Inna Halay

English 12B
Mrs. Peyer
5/2/16
Why The Light in the Forest Matters

One day, two blind men found an unknown animal sitting in the woods. The first man
touched the animal from the ground and said, this is a tree trunk . Then the second man
touched the animal from the air and said, No, this is a snake. The two kept on arguing until
they touched the animal from the others positioning and finally realized that, in a sense, they
were both right. As it turns out, the animal was an elephant. This concept is very well shown in
the book The Light in the Forest by Conrad Richter. In the book, True Son, a white boy, is
raised by native americans but once he grows up, he must go back to his white family.
Throughout the book, we see two different perspectives on life: the native american and the
white. This book challenges the reader's thinking in two ways. First, by showing that each
perspective is true/correct from a certain angle and second, by providing a broad look into the
idea that there is no correct perspective.
Every culture has its own idea of the correct way to live. The native americans live in
tepees while whites live in wooden houses. The preference of each race suggests how each
perspective is correct from a certain way of thinking. For example, when True Son first sees the
white settlement, he describes it to have the gloomy stone , the dark passageways, the drunken
soldiers(ch.5, pg.23). Through this quote we can see True Sons hatred towards the white
culture in general. He feels happier when he is amongst the native american culture. This is True
Sons and most native american perspective. Then if we look at Dels reaction when he comes

into contact with white culture, we can see a complete difference from True Son. Del describes
that the village with a certain slant of roofs with the British flag flying over them, stirred him
deeply inside(ch.6, pg.28). In this quote we can see that Del is very happy to be back home in
white culture. He embraces it and loves it. Now although Del would not agree with True Sons
perspective and True Son would not agree with Dels, from a third point of view, we can see that
there is nothing wrong with each perspective. If, for example Del would look at life from True
Sons point of view, he would agree with True Son. It would also work the other way around. So
if we put this all together, we can see that each perspective is correct when you look at it from a
certain angle.
Based on the earlier claims of each perspective being correct from a certain angle, we can
also say that not one perspective is the correct one. This is because all people believe in different
things causing them to not be able to find a view that pleases everyone, a view that is universal.
This is portrayed in the book through how the native americans and the whites see each other's
intellect differently. For example, Little Crane claims that they are a mixed people, and thats
what makes them so foolish and troublesome...Now we Indians know good and bad for ourselves
without a book or the cumbersome labor of reading(ch.4, pg.17). Based on this quote, we can
see that the native americans view themselves as superior to whites. Now based on history, we
know that whites always viewed themselves as superior to native americans. Therefore, we
cannot say that there is only one superior race or one true way of thinking because these
perspectives are always dependent on our own character and outside influence. In this sense,
everything can be true while at the same time everything can also be false.
The differences in perspectives shown in this book challenge the reader's way of thinking
and viewing the world. We can use these specific differences in views and apply it to overall

reality. The reality is that we never really know what is the correct view on things because all of
our views are influenced by the mass opinion, where people agree with something that appeals to
them. But still there are many mass opinions so we do not know what is ever correct, especially
if we consider that all of our perspectives are just opinions and opinions always have
subjectivity.

Reflection
I chose the Why the Light in the Forest matters essay for my first artifact. For this
assignment, I had to write an essay about why the book The Light in the Forest is an important
piece of literature. This essay is very important to me because I incorporated ideas that I learned
in my Comparative Religions class into English and the book itself. I think that I was able to
connect ideas together very well and I was able to use a variety of more complex sentence
structures. Another strength of this essay is the process of how I wrote it. I was completely
absorbed in writing it and actually had fun. Noticing this difference in the writing process is
important to me because I can tell that I have become a better writer through it. It doesnt take
me long to realize what works in a paragraph and what doesnt. Finally, I have always had a
problem with connecting small ideas that I wrote about in one paragraph, to other ideas in
another paragraph. I have noticed that in this essay, I was successful in making those connections
and it wasnt that hard to do.
Although I would consider this essay one of my best pieces, I would improve one thing
about it. I would improve how I answered the prompt. I realize that I havent answered the
assigned prompt as clearly as I would have hoped. It also seems that my conclusion is a little
confusing because I incorporate new ideas that may need further explanation for the reader. So if
I were to revise this essay, I would be sure to answer the prompt more clearly and I would make

the conclusion easier to understand. I would use new ideas that would be easy for the reader to
understand one their own without me needing to explain them extensively.