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Red Mocassins


When Anna says, "I let her keep him" it makes her seem cruel. Throughout the story Anna's cruelty toward Joyce can be seen by Anna being negative about everything that Joyce does.
             Many points in the story demonstrate Joyce's jealousy of Anna, and Joyce's bad attitude. When Anna falls in love with Emery Bauer, who is not Sioux, Joyce is quick to say something negative. Instead of being happy for Anna, who is like a sister to her, Anna says, "Joyce Blue Kettle protested the loudest, flapping her tongue so much I thought she might wear it thin as a hair ribbon. Joyce had been married for several years by that time and was already a mother, but she was jealous"(412). Instead of rejoicing in her cousin's new love and happiness, she says things like "People will say you"re greedy"(413), or "They say you"re marrying him to get things" (413). Power also makes the reader assume that Joyce is the one who creased and ruined Anna's wedding cap when Anna says, "I noticed sharp creases in the pile that no amount of smoothing could repair"(413). These little fits of jealousy make Joyce look like a really bad person. .
             On the other hand, Anna looks like a saint compared to Joyce. She is very close to her niece, Dina, and plays the motherly role for this young girl. You can sense their closeness in the opening of the story when Dina is sitting on Anna's lap and Anna says, "But there she was, her long legs draped over mine and her feet scraping the ground. Our fingers were laced together, both sets of arms wrapped around her pole waist"(408). She is a nurturing person throughout the whole story, especially when she sews Dina's first complete Sioux costume. .
             Anna also upholds all the qualities of a good mother throughout her son, Chaske's, illness. When his coughing fits start, she holds him and shows him love and affection. A good illustration of her affection in the story is "I rubbed Chaske's back, my hand moving in circles, unable to relax while I listened to his breathing I guarded his sleep, forcing my breath into a perfect rhythm as if I could breathe for him, and in the morning I was weary but triumphant, having kept the world in orbit"(411).


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