Chief Joseph – "I Will Fight No More Forever"

Chief Joseph's speech is very short, and may not necessarily mean a lot to a number of people, but it rings true, and many Indians hold it in high regards. It showed how weary he was of fighting, and how he just wanted to find a way to finish the fighting so he would be able to look for his children and make sure that they were all there with the rest of the tribe (Joseph). He was too tired of dealing with all of the pain and heartache that comes with war, and he just wanted to stop learning about deaths from the fighting (Joseph). He did not want to lose anyone else to the random, pointless skirmishes that had been taking place along their trekk to Canada in the hopes to escape to freedom, but the Americans rounded them up and shipped them off to reservations while they had gotten very close to their target point (Joseph). This work fits in to the Realist time period for a number of reasons (Joseph). It was definitely in the moment, and it was very realistic because it was what was happening at the moment (Joseph). It entailed a ton of emotions, because Chief Joseph was so involved with the events that had been happening, and that proves that it is Realistic (Joseph). It is not Naturalistic, because there is the emotion in the work, and there is nothing scientific at all (Joseph). There is no studying of humans or studying of their emotions, and science is not even mentioned or insinuated in this work (Joseph). This work is also not Regionalistic, becuase they had been going all over the place, and there is nothing about a specific place that they had been or were going to (Joseph). This work kind of reflects society, becuase it shows how upset the Indians were and how the Americans were trying to take over everything with no consideration for anyone or anything that had been there previously (Joseph). There was nothing about religion (Joseph). Chief Joseph was talking to their government, and it just shows that he was ready to stop fighting (Joseph). There was nothing about nature, and there was only very little about human nature (Joseph). The little about human nature was about Chief Joseph and how people will always be willing to give up wars if they think their efforts are futile or they are more worried about what is happening to everyone else (Joseph). There is nothing about the American Dream, there is no figurative language in this speech at all, and there is nothing about a Hero (Joseph). One could say that the Hero would have been the one that led the Indians to safety and kept it to the least amount of casulties necessary, but that would have been extremely hard to come by (Joseph). Chief Joseph did a good job by himself, and not very many people would have wanted to change the fact that it was Joseph that led them through such hard times. Chief Joseph was very influential and his people looked up to him immensely. He led them through many hardships and they were always willing to listen to his advice.

Joseph, Chief. ""I Will Fight No More Forever"" American Literature. Comp. Jeffrey D. Wilhelm, Douglas Fisher, Beverly A. Chin, and Jacqueline J. Royster. Columbus: Glencoe/McGraw-Hill, 2009. 531-33. Print.