The Black Robe

 For class we had to watch the film The Black Robe. In this movie we see the interactions between the native people of Canada and the French colonist. The priest in the movie goes on a trip to spread the word of God to native tribes in efforts to convert them so they can go to heaven. This movie does a good job showing the interaction between oral and literate cultures. We see how the natives use the earth in everything they do and this plays a big part in their religion. While the Catholics are only worried about showing the natives how good their lives could be after accepting God. The natives think of the priest as being a devil since he has a more advanced way of spreading information, religious or not. With the work of writing, we can easily pull up information and is a convenience to us but to native cultures they do not understand this concept. The see putting words into writing as a foreign concept because you cannot make something oral into something you can read. They also see him as a devil because he is consistently trying to convert them to his religion, but they rather stay in their ways. They believe that the devil is at work and tempting them to change their beliefs. 

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