Hometown

            
             Could you imagine wakening up one day and experiencing a totally different civilization? As we grow we become familiar with our culture, environment, and social interactions. We forget that there are millions of different societies in this world. This story demonstrates a Native American student who goes away to college and is isolated from his Indian society. He experiences the white mans world and is very anxious to get back to where he was originated.
             The author is anxious to get back home. He is on the freight of a train and says, " The railroad on which I stand comes from a city sprawled by a lake - a city with a million people who walk around without seeing one another; a city sucking the life from all the country around; a city with stores and police and intellectuals and criminals and movies and apartment houses; a city with its politics and libraries and zoos." (Whitecloud, 124) This young man was sent away to school and has experienced the modern day society of America. He illustrates how this life is about people's opinions, social classes, and competition. The typical American is based on greed. He remembers his professor lecturing that a man could learn a lot from a bum on the street. " He would learn that work and a women and a place to hang his hat are all the ordinary man wants. These are all he wants, but other men are not content to let him want only these. He must be taught to want radios and automobiles and a new suit every spring." (Whitecloud 122).
             The author goes into how he now appreciates all the hard work and dedication of his people. His tribe is a team effort. They all know, care, and help each other. His land which he comes from " Where there is no hurry to get anywhere, no driving to keep up in a race that knows no ending and no goal. No classes where men talk and talk and then stop now and then to hear their own words come back to them from the students. No constant peering into the maelstrom of one's mind; no worries about grades and honors; no hysterical preparing for life until that life is half over; no anxiety about one's place in the thing they call Society.