Indian Horse: Hockey In Richard Wagamese's Novel

In the novel Indian Horse by Richard Wagamese, we are introduced to a boy named Saul Indian Horse who is gifted with incredible hockey playing skills. Saul has to deal with loss and pain, yet, he also experiences a lot of family despite losing his own very early on. Saul lost his family, his culture and his overall Indigenous identity. These losses made Saul dependent on a method of escape, an escape to free himself from all the trauma and loss of his past. However, through his escape of the game of hockey Saul was able to recreate a type of family and community who all shared his love of the game. Saul recreated family and community with the boys on the hockey team at St. Jerome’s Residential School, the Kellys, and the players and fans of the Moose hockey team. Let's research more detail of the topic of escape using sport in "Richard Wagamese Indian Horse: Hockey Essay " paper.

Firstly, Saul was able to find his escape and was able to recreate a type brotherhood with the boys at St.Jerome’s Residential School even after the loss of his family. Even though St. Jerome’s was a place filled with abuse of all kinds Saul was able to find an escape. “When I hit the ice I left all of that behind me. I stepped onto the ice and Saul Indian Horse, the abandoned Ojibway kid, clutched in the frozen arms of his dead grandmother ceased to exist”. By this point in the novel Saul has already lost so much, including his family. He has witnessed and experienced all kinds of trauma and abuse which has forced him to seek refuge, a type of escape. Saul finds the game of hockey and it allows him to forget his lost family and be free from the isolation he faces. Furthermore, with the game of hockey Saul was able to create a new type of family. “In our laughter, teasing and rough camaraderie, I found another expression of the spirit of the game. We’d head to the main building for the evening meal, jockeying, nudging, poking each other. Wrapped in the aura of freedom that the game offered us, we’d grin at each other over the hash and skimpy stews. Brothers. Joined by the promise of steel blades forming swirls in snow and ice”. Saul found his escape and through it was able to recreate a brotherhood with the boys on the team even after the loss of his own brother. They were able to experience some fun and freedom by way of the game of hockey while still living in a place surrounded by darkness. “In the spirit of hockey I believed I had found community, a shelter and a haven from everything bleak and ugly in the world”. At this point in the novel Saul has lost his family, his cultural identity, and his religion. He has experienced all types of scarring incidents and witnessed the brutal behavior at St. Jerome’s this led him to his escape of hockey. Through this game, Saul is able to recreate everything he lost. Although St.Jerome’s Residential School was a ruthless and abusive place, Saul was able to find his escape from all the trauma through the game of hockey and in doing so recreated a type of family with the boys on the hockey team.

Secondly, through the game of hockey Saul was granted the opportunity to be adopted by Fred Kelly and his family which allowed Saul to restore a family like lifestyle. “The Kellys would be your legal guardians, Saul. That means you would leave here and go to Manitouwadge, attend a regular school. You’d have a home, Saul. A real home”. Saul was able to leave all the terrible abuse and corruption of the residential school behind with an incredible opportunity to get adopted by Fred and Martha Kelly. The Kellys would be able to give Saul in the words of Father Leboutilier “A real home”, something that Saul had lost along with his family. Therefore by being adopted Saul was successfully recreating a family. “When we were finished, Martha showed me to my room, and we went shopping for clothing. I’d never had anyone spend money on me… Fred took me to the sporting goods store next and bought me my first gear”. Saul’s mother and father abandoned him at a very young age. Martha and Fred Kelly are able to recreate the role of mother and father that are missing in his life. They gave him a room, they spent money on him, and they allowed him to play the game he loves. “He stared down at the ice while I told him about Father Leboutilier. I told him about my family and how I’d come to be at St. Jerome’s. I told him about the rage that built in me that I had never understood and how it corroded everything, even the game. I told him about the road, the jobs, the towns, and then I told him about the booze”. The Kelly’s youngest son Virgil also gets quite close to Saul throughout the duration of the novel. Virgil is able to be a brother figure to Saul after the death of Saul’s actual brother. They connect through hockey at first but their bond goes much deeper. In the quote, Saul is opening up to Virgil about his grim past, something Saul couldn’t do for a very long time. It took someone close to him, someone like a brother, for him to open up and share his trauma. Saul lost his family and community which made him in need for an escape, Saul’s escape of hockey allowed him to be adopted by the Kellys and in doing so allowed him to recreate a family.

Finally, when Saul moved out of St. Jerome’s and began playing hockey for the Moose, his teammates quickly became a family, and the fans of the team became his community. Although leaving St. Jerome’s meant freedom from the hateful treatment it also meant Saul would have to leave behind the brotherhood he created with his teammates on the school hockey team. “Virgil thumped me on the back and they all rattled the blades of their sticks on the ice and we thumped across the snow to the shack… I stripped off my jersey and sat there breathing in the atmosphere of that small wooden shack. I was a Moose”. Nevertheless, Saul left and was granted the opportunity to play on the Moose hockey team. After just the first practice Saul is accepted and welcomed as a player on the team. This allowed Saul the opportunity to create a new brotherhood and family with these players. “The game brought us together in a way that nothing else could, and players and fans alike huddled against whatever winter threw at us. We celebrated every goal, every hit, every pass”. Saul, his teammates, and the fans were all connected through their love of the game of hockey. This love bonded them in a community like fashion filling the loneliness that Saul once faced. Saul and his teammates on the Moose grew so close that he even described it as brotherhood: “We only thought of the game and the brotherhood that bound us together off the ice, in the van, on the plank floors of reservation houses, in the truck stop diners…”. The bond that the boys had created had far extended from their love of hockey. They grew close because Saul loved and trusted them on and off the ice, connecting them making them a brotherhood, a family. Saul not only lost his family but also his community, through the game of hockey he was able to recreate a type of family with his teammates on the Moose and a type of community with the fans of the Moose. Through the boys on the St.Jerome’s hockey team, the Kellys, and the fans and teammates on the Moose hockey team Saul was able to recreate a type of family after he lost his. With the game of hockey as Saul’s escape he able to free himself from all the isolation he faced and all the trauma he endured. Overall, Saul was a young boy that lost so much that was important to him, including his family, his beliefs, and his cultural identity using hockey as an escape allowed Saul to recreate family and community in new ways.