Samson Occom

Studying the Text:

1.) Try to move beyond the story line to an analysis of how the text works. Perhaps begin by studying these two portraits, and noting the significant details and differences:

• p. 402 -- "An Indian Priest" (now identified as Samson Occom)

• p. 410 -- "The Reverend Mr. Samson Occom"

2.) Now, consider this statement: "Occom's text exemplifies one way in which these very different cultural and self-constructions [as exhibited in the portraits] are negotiated in print culture."

To continue, can you find an example of each of the following writing "strategies" in his text:

• He adopts the reasoned tone and appeals to reader sympathy of Western rhetoric.

• He deploys the repetition and cadences of Native American storytelling.

• He assumes an apparently subservient position of a man of color speaking to whites even as he subverts this power dynamic through his forthright critique of their treatment of him.

3.) Arnold Krupat, a scholar of Native American literature, argues that "Native American autobiography is a bicultural composition, a 'frontier' where the familiar meets the other."

Furthermore, "Native American autobiography, like most ethnic autobiography,  is at once a chronicle of the individual life and the story of the community to which the individual belongs. The narrative is best approached as one that speaks with the voices of two radically different cultures. While European American influences are apparent in the narrative use of established literary conventions and Christian references, also present are elements of Native American oral storytelling, which rely on cadence, repetition, and powerful imagery to convey its emotional appeal."

Finally, "Occom's dual cultural awareness emerges most clearly in the final lines, in which he recounts the story of the 'poor Indian boy' who was whipped by his English master 'because [he was] an Indian.'"