The Depiction of School Abuse in Indian Horse

Even hockey couldn’t save Saul from school. Saul is an aboriginal boy; both his parents leave him when his brother dies so he is left with his grandmother. He and his grandmother are on their way to a new village for the winter when she suddenly dies on the side of the road. Saul then gets caught and sent to school. At school he gets abused but is not treated very bad because he already knows English and he plays hockey which he is exceptionally good at, so he gets to leave school early to play hockey at a high level.

He was almost professional when he quit hockey because the team he was playing on didn’t make him happy. As a result of this Saul starts to drink a lot trying to forget school. I believe this movie was actually very good because it shows what really happened in school and the outcome. Three main points on why I believe Indian Horse is a good movie are; it shows the abuse and assault that happened at school, Saul was gifted and played hockey which made the movie more entertaining and also less dark, and it shows how aboriginals were affected in the future with drugs, alcohol, etc..

Indian Horse shows all the bad abuse and assault that happened at the schools. For example, when Lonnie and didn’t obey the nuns they would punish him by putting soap in his mouth or hitting him with a big ruler or a belt. The nuns even locked him in a cage that was so small it barely held him in it, and he was forced to stay there for a long time. This movie showed all the abuse and assault that went down at the school it didn’t just tell everyone what happened. The abuse happened to thousands of aboriginal kids and is still causing pain to people. Even though there was abuse and assault it wasn’t all bad for everyone.

Although schools were bad, because Saul played hockey and was very good, his experience wasn’t as bad. One example is that Saul can leave school early to play hockey at a high level. I personally believe that everyone who attended schools had an extremely bad experience but some like Saul were lucky and got a gift that made school not as bad. Saul was very lucky and got 2 gifts, one of being able to speak English and the other is hockey both making residential school easier for him. Saul had it good, but how does everything end up?

In the movie it doesn’t only show what happened during school it also shows what happens to everyone in the future and the effects of school. For example, near the end of the movie it shows Lonnie and a couple other guys laying outside on a mattress clearly drunk and maybe on drugs too. Even Saul drank so much after he ended up in the hospital. I think this is a big part of the movie because most people don’t talk about the results of school as much as they talk about what happened at school, this also proves how bad it was if Saul started drinking and he had it easy, so could you imagine how bad it is for people who were badly abused and assaulted at school and how they are doing today?

In conclusion, I believe this movie truly showed the whole process of schools. It showed the good and mostly all the bad. Indian Horse even showed life before, during, and after school which is good to get the whole story. This movie was good, but it was also a bit bad because it made it seem like Saul had an easy time at school and it wasn’t that bad even though it was a horrible experience for everyone. There were many good things about Indian horse, one of the reasons being it took you through the experience of residential school which I think is a great thing because I personally have never actually seen and probably many other people have never seen it either.