William Apess’ An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man

I have read William Apess’ An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man in a previous class and really quite enjoy him. I really enjoyed reading this text for a second time a believe that I got a little more out of it than when I read it the first time. I appreciate his use of scripture, which he uses a lot of in this text because he was an ordained minister.

I know that not much is known about William Apess and what is known comes from his autobiography A Son of the Forest. I believe that he was born in a tribe somewhere in Massachusetts and also he ran away when he was 15 and joined the militia in New York and fought in the War of 1812. He was ordained as a minister somewhere around 1830 and in the same year, he published his autobiography.

There are a few things I like and dislike about Apess’ An Indian’s Looking-Glass for the White Man. What I do like is, as I said before, his use of scripture to back-up his argument. I also liked how h was calling you out on your actions or the actions of the whites in his day. What I didn’t like was that it felt way to much like an essay, because of the format of it and felt too impersonal. I also didn’t really like that he asked like 10 questions in every paragraph. The questions he asks are rhetorical, but I believe he kind of over does it a little. I think the same can be said for the amount of scripture he uses. He went a little overboard on it. However, it does drive home his point of how the whites back then needed to man up and stop being such hypocrites, so I can forgive him of that.