My Name Is Not Easy

In My Name is Not Easy, the impact of forced assimilation on culture and identity is the central external conflict. Since the arrival of white Europeans in what is now the United States of America, those in power have visited genocide on Indigenous cultures and made them a minority on the fringes of society. The government, from the time of its inception, stole Native American land and forced tribes into poverty on sparsely funded and neglected reservations. The racism and white supremacy of this history is clear in this theme.

In the 1950s and 1960s, boarding schools, particularly religious-themed schools, made agreements with state governments to bring in Native American students. By separating children from their families and communities, the administrators of the schools believed that they would be doing Native American children a service by forcing the children to assimilate to white, Christian society’s mores. They believed that by removing these children from family, community, language, tradition, and culture, they could remake Native American children according to white culture’s ideals. These schools employed physical, emotional, and philosophical abuse in attempts to achieve their goals. Children and their families often had no choice but to attend these schools. What happens with Isaac is especially destructive, as he is essentially kidnapped and sent off to live with a white family because, at his young age, the government believes that it will be easier to erase his Native American identity and make him a productive member of society.

Abuse within this system included military and scientific testing on the Native American children, as is shown when the military sends doctors to Sacred Heart to study the bodies and biology of the Eskimo children. Military scientists give the children doses of the radioactive substance Iodine-131. This endangers their long-term health for the sake of military innovations. The military does not petition the children’s parents for consent for this testing. The lack of concern for the children’s health as well as the callous disregard for the authority of their parents highlights embedded racism.

The novel’s title captures this theme because Luke’s understanding of his circumstances at Sacred Heart forces him to give up his real name and his native language. Luke feels emotionally, physically, and mentally oppressed. He sees his identity slipping away due to the separation from his family, corporal punishment when he speaks in his native language, and even the façade of the name Luke. This has long-term repercussions for Luke. Forced and exclusive use of English makes a return to Iñupiaq more difficult, and Luke cannot communicate authentically with others. In Luke’s mind, Bunna doesn’t understand Luke’s desperate message, which indirectly leads to Bunna’s death. Luke’s experience at Sacred Heart abuses him into submission and sacrifice of his culture and identity. As a result, he internalizes much guilt.

Father Mullen is the primary antagonist of this novel as his character embodies the racism that enables this theme. Father Mullen despises the Native American students and believes that they are inherently inferior to him. He uses physical abuse to beat them into submission, but he also uses emotional abuse to break down their identity and self-confidence. Father Mullen’s character stands for the larger system of institutionalized white supremacy.