vignett assignment 5

Checklist: Use this checklist to be sure you have included all of the vital aspects:



Is this an intermediate crisis on the dramatic intensity curve?



I think that the crisis of the memory of his family burning is the very intense.



Is it an external roadblock as opposed to a self-imposed?



I think that it is both. External because it happened, and self-imposed because he had not opened about his feelings.



Does it challenge resolve and impede the struggle?



The being able to tell the story to the other children is a type of resolve.



How is the need for change finding expression?



I think that the new name given by the children helped with expression.



How is the frustration being expressed and dealt with?



Frustrations are being dealt with through the support of the tribe and Majag.



Show a character in transition but not there yet



He is on the way to recovery when the children see the scars as badges of honor.



How is this resolve to effect change evidenced?



I think that it will help him build to the strong person that he becomes.





Vignette Assignment 5          



Majag saw that Yancy had problems understanding why the white-man rejected him, but he was sure that with patience Yancy would open up. He did not want to press the subject before the boy was ready. The hospital said that Yancy would be having his up and down emotional bouts.



         One day Majag and Yancy sat together, and watched the tribe children play. The two sat in the same place that Yancy had listened to Majag tell his stories before the fire, Yancy remembers how close he had always been to his uncle. He sighed and began to talk.



         “Majag,” Yancy began, “Why did the people of the town want to kill my family? My sister was only a baby, and she could do no harm to anyone.”



         “I think that people fear what is different. Perhaps the white-man's pride fears that their blood line will be tarnished by marring an Indian. There is no changing things like that.” Uncle Majag looked down while he remembered his sister Cheona.



         “I will find those who killed my mother and father.” Yancy's eyes filled with anger. “I think that they burned my home. So I will burn their town.” His face turned with the bitter emotion that he felt. Yancy's body tightened with noticeable tension. 



         Majag reached over and patted the child on his back. “Think about what you are saying child. Fire will burn the buildings and some of the people, but no matter where you go you will meet more people who believe as those that burned down your family.”



         Yancy looked at his scars. He knew that his uncle was right. “Then I will become a law man. I will spend the rest of my days looking for the murders who did this to me. I will see them hanged.”



         Majag smiles, “You are much like George. Your father would be proud that you chose to do the same job in life as he had chose to do.”



         “Cheona is always guiding you if you make the right choices. She will protect you in your quest.” Majag continued.



         “Thank you Uncle Majag.  I know you miss them too.”



         Majag pulled a chain out of his shirt. “I found this when they pulled you from the fire. I think that it may lead you to who started the fire. One of them dropped it.”



         “The W may be part of a name.” Yancy replied. “ I feel that I am going to find the men who changed my life and took my family from me.” He looked at the letter for a long time. The letter was the only clue that he had to what had happened. It would someday give him the answers that he needed.



         “Yancy, you were saved from the fire for a purpose. The Great Spirit has found favor in you. He has given you strength to continue in the foot steps of your fathers. The scars are to remind you that there is a reason that you lived.”



         Yancy asks Majag to tell him a story about his father and mother. As Majag began to speak. The children ran and sat in a circle around Majag as they had months earlier before the he had lost his sister to the fire. Yancey felt like he did when his mother brought him to visit  the tribe. For that moment Yancy was back in a familiar place listening to his uncle telling stories.



         “Your mother was only a girl of about seventeen when Father sent her to live with George. George was hunting the hills for a couple of horse thieves when he saw Rising Sun beneath a great bear. George ran toward the animal, but the bare ignored his advance. Because he did not want to alert the outlaws, he did not want to shoot off his gun. Then he takes his hunting knife in his hand. He jumps onto of the bear as his giant  paw was about to fall its fatal time. With the spirit of our ancestors, he wrapped his arm around the bear's head. When the animal looked upward, your dad plunged the blade into it's eye. The bear fell on to Rising Son who was already covered with blood. George pulls the bare off Rising Sun, pulls his favorite knife from its eye socket.”



         “What happened?” Yancy asked.



         “Rising Sun went to the river and washed both his own and the bear's blood off into the water. He received minor cuts. Your grandfather was so glad to be allowed live that he wanted to reward your father. The two men rode into this tribe. George noticed Chenoa. She was beautiful. She was tending the evening meal.



         She was one of the most important women of the tribe. She had not been with man, and many brave had made an offer to make her their wife. There were only three women who had no husband. One was in her thirties. The braves felt that she was too old to have many children. The other was a widow with three children. No brave wants anothers children. So Chenoa was priceless to Rising Sun. When he noticed that she was pleasant to George's eyes, he offered her to him as a wife.



         Chenoa made his a good wife, and she gave him three beautiful children.”



         Yancy and the children had enjoyed the story. Majag enjoyed telling it. He had not told a story since he had spent the time in the hospital. He was happy that his first in some time was about his sister whom he missed so much.”



         As the children dispersed, they all came over to Yancy. They all wanted to see his burns, and to hear the story of how he got them.



         Majag nodded that it was ok to tell the story.



         Yancy began to tell his story. “My mother used to bring me, my sister, and brother to this very place to listen to Majag tell his stories. I never thought that I would be telling you such a sad story as I am about to tell you.



         Mother came in to our bed room. She was so kind. After she read the story of Jonah from the Bible and told us of the Great chief Bright Feather, she kissed us good night. She stopped at the door. She told us again that she loved us. This was not the normal thing. She always told us that she loved us, but she never took the time to look back at us and say it again.



         Then I woke up to the house being filled with smoke. I opened my bedroom door. This is how I got this scar.” He put out his hand so that the children could see the deep circular burn in the palm of his right hand.



         “The door knob was so hot that it burned me. I tried to get to my parents and sister, but the smoke took me down. During my smoke sleep, I was visited by the spirit of Bright Feather. He took me to the land after death. There I saw bright light and many relatives that had crossed over. He told me that I could not live there, and that the screams of my family would soon be cries of joy. He said that they would live without scar or pain. Father and Mother would be waiting for me. He told me that I was not going to cross over from the fire.



         Then the light disappeared. I was at the hospital. I now have the rest of my life to find those who sent my family to the other side. I am visited by Bright Feather from time to time in my sleep.”



         The children were all in awe of the story, and Yancy removed his shirt to all the others to see the extent of his burns.



         One child said, “ I wish that I was that brave. Can we call you Fire Walker?”

         Yancy was known to his tribe as Fire Walker from then on.





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