There are a number of complex theories which center upon the questions of identity. There are many questions that need to be considered when discussing this complicated area of human nature. The three authors, Iola Fuller, Amy Tan, and Toni Morrison examine the issue of identity and the consequences of following an artificial standard.
In The Loon Feather, Iola Fuller discusses the life of an Native American girl and the decline of her people in population and culture. Fuller presents the reader with the main character, Oneta, the daughter of the legendary warrior, Tecumseh. Even though she has only seen him once before his death, Oneta's personality embodies her father's wisdom and strength. Throughout the book, she searches for ways to encompass her French upbringing and her Ojibway heritage. The author depicts the misunderstandings and prejudges in the collision of the French and Native American cultures. Fuller starts out by showing things from the Native American point of view, but as Oneta is adopted by her French stepfather after her mother passes and raised in a convent as a proper French woman, the reader is shown how Oneta is torn between her true identity and her upbringing. As tensions rise between the Native American and French people with the breaking of treaties and promises, Fuller shows us how easy it was for Oneta to recognize her heritage.
While Oneta was still young, Fuller introduces the readers to the character, Pierre Debans. Fuller used Pierre, to show how ignorant French people were to the ways of the Native American people. When Oneta first spoke to him, the author expressed that "He jumped as if he had sat on a thorn-bush." What? You speak French!" (Fuller 108). Fuller .
used this to show how Pierre thought that the Natives were incapable of speaking French. .
Pierre then goes on to marry Oneta's mother and in doing so tries to get the whole family to change their Native American ways and assimilate into the French culture.
