"I Will Fight No More"

"I Will Fight No More Forever" was written by Joseph, the chief of the Nez Perce tribe. Even though the tribe is described as typically being a violent one involved in many battles, this speech in particular is about how Chief Joseph's desire to give up fighting, because he wants more time with his tribe and his family. The main reason this speech is a part of Realism is because the events in the speech are historically accurate and really did happen. Despite having some characteristics of Realism in it, the speech does not have much to do with Naturalism or Regionalism. There was a bit of Regionalism because it is a speech and Chief Joseph would obviously be talking in his own common speech and everyday vernacular. However, that is the only large part of Regionalism involved in the speech. There is also not very much Naturalism apparent in the story. Again, the only thing tying this speech into Realism is the historical accuracy and the events being talked about actually did happen in history. This is probably true for all speeches though, because if you talk about something in a speech you usually are talking about something you know a lot about from either firsthand accounts of something you have detailed greatly.

There is a little bit of government mentioned in the speech because of the conflicts going on between the American government and the Native Americans during this time period (Joseph). There were a lot of troubles and because of the government and their wrong doings against the Native American tribes. In his speech Chief Joseph talks about these things about how those events are causing a great deal of emotional problems as well as physical ones (Joseph). Again, Naturalism is not a part of the speech and there is little do with nature except for when Chief Joseph talks about the very cold weather and how it is effecting the tribe. However there is human nature involved in the speech because of the natural fight or flight instinct that all humans posses. Chief Joseph is losing his will to fight and is more occupied with the flight aspect of the scenario (Joseph). The American Dream also comes into play in the speech. Although the Native Americans have a different view of the dream than people in the cities do, they still had their own dream. They wanted to have a place of their own where they could safely raise their families and continue to thrive as a community (Joseph).

I do not like this speech was a very good representation of all of the categories of Realism. While there are little parts of Naturalism, Regionalism, and Realism, they are not hugely represented in the story and cannot be considered a very important part of the speech, and therefore the speech is not really a part of the Realism movement. The relocation of the Indians played a very important yet sad part of American History, and therefore there is a lot of historical accuracy especially because the speech was actually given by a Native American experiencing the hardships and confusion of the relocation and mistreatment of Indians.

Joseph, Chief. "I Will Fight No More." Glencoe American Literature. comp. Wilhelm, Jeffery. McGraw Hill. Columbus, OH. 2009. 533. Print.