The “Indian Horse” is a heartbreaking novel, which is deeply impressing me. The life of Saul, the main character, is painful and difficult. After I read the book, I realized the most painful experience was the time he joined the hockey team in Toronto and was isolated by white society.
Saul was an Ojibway, and it was the reason why he was caught by white to the residential school. He talked about the residential school: “St. Jerome's took all the light from my world”. The life in St. Jerome's was dreadful and dark. The only thing could bring him a breath was hockey. We could see how he loved hockey. However, he was not able to play games because he is an Ojibway. The society not only took Saul’s childhood away, but also took hockey from him. That time is the most painful experience I think.
Saul was a gifted hockey player. Due to that, he got a rare chance that was a chance playing for a feeder team of the Toronto Maple Leafs. However, it was the hard life started. Saul became the target of laughter. White put bias on him, criticized and hit him. The paper even said he was “rampaging redskin”. All the people and crowd told him hockey was not belonging to Indian. I could not even image his life during that period. The entire world pushed him out just because of his race. He said: “ I’m the Indian. That’s all they see”. The society was cruel and impersonal at that time. Saul did not have a chance to change it because he had no power to change his race. No matter how hard he did, people detested him. Finally, he was despairing and exhausted. He started to drink in order to hide himself from the cruel society.
Fortunately, Saul met Erv who waked up him. Erv made Saul realized that he had to find himself and stop drinking. The ending was comforting and harmony. Saul stopped to drink and went back to the small town. Then, he started a new life.