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Search for the Self: Fool's Crow

Overview

Fool's Crow by James Welch is, among other things, a story of one boy's initiation into manhood, a tale that Joseph Campbell would call a "hero's quest narrative." At the beginning of the novel, White Man's Dog is eighteen years old but thinks he has little to show for himself, only three horses and no wives. Throughout the course of the book he goes through a step-by-step initiation ritual that leads him to manhood.
First the hero must be separated from home and family. As a form of purification he enters a sweat with the many-faces man, Mik-api. Cleansed, White Man's Dog paints himself with yellow pigment exactly as Mik-api instructed to "gain the strength and cunning necessary to be successful" (23). White Man's Dog prays to Thunder Chief "whose long rumbling voice foretold the beginning of life and abundance on the ground of many gifts. He prays to Sun Chief, who watched over the Pikunis and all the things of this world" (27).......

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Approximate Word Count: 1350
Approximate Pages: 6 (250 words per double-spaced page)

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