Multicultural Children's Books: Analysis of Cheyenne Again
This paper analyzes Eve Bunting's Cheyenne Again, a children's book about a young Native American boy forced to assimilate into white American culture, as a case study in multicultural children's literature. The paper examines how the book handles cultural stereotypes, universal human experiences, and the role of a compassionate teacher in bridging cultural divides. It explores how the book's perspective promotes mutual understanding, challenges dehumanizing prejudices, and provides remedies for cultural misunderstanding. The paper also argues more broadly that multicultural children's literature lays a foundation for tolerance, self-acceptance, and respect for diverse histories and traditions.
- Introduction: Colonization and Children's Literature: Colonial history shapes which stories get told
- Cheyenne Again: Stereotypes and Cultural Conflict: Book's stereotypes and forced assimilation of Native boy
- Universal Themes Within a Specific Cultural Context: Universal experiences embedded in culturally specific narrative
- Promoting Mutual Understanding Through Perspective: Child's consistent perspective bridges cultural divides
- Remedies for Cultural Misunderstanding: Teacher's compassion and memory as healing forces
- Changing Negative Attitudes Through Humanization: Book humanizes marginalized culture to combat prejudice
- The Value of Multicultural Children's Literature: Multicultural books build tolerance and respect in children
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What makes this paper effective
- The paper stays closely grounded in a single text, using Cheyenne Again as a consistent anchor for each analytical point rather than drifting into generalities.
- It balances textual analysis with broader social commentary, connecting the book's narrative elements — the teacher's compassion, the boy's memories, the father's pragmatism — to larger themes of prejudice, dehumanization, and tolerance.
- The paper moves logically from description to analysis to prescription, identifying not only what the book depicts but also how it functions as a remedy for cultural misunderstanding.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates thematic literary analysis applied to children's literature. Rather than summarizing the plot, it extracts recurring themes — stereotyping, assimilation, compassion, memory — and evaluates how each serves the book's broader pedagogical and social function. This technique is useful for any literature course requiring students to move beyond plot summary toward interpretive argument.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with a contextual introduction situating children's literature within colonial history, then analyzes Cheyenne Again through several lenses: stereotypes, universal themes, mutual understanding, remedies for bias, and attitude change. It closes with a broader argument about the social value of multicultural children's literature. Each section builds on the previous one, creating a cumulative case for the book's significance.
Introduction: Colonization and Children's Literature
Children's literature more accurately reflects the many histories that construct nations such as the United States. Multicultural perspectives in children's literature were excluded in the past for several reasons. One primary reason is that the cultural perspective most valued was the white American male perspective — the perspective of the colonizer. It is typically those who colonize that write the history books and decide which stories are told, and which stories are excluded from memory. The book examined in this paper is Cheyenne Again, about a young Native American boy who is taken from his tribal lands and culture and forced into the lifestyle of white America.
Cheyenne Again: Stereotypes and Cultural Conflict
This book deals with stereotypes of both Native Americans and white Americans. It is clearly told from the predominant perspective of a child and from a non-white point of view. While the child is resistant to the cultural changes he experiences, he remains open and receptive to one teacher who shows him genuine humanity. The teacher speaks to the boy, telling him to remember that he is still "Indian on the inside" and warns him not to let the white people take his memories away.
The boy's parents have a stereotypical reaction: they believe it is better for the boy and for future generations of the tribe to learn the white man's ways. The boy reacts with defiance. He runs away and is chained as punishment for failing to show "discipline." There is also a stereotype regarding runaways — that there is a high price for their return. This is reminiscent of enslaved Africans who fled plantations during American slavery; as they were considered property, great rewards were often offered for the return of human beings to their so-called "rightful" owners. There are stereotypical aspects of the native culture that the boy longs for. In some ways these stereotypes ring true to the point of cliché, yet the presence of such diverse perspectives is necessary and appreciated, both in this book and in the broader canon of multicultural children's literature.
Universal Themes Within a Specific Cultural Context
Though taken from a specific cultural perspective, Cheyenne Again reflects conditions and afflictions that affect all people regardless of cultural or ethnic background. People are resistant to change. There have been great cultural shifts in the history of every culture and society, and change is an inescapable part of life. Separation from family and the familiar is also something many people experience, and in numerous cultures this experience is central to the act of coming of age.
Furthermore, most adults and children can directly relate to feeling bored, distracted, and unhappy at school. Many children and adults have dreamed of — or actually carried out — running away from home or boarding school. The institution depicted in the book resembles a crude version of a boarding school designed to assimilate young Native American boys into white American culture. Hopefully, most readers have also had at least one teacher who has related to them in such a way that their troubles seemed lighter or were given greater perspective. These are some of the elements in Cheyenne Again that are more universal than culturally specific.
References
Arellano, J. (2011). The use of multicultural literature in elementary classrooms: Teaching acceptance and understanding of different races, ethnicities, and cultures. [University]: Print.
Bunting, E. (2002). Cheyenne Again. Sandpiper: Print.
Ryan, T. (2006). Multicultural children's literature: A discourse analysis. [University]: Print.
Sage Publications. (n.d.). Chapter 1 — Introduction to multicultural children's literature. Retrieved January 25, 2013, from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/34101_Chapter1.pdf
Sage Publications. (n.d.). Chapter 2 — The essentials and foundations of multicultural children's literature. Retrieved January 25, 2013, from http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/34102_Chapter2.pdf
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