Kiss of the Fur Queen by Tomson Highway

Postcolonial Trauma and Resilience in Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen [Your Full Name] [Course Title or Code] [Instructor's Name] [Date] Introduction Tomson Highway's play, Kiss of the Fur Queen, is a deconstruction of Indigenous identity in the face of the historical horrors of colonial assimilation. Anchor Canada published this work in 1998 as a 322-page fictionalized autobiographical novel critical of the real-life Canadian residential schools and their impact on the two Cree brothers as they try to live in a world that attempts to bury their Indigenous culture. Highway, another award-winning Cree playwright and novelist, bases his work on his residential school survivor story, adding realism and passion to the work. Though known for writing in literature and theater, his work mainly revolves around Indigenous spirituality and survival, which are the themes that define this novel.[Tomson Highway, Kiss of the Fur Queen (Toronto: Doubleday Canada, 1998)] [Colin Boyd, "Tomson Highway," The Canadian Encyclopedia, last modified June 29, 2017, https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/highway-tomson.] Kiss of the Fur Queen is not strictly a historical work of fiction; rather, it is known as a magical realism work containing Cree mythos. Forced to entertain a broad readership, Highway makes them listen to the Indigenous people suffering indigenously while holding strong the cultural values and the hope of Indigenous communities.1 Thus, the novel's main ideas and insights into colonialism's effects on the succeeding generations are conveyed in the fine read. Highway chooses to tell the tale of despair and survival and draws out an overall message that transcends cultural barriers. Analysis Tomson Highway's Kiss of the Fur Queen is an outstanding revelation of how different sociopolitical discourses are practical within complex Indigenous cultures and how trauma and identity form a convoluted relationship under colonial assimilation. The two main characters are Champion, who will later transition to becoming known as Jeremiah, and Ooneemeetoo, who comes to be called Gabriel, both of whom are Cree, and the terrible events that transform them stem from being forcibly taken from their community and placed in a residential school. Exploring the experiences of Highway, Highway focuses on how prejudice erases cultural heritage and, at the same time, amplifies the resilience of Cree spirituality and creativity. Readers see how the brothers' childhood in their Cree reserve sets the fundamental tone for the novel's matters relating to culture and spirituality. According to an excerpt from three chapters from the book of Love, they have been raised by Indigenous values, family, and earth. This grounding in Cree identity is a present that is immediately countered by the darkness of the torturous cultural erasure of a people in the residential school system. This Highway utilizes this contrast to drive home the problems of colonialism, showcasing how the Canadian government stole Indigenous children's identity through the residential school system. This is most evidenced by the early act of renaming Jeremiah and Gabriel, which effectively foreshadows the removal of his identity. Additionally, the Mischer brothers' experiences in the described residential school serve as the key and dramatic motives of the novel. Highway helps these schools represent metaphorical and literal cultures of violence, which Severn erases by employing methodological abuse. Thus, an overlooked elder brother, Jeremiah, isolates himself from the family, sublimates traumatic experiences into disciplined work, and becomes an outstanding member of a classical music conservatory. These art expressions are more than how they dealt with the trauma and integration processes; they are survival plays for regaining power through art creations. The practical employment of the Fur Queen symbol derived from Cree mythology also forms the nucleus of Highway's novel's portrayal of the themes of the indomitable spirit of the aboriginal societies. Throughout the story, the Fur Queen accompanies the main characters, and with her help, the brothers recall their indigenous origin every time they need it during their difficult trials. Thus, incorporating elements of Cree mythology into the fabric of this story, Highway points to the continuity of indigenous people's memory in the context of a systematized cultural genocide. The Fur Queen's action is a counterpoint to colonial domination, providing the characters who suffer its effects with brief respite and the hope of tradition.[Md Ishrat Ibne Ismail, "Colonial Separation and Identity in Highway’s Kiss of the Fur Queen," Crossings: A Journal of English Studies 6, no. 2 (2015): 51–57.] [Highway, Kiss of the Fur Queen] Moreover, the significance of the artistic aspect rises as one of the novel's most vital themes: the only way to live or, at least, to go on living. In this case, music becomes a means of mediating, on the one hand, the experience of being an outsider in embodied American culture and, on the other hand, the desire to join in the chorus of culture and become an American. Success in becoming an acoustic pianist can be associated with Omer's subjection to Western frameworks and lack of cultural orientation. On the other hand, Gabriel's journey is much more characterized ...