Shell Shaker example essay topic

287 words
Everyday we hear about multimillion dollar corporations taking over small companies. This power differential is what makes it so that the rich continue to get richer while the poor continue to get poorer. Throughout history, and even today it is this greed that corrupts a power figure. It is this bloodsucking, (Osa no) that LeAnne Howe writes about in Shell Shaker.

At first Shakbatina's readiness to sacrifice herself for peace is a little shocking. What is it that makes Shakbatina willing to sacrifice her own life? "I will sacrifice myself, knowing that peace will follow between our two tribes" (Howe 4). As the novel progresses we begin to understand that importance of peace and that we must do whatever it takes to create and maintain it. Howe allows the reader to question the correlation between the murders of Red Shoes and Redford McAlester. As a piece of Native American literature, Shell Shaker follows a traditional archetype that explains how the past and present parallel each other.

"Do not forget the dead are helping the living" (Howe 171). This similarity between the past and present allows us, as readers to examine our current and future situations in our own lives. In this way, the story of Shell Shaker will always be relevant. What will it take to overthrow masters of greed? How can we prevent ourselves from succumbing to such greed individually? We must do whatever it takes to establish peace so that power may exist without greed and corruption.

Howe uses Shell Shaker as a lesson to all of us that we must work together as a community to create peace.