The image of American Indians in the eyes of world literary scholars

The article, deals with the introduction of American Indians, the indigenous people of America, into literature as artistic images, their presentation as good and bad people, and the process of changing the long-standing negative attitude towards them to a positive one. The author’s analysis is based on the world literary scholars’ research works. Looking at the literature of the American writers, we see the great assistance of Indians to the more or less positive settlement of European descendants. American Indians have appeared in various guises in the works of many famous artists. The fact that we meet them in novels, poetry, plays, and stories proves how important the image of Indians is in the world and American literature. The American Indians first encountered by Christopher Columbus in 1492 were not always characterized by the highest human qualities. For many years, these peoples were regarded as bloodthirsty and barbaric people. By the first quarter of the 19th century, such negative views began to change. By this time, representatives of American literature began to include Indians as positive images in their prose, poetry and dramas. From the first half of the 19th century, the attitude towards them has been changing in a positive direction. The new approach to Native Americans was reflected in the literature and art of that period. For American writers and artists, Indians, their culture, the forests they live in became a new subject. Until this time, American literature relied on the traditions of European writers when choosing a topic.
The main goal of this article is to study American Indians as characters in fiction. As a result of studies, it was concluded that Indians are portrayed as a negative image in literary works created before the 19th century. On the contrary, in the works created after 1815, Indians are depicted as noble people. Still, we find two categories of good and bad Indian images in the same work. Undertaking the research, the author of the article studied poets and writers who created Indians’ images in their works. Thus, the researcher divided those writers into two groups. So, such writers as Fennimore Cooper, Helen Hunt Jackson, William Longfellow Walt Whitman, and Child depicted Indians as noble people. On the contrary, Brawn, Simms, and Bird presented Indians in their works with a negative spirit and sometimes even very aggressive.