The Lesser Blessed was another extremely touching and impactful movie we watched this year. I really felt that I was able to feel the pain that Larry was feeling as he came to the final breakdown facing his emotions and reality. Through all the emotions and difficult situations Larry was faced with, there were a few reoccurring themes that are extremely important to consider as a new teacher.
Firstly, I found that Larry’s experiences relate to the indigenous youth experiences we have examined in other forms of literature this year. There were moments that I felt Larry reminded me of Junior from Part-Time Indian (see earlier blog post). It seemed that many of the issues Larry faced were related to his integral battle with his own self-identity. He lives in a small community where he interacts daily with indigenous and non-indigenous people. Unlike Junior, who seems to feel a need to abandon the opposing identities as he enters or leaves his res, Larry is in a constant pull between these two cultures as there is no clear line between the lives of indigenous or white people in the community. Living in the North-West Territories, the community in which these young people live is extremely isolated from other communities, making the way of life very different from other areas in Canada. As Larry stated at the beginning of the movie, there isn’t much to do if you don’t like to drink or do drugs. This fact plays into a lot of the ways in which the characters conduct themselves, and also dramatically affects the ways certain people’s lives play out. It seems that some of the issues associated with living in an isolated community are similar to the issues that are prevalent in indigenous communities in general. Although I am aware that issues such as alcoholism are not solely isolated to indigenous communities, it is interesting to see how a combination of factors, including a lack of opportunity, difficult histories and hard daily life all affect a person’s general experience. Although it was interesting to see how Larry’s life is shaped by his identity as an indigenous person, it is clear that much of his story is not directly caused by this portion of his being. Of course, every part of who we are affects every decision and viewpoint that we have; and yet, I would argue that much of the struggles Larry faced in this movie were rooted in the pain he feels from his father’s abuse and the incident that killed his father and changed his life forever. I also find that the difficulties faced by Larry are in some ways multiplied because of the emotional changes and the need to deal with typical teen issues on top of the immense pain he already feels. It seems to be the same for all of the characters in the film. Each person, whether it be Juliet, Danny, or anyone else, seems to deal with common issues related to being a teenager and development, but they all also have their own personal experiences that contribute to their anger and downfall. This just goes to show that as a teacher, we need to consider the developmental process, collective histories of a community and individual experiences in order to be most understanding and empathetic toward all of our students.
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