The Retreat is a novel by David Bergen that deals with alot of the harshness that occurs to native americans. Examples would be alienation, or forced assimilation (like the Residential Schools). Another example, which is actually used in the first chapter of the book, is when policeman would take native americans and drop them in the middle of nowhere to find their way back home. Some of the natives would die from exposure in the colder parts of Canada.
The novel shows alot of the injustice that occurs to the native people. That's something that I thought worked very well, in the sense that it really evokes pondering of whether the world is really as just as we once thought. For example, Hart who takes Raymond and drops him off on an Island because he doesn't like the fact that he is involved with his niece "Fishing for white girls is dangerous," (P. 21). Another was the death of Raymond. He really didn't do anything yet he was put in jail, taken to trial etc. Then, he probably though he was only going to get arrested when he saw Vernon. Shortly afterwards he got shot in the throat by Hart, while in the presence of Vernon and the Doctor. Hart was probably never charged for anything, and the whole ordeal definitely got covered up.
Two passages I really liked from the book were:
"The light on her hairs made them appear more golden than they actually were. Her feet were resting on the dash and her legs were bent and they were at the level of her eyes and the light that fell across her arm and partially across her chest also fell onto her legs. And so she was warmed by the light that came the sun." P. 250 - 251
The reason I liked the passage was because about a paragraph before, Raymond was really cold to Lizzy. She really just wanted to help, and in a sort of objective tone he flat out said he didn't need her help. In the passage, it's almost like the sun is consoling her by providing the warmth she seeks/lost from Raymond. Its symbolic in the sense that it shows that Lizzy and Raymond are getting distant from each other, and Lizzy later in the book says that she never actually knew Raymond.
The other passage I enjoyed was in the last paragraph of the novel:
"And he saw Raymond wearing his jeans, his shoes, his shirt. No animosity this time, just the consolation of becoming each other. The long summer day rose and fell and the light seeped from the sky and darkness came, and to keep back the darkness they built a fire, their shadows indistinct against the wall of night that looked down on them." P. 320
I liked it because throughout the book there was a struggle of the two brothers to find out their true identity. I thought the line "just the consolation of becoming each other" was especially significant because of Raymond's wish to become like Nelson. The darkness I believe represents the general population into which they are being assimilated into. The fire is their fight back against the "darkness" and an attempt to keep their roots. Their shadows being indistinct is what I think means that they have already been assimilated and the fire is the only thing they have left from their own culture.
A question I would like to ask David Bergen is what inspired him with the idea of writing a book about Native Americans. Another would be: Were any of the characters based off real life people, or yourself? My final question for him would be if the identity crisis was something him or one of his acquaintances experienced before.
All in all, The Retreat is an intriguing novel and I would most definitely recommend it to other readers.
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