Arts Studies and Criticism

"Across the Big Water" is selected from the autobiographical narrative work "Black Elk Speaks" by John G. Neihardt, which records the oral accounts of the Indian prophet Black Elk. This chapter takes the experience of black elk crossing the Atlantic to participate in the "Bison Bill Circus" as its main thread, presenting the fate of indigenous culture being plundered and performed during the colonial expansion at the end of the 19th century. This article takes the Marxist theory of "ideology" as the analytical framework and points out that the ideology of the colonists achieved systematic conquest of the "other" through economic interests, cultural display and discourse control. The plundering and display of "Wasichus" in the text not only reflect the cruelty of capital logic, but also reveal how ideology packages exploitation as a symbol of civilization and progress. This article holds that "Across the Big Water" reveals the ideological violence behind the colonial order through the tragedy and disillusionment of narrative. It shows how the ruled gradually internalize the value system of others in oppression, thereby losing the center and spirit of the "ring of the nation".