Civilization is a defining characteristic of humanity however it is probably one of the least redeeming. Civilization is how we function as a society and our cognizance of appropriate behavior.As much as we prize civilization and a civilized demeanor, we forget the background of our existence as a whole. Man is no more than satellite floating on an aimless, unchangeable coarse from birth to death. Why is it that being civilized or uncivilized matters? In the story Blue Winds Dancing by Tom Whitecloud, civilization is addressed. From this text one can see the many downfalls of civilization and if Whitecould s words stand to prove anything, they prove that civilization makes a man a shallow conformist. In the Narrator s reflection in the beginning of the story, he makes mention of conforming results of civilization; Being civilized means trying to do everything you don t want to, never doing what you want to. The Narrator s journey to Wisconsin is considered for the most part an uncivilized act yet that was what he wanted to do. No one considers train hoping across the country an act of a modernly civilized person, yet what is wrong with doing it? The problem is it does not conform to the established sense of civilization. Moreover a person can be outcast from society because of his failure to comply with the ideals of civilization. This is the case with the bums in the story. They pay the price for being free of civilization. What makes them bums is the sense of civilization in the story. The narrator s view of this sense is that it gives a man freedom to want only a woman, work, and a house. Consequently this leaves a man with a rather shallow existence. In other words man is robbed the freedom of desire by the empathy of civilization. The story itself is based upon the conception of civilization. The narrator travels from his civilized contempary lifestyle at school to an Indian reservation in the backwoods of Wisconsin that would more than likely have been considered vastly uncivilized. Yet even in the tribal community of an Indian reservation there are accepted notions of civilization. The narrator fears he will not be accepted back to the community because he has breeched an issue of his native civilization. Fortunately he is accepted as if he had never left his people but it still possible to see the repercussions of civilization. The whole situation shows how civilization promotes conformity and thus shallowness in man. Civilization, in this story, is linked to stereotypical assumptions of humanity: that we find beauty in the organized rows of trees rather than the dense thicket of less civilized areas, that we move to the strings of custom and tradition , rather than moving to the beat of our own drum...
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Blue Winds Dancing. EssayMania.com. Retrieved on 12 Oct, 2010 from