An Essay The minority living in the dominant culture An analysis of "Charlie" In Lee Maracle's short story " Charlie", the author describes how a little normal Indian child whose name is Charlie, struggling to the oppressive residential school in north Canada(in the early twentieth century). Maracle's states the opinion that Canadian government makes efforts to "assimilate the children"(275) into the mainstream society. However, the main character Charlie, as the title emphasizes, sacrifices his body to nature to resist to the cruel and inescapable fate on the finding way to home in the end. Thus, the story deeply indicates that how the minority people living in the dominant culture which is always assumed to be better than the aboriginal culture, and also the continuous resistant from the native people. Maracle argues that the Canadian government makes the children following "the principle of the school"(277) to get control of their language and religion, and even more than that. The Canadian goverment established this school system to seperate children from their families and communities, maracle admits that teachers and education provided by churches, by saying that" stoic reserve"(275) from the priests and catholic lay teachers. The stricted one religion of Christian that is imposed to the children is one of the way to imprison their spirit by the white people. CharIie is one of them, and Maracle describes him as "a quiet and unusual boy"(275), all the children in the residential school are equipped with "a quaint combination of primitive courage and lack of emotion"(275). For this reason, Maracle does not believe the school system is better for the children, as well by saying that "the boys are terrified"(277) more than "impressed"(277) from the stiff-backed white man, his unchanged voice and marching are regarded as