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      • HARVEST
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      A psychological analysis of the struggle with racism in In Search of April Raintree

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      Date
      2009-07-10
      Author
      Dyck, Melanie
      Type
      Thesis
      Degree Level
      Masters
      Metadata
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      Abstract
      Focusing on Beatrice Mosionier’s fictional autobiography In Search of April Raintree, this thesis analyzes April and Cheryl Raintree’s emotional and psychological responses to oppression and racism and to freedom and love. One of the main arguments is that the sisters suffer internalized oppression and self-hatred after being exposed to colonial control and oppression and suffer internalized racism, self-hatred, and self-alienation and are acculturated to white cultural standards after experiencing racism. The sisters’ oppression re-enforces white dominance, and racism fosters white cultural control. The second main argument is that April and Cheryl are freed from internalized oppression when they have personal freedom and experience self-acceptance and embrace their ancestry and Aboriginal culture when they enjoy accepting, prizing love that validates their Aboriginal ancestry. The sisters’ personal freedom destabilizes white dominance and their self-acceptance and disalienation subvert white cultural values. The arguments are guided by the psychological theories of Frantz Fanon, Carl Rogers, and Eduardo and Bonnie Duran. This thesis also examines the importance that cultural practice has in April and Cheryl’s healing, studies the love the Raintree family shared in spite of the colonial forces tearing the family apart, and examines April as the narrator, showing how she is, at times, unreliable.
      Degree
      Master of Arts (M.A.)
      Department
      English
      Program
      English
      Supervisor
      Fagan, Kristina
      Committee
      Gingell, Susan; Parkinson, David; Macdougall, Brenda; Cooley, Ron
      Copyright Date
      July 2009
      URI
      http://hdl.handle.net/10388/etd-07052009-125801
      Subject
      Aboriginal Psychology
      Aboriginal Literature
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      • Graduate Theses and Dissertations
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