THE RANGE ETERNAL AND MY DIGITAL CAMERALouise Erdrich's child book The range Eternal
...lp the child to learn writing. Moreover, it carries the valuable past memories on it. When the new stove came as a necessity of technological development, it makes the life easier. Just to switch on is enough to heat the house. Besides, the family does not have to bear the depressing hot weather to cook in the summer time. However, the new stove cannot fulfill the duties of the Range Eternal. At least, it cannot prevent the missing feelings. It is not more than a stove. The narrator does not speak ill of the new stove that is the symbol of the values and the necessities of the modern world. However, she reminds the importance of keeping your own values while adapting yourself to the world’s changing conditions. Otherwise, you would not be happy with an imposed identity and imposed cultural values. You should remember to remember your own basic cultural values in order not to have missing feelings. Although the “hero” of the story is the woodstove, The Range Eternal; the reader –whether it is a child or an adult- could find some other concepts that richen the meaning related to ethnicity. The reader delivers the message of importance to keep original cultural values without being isolated from the society with the ethnic structure. However, that is not the only message of the story. Upon closer analysis, I discovered that the soup symbolizes the ethnic structure of the American society and arranges the social and cultural values according to their importance for a human being. The scene of a caring mother cooking soup and the little daughter helping her mother is not unusual; on the contrary, it is quite sympathetic. But I have not observed this usual scene as it is illustrated. My view is that the lady stirring soup is the ideal American mother who mixes the fundamental cultural values in the “melting pot” and feeds and grows her children up. The ingredients of the soup also gain importance in this view. Because they are not simple potatoes and carrots. Also, while all of the ingredients mix, the bones naturally do not mix. This is a symbolic example of melting pot idea of American society with its mixing and non-mixing ingredients. Another significant detail about the soup is its being cooked in a kitchen of a Native-American’s house. The house of the family is located in the Turtle Mountain which is known as the territory where the Native-Americans live. Thus, this point also offers the message that “the melting pot” is in the kitchen of Indians; the Indians are the first and the true owners of the American lands. A typical American citizen forms his/her own cultural identity by adopting some values and adapting him/herself to the society in a way. What is ideal is to form that social identity by keeping the original cultural aspects. The adopted values and own cultural values should not be obstacle for each other. By the way, to isolate yourself from your own cultural values –whether you are aware or unaware – causes emptiness in the soul and “missing feelings”. The ingredients function as the cultural values in the ethnic society. “Bones went into the pot, for flavor, then potatoes and carrots.” This quotation explains the idea well. Bones symbolizes the original cultural values. They are “for flavor”. Potatoes, carrots and onions are the values of the mainstream, they are also important and necessary to be able to adapt to the society. But before potatoes and carrots, the bones are put into the pot. The bones are in the first turn, and then the others are added. While analyzing a child cook, the children should not be ignored. Obviously, it cannot be expected from a child to understand that rich symbolic meanings. Nevertheless it may help them to shape their minds and to form their own ideas step by step. The reader can also trace the changing elements throughout the two offered generations. The narrator becomes a mother herself while she has been the daughter at the beginning of the story. The grateful dog Rex leaves its place to an unnamed cat. The Turtle Mountain as the place turns out to be the city. However, the soup in the melting pot does not change. Time changes the conditions and elements of the society, but it does not or cannot change the ethnic structure. The ethnic structure keeps itself. And the mother stirs and cooks and then presents the soup, with my own term; the ethnic soup. Moreover, illustrations add one more message to the ethnic soup. The girl figure eating soup sits on a chair and there is a jam full of spices on the table beside the dishes. Examining the illustration will show that you can add more after the soup is cooked, if you like. You can add your own experiences to your cultural identity throughout your life. Progress of your identity is continuous. In the same picture, the rising smoke on the hot soup is, interestingly, in the shape of a treble-clef. A treble-clef always reminds the harmony. Therefore, the illustration offers the possible harmony of the ethnic groups in American...