Culture is always important to groups and societies. Throughout Heartsong of Charging Elk, Welch emphasized the point about culture and assimilation and what life is like on the other side. People are very ethnocentric and feel only their ways are the right ways. This book showed Charging Elk as an outsider who learned to live in the new ways of this society even though that wasn't part of who he was, but eventually made him who he is.
Culture and traditions are key in the heart and soul of Charging Elk. From the beginning of his journey in Marsielle, he was very content about finding is way home. He wanted to be reunited with his people and their way of life. He dealt with a lot of communication barriers in this foreign town. No one knew his language or who he was, nor did he know anything about theirs. I think that as much as he wanted to stay strong in his Indian attributes, he was forced to conform to this new society and the ways he was now trapped in. He was treated as nothing more than a savage or a foreigner. He wanted to be home again but as circumstances had it, he was given to the Soula's where he slowly changed who he was. He had his hair cut short and was given new clothes. He went to work like them, dressed like them, and I felt that he was given no credit for who he was as a person nor was he allowed to really hold the values that were true to him. As time went on I don't think he had any other choice but to try and become one of them or at least to look like he belonged. I think the author was saying a lot about how a society works and how they can thread in those that don't belong. I don't think it's because they are welcoming those who are different but they engulf them with so many cultural standards that their choices are made for them. Had Charging Elk knew enough about the language and culture their he might have made it home, but in the end I don't think that's ultimately where he wanted to be anymore.
