th century, the park's namesake Casa Grande was abandoned around 1450 by the ancestral Sonoran Desert people who had built it in the 1300s and lived in the area for centuries prior. Archeologists have discovered hundreds of miles of prehistoric irrigation canals, built by the ancestral Sonoran Desert people around 400-500 A.D, with which they cultivated several varieties of beans and squash, as well as cotton and tabacco. Networks of villages expanded into Arizona, and trade flourished between the ancestral Sonoran Desert people and their neighboring tribes.
During the late 14th and 15th centuries, the ancestral Sonoran Desert people suffered a period of depopulation and abandonment, though the causes of this are unclear. Today, several groups have ancestral links to the ancient people and the area and their cultural traditions, in addition to ongoing archeological research at the park, continues to keep the legacy of the ancestral Sonoran Desert people alive. Visitors to the park today can enjoy a guided tour of the site and explore the long and complex history of the ruins, the park's archeological findings, and the cultures of the ancestral Sonoran Desert people.
A 2021 grant from NPF will help the park replace three water fountains in highly trafficked areas. With the desert landscape of Casa Grande Ruins National Monument, temperatures can exceed 110 degrees in the shade, so these new water bottle refilling stations will help keep visitors cool and safe.
National parks protect, preserve, and share the stories of our country’s histories and cultures, including those of the first peoples that inhabited this land and continue to do so. Across the National Park System, sites honor these multi-faceted histories and cultures that are an essential part of our collective American story. We invite you to explore these parks and more as you develop your own connections to our lands.
The National Park Foundation is driven by the generous financial support of our donors and members. Working together, we have a powerful impact on our treasured national parks.