Cultural Values, beliefs, and traditions that separate Father Laforgue and Daniel from the Algonquin and how it influences their perception of each other
Clashing cultural values, beliefs, and traditions: Black Robe
The film Black Robe depicts the culture clash that occurs when Jesuit priests enter the Canadian wilderness and attempt to convert the native population to Christianity. Father Laforgue and his translator Daniel head into a land they know little about, into a culture they regard as primitive. Daniel, in contrast to the 'black robed' priest, falls in love with a native woman and embraces what he sees as the more sensual, vital lifestyle of the Native Americans, while Laforgue holds back from what he sees as native savagery and ignorance. However, both men regard the Huron Indians through an essentially Western worldview.
The Indians do not view matters of the body as disgusting, unlike the priest. The Christian ideal of asceticism is to transport the individual into the spiritual realm above...
Early on, when Laforgue is forced to 'relieve himself' during a canoe ride, the natives laugh, while Laforgue is clearly disgusted about having to do what he regards as a gross and dehumanizing action in public. It may be natural, but Laforgue wishes to deny such bodily practices, while the Indians are more amused by his disgust than the action itself.
This Western desire to distance one's self beyond from the material comes into even sharper relief when Laforgue begins preaching about heaven to the native population. Unlike the dogmatic Christians of the West, the Algonquin tribe is willing to at least listen to the words of the 'Black Robe.' However, they grow bored very quickly with the priest's tales of paradise. In heaven, Laforgue preaches, there is no smoking, drinking, and sexuality. The Indians reply that such a place is not paradise to them, which frustrates Laforgue. He is used to preaching to sinners who, however fallen, believe in one God, one hell, and one heaven and who desire…
