Solar Storm Essay
Isac 104
Solar Storms
Over the years people have forgotten the relationship we shared at one point with the natural world. In the last few decades there has been many authors trying to revitalize that relationship and engage the environmental issues we face. In the literature landscape of environmental justice, historical progress, which, in most cases brings degradation of the land, and experiences of environmental racism are all seen as a violation of the sacred, leading to the loss of the moral and spiritual perspective in life. Linda Hogan's novels have taken on a role of displaying “eco-criticism”, and being the literature of environmental justice. The incidents that are displayed in her books are all based on actual events of Native Americans. In her book, Solar Storms, Hogan links the fates of a brutally abused mother, who in turn abuses her own daughter, to an exploited and depleted landscape by white developers. The story takes place in the frozen north country of the Great Lakes near Michigan in the 1960s. The land is being drilled and blasted by white developers in order to make room for a new dam. The rivers are diverted from the Native Americans settlements and fertile land, in turn killing off the wildlife and driving people away. This act is just seen as another violation in a long history of dispossession and removal to the Native people. The novel is about Angel, a 17 year old, who has spent most of her life with different foster parents. Angel takes a journey back to the land of her great-grandmother Agnes and other relatives. In her search for self and healing; she has to confront her traumatic past marked by her mother, Hannah, who has tortured and tried to kill her as a young child. Angel has no memory of her mother, only the scars on her body as a painful reminder. With the help of her grandmother Agnes, her great-grandmother Dora-Rouge, and Bush, a solitary woman who communes with the land, she is able to get a glimpse of what it
Solar Storms
Over the years people have forgotten the relationship we shared at one point with the natural world. In the last few decades there has been many authors trying to revitalize that relationship and engage the environmental issues we face. In the literature landscape of environmental justice, historical progress, which, in most cases brings degradation of the land, and experiences of environmental racism are all seen as a violation of the sacred, leading to the loss of the moral and spiritual perspective in life. Linda Hogan's novels have taken on a role of displaying “eco-criticism”, and being the literature of environmental justice. The incidents that are displayed in her books are all based on actual events of Native Americans. In her book, Solar Storms, Hogan links the fates of a brutally abused mother, who in turn abuses her own daughter, to an exploited and depleted landscape by white developers. The story takes place in the frozen north country of the Great Lakes near Michigan in the 1960s. The land is being drilled and blasted by white developers in order to make room for a new dam. The rivers are diverted from the Native Americans settlements and fertile land, in turn killing off the wildlife and driving people away. This act is just seen as another violation in a long history of dispossession and removal to the Native people. The novel is about Angel, a 17 year old, who has spent most of her life with different foster parents. Angel takes a journey back to the land of her great-grandmother Agnes and other relatives. In her search for self and healing; she has to confront her traumatic past marked by her mother, Hannah, who has tortured and tried to kill her as a young child. Angel has no memory of her mother, only the scars on her body as a painful reminder. With the help of her grandmother Agnes, her great-grandmother Dora-Rouge, and Bush, a solitary woman who communes with the land, she is able to get a glimpse of what it