The Consequences Of Abuse In Indian  Horse  By Richard Wagamese

Abuse is the mistreatment and cruelty to a living being. Abuse often leads to consequences such as mental, physical, and emotional consequences. In the novel Indian Horse, Richard Wagamese shows how abuse is actively taking place at St. Jerome’s Indian Residential School by the oppressive priests and nuns which leads Saul's physical and psychological state to deteriorate. The consequences of abuse are made apparent when Saul has a change in his identity, isolates himself, and develops a substance abuse addiction. Richard Wagamese shows how trauma has consequences that lead to issues such as identity of oneself and the damage it can do to someone. 

One of the major consequences of abuse that occurs is a  change in someone's identity. In Indian Horse, Saul faces one of his first major losses in his individuality when first attending St. Jerome's Indian residential School leaving everything he knew behind; “They took me to St Jerome's Indian residential School...St. Jerome’s took all the light from my world. Everything I knew vanished behind me.” (Wagamese, 43).  When Saul enters the residential school he leaves the life he once knew, his friends, family, his language, self-image, and his culture behind. While his stay at the school, Saul endured torture by the priests and nuns by the gruesome beatings and cruelty of forbidding them to their culture/way of life; “When your innocence is stripped from you, when your people are denigrated, when the family you came from is denounced and your tribal ways and rituals are pronounced backward, primitive, savage, you come to see yourself as less than human. That is hell on earth, that sense of unworthiness. That's what they inflicted on us.”(Wagamese, 81). The hell the staff have caused Saul to feel unworthy when everything that defines him and his way of life is seen as backwards and crooked; his self image worsens. Apart of Native Americans traditions/rituals is to bring vision, Saul had the ability to be lifted out of the physical world and into a place where space and time are different is and he was known as a seer but his power left him when he went to the school; “It left me years ago, and the loss of that gift has been my greatest sorrow. Sometimes it feels as though I have spent my entire life on a trek to rediscover it.”(Wagamese, 2). His ability of being a seer was a part of his identity and when that was lost he feels as if his entire life has been a path to reconnect with it, the abuse he faced has caused him to lose that part of him.

Isolation is another result of abuse, it can be used as a coping mechanism for pain.  Saul had to witness the kidnapping, disappearance, and death of his family members due to the hatred of the white people at the time while losing his entire identity in the process; “I was sore inside. The tearing away of the bush and my people was like ripped flesh in my belly. Every time I moved or was forced to speak, it roared its incredible pain. And so I took to isolation...Maybe it was the hurt itself that allowed me that odd grace. (Wagamese, 48-49). The emotional scarring can make it hard for one to talk as when one has experienced many forms of trauma talking can be a difficult task to perform.  However  Saul expresses his emotions when he is by himself; “That’s how I survived. Alone. When the tears threatened to erupt from me at night I vowed they would never hear me cry. I ached in solitude. What I let them see was a quiet, withdrawn boy, void of feeling.” (Wagamese, 55).  Dissociation is a method used to keep one stable from a toxic environment when conveying emotions can cause further harm in a certain situation, however, this coping mechanism can cause further trouble in the future. This effect is shown when Saul is later recalling his time with Father Leboutillier and how he remembers the sexual abuse that was faced by him and the betrayal of him, when he was the only mentor he had; “Rage was a wild heat that rose out of the base of my spine and through my belly, and I punched those rotting boards until my knuckles were raw, the tears erupting out of me. I fell to the ground and buried my head in my arms. I had run to the game. Run to it and embrace it, doing anything that would allow me to get to that avenue of escape. That’s why I played with abandon.  (Wagamese, 199). The pain of how the closest person he had was Father Leboutiller and how he took advantage of him and used hockey which was a dream/ gift of Saul as a plea for his silence still haunts him. He used hockey as an escape from the abuse he was facing from the school and Father Leboutiller and the aftermath of the bottled- up anger and tears released itself. 

Similarly, substance abuse is an unhealthy way of coping with abuse due to the feeling of unwanted thoughts being taken away for a while, Saul uses alcohol as a way of dealing with the  damage he has gone through over his life; “ I began to drink myself. I only know that when I did the roaring in my belly calmed. In alcohol  I found an antidote to exhale.” (Wagamese, 180).  When Saul starts to become an alcohol addict he becomes physically ill and winds up having a seizure, resulting in him ending up in a hospital with the doctors having a negative output of his current condition; “ But the doctors told me what a mess I’d made of my body and another bout of drinking like I did would likely kill me.” (Wagamese, 190). After this frightening experience Saul gets a recommendation by his social workers at the hospital to go to the New Dawn Centre for treatment and healing;“By telling our stories, hardcore drunks like me can set ourselves free from the bottle and the life that took us there.” (Wagamese, 2).  Facing troubles from the past is difficult, therapy and sharing stories about the past can be a new step to accept the process of moving on into a proactive lifestyle.    

The different forms of abuse showcased in Saul's life have shown to have consequences when Saul has a change in his identity, isolates himself, and develops a substance abuse addiction. Richard Wagamses indicates that no matter what type of abuse there is, whether it be emotional, physical, or sexual how it can physically and psychologically affect someone  in life. 

Wagamese, Richard. Indian Horse: a Novel. Milweed Editions, 2018.