I Will Fight No More Forever

Before I read the story I read about the author of this speech. His name was Chief Joseph. Chief Joseph was chosen to be chief of the Nez Perce after his father died in 1871 (Chief Joseph 531). "The Nez Perce were more warlike than neighboring tribes, especially after acquiring the horse from the Plains Indians in the early eighteenth century" (Chief Joseph 531). This had given me an idea as to how or what the story was going to be about. I figured from just looking at the title that the story was going to be about how Chief Joseph did not want to fight any more. Here is another quote that helped me figure that out. "However, they had maintained peace with the whites for decades, ever since the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, which was their first significant contact with the whites" (Chief Joseph 531). That is just another quote as to how that helped me out with the story I was going to read. Overall, I have realized that by reading the biography on the author before you read the story is very helpful by the time you actually read the story.

When I first read this speech I felt kind of sad for Chief Joseph and his men and tribe. As he described, "The little children are freezing to death. My people, some of them, have run away to the hills and have no blankets, no food; no one knows where they are -- perhaps freezing to death" (Chief Joseph 533). This is just a couple sentences as to when Chief Joseph was explaining to the scout or whoever he was talking to that his tribe was slowly dying from everything that was happening to them whether it was them freezing to death or just not having enough food. He also explained in the beginning part of the speech that all of these tribe leaders were dead and there was basically no part in him trying to fight anymore (Chief Joseph 533). He was just done with fighting and he did not want to fight any longer. Thoreau would have been very angry with what the government was able to do to these people. He was already against government and Indians were people who were "lovers" of nature. Thoreau even went out into the woods to be with nature for two whole years. Thoreau had told us, "I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach" (Wayne). Thoreau would have been very upset with the government being the way they were with treating the Indians this way.

Bibliography

Chief Joseph. "I Will Fight No More Forever." Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Ph.D. and Douglas Fisher, Ph.D. Glencoe Literature. American Literature ed. Columbus: McGraw-Hill Companies, 2009. 531-533. Print.

Wayne, Tiffany K., ed. "Henry David Thoreau and Ralph Waldo Emerson." Critical Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson: A Literary Reference to His Life and Work, Critical Companion. New York: Chelsea House Publishing, 2010. Bloom's Literary Reference Online. Facts On File, Inc.