Black Elk’s Great Vision

Black Elk’s great vision provides a hypothetical view of the early Indian American society. Among the key features of the culture, that it portrays includes the definitions of the Indian and he relationship between the Indians and their transcendental being. Culture is a fundamental feature of humanity that influences numerous fundamental features thereby validating the vision’s definition of the Indians as it provides the specific features that differentiates an expected Indian rom the rest of the society (Black, Neihardt, and Raymond 45). The vision outlines a series of unexpected features thereby portraying the expected features in the Indian-American society. By outlining the numerous unexpected features, Black Elk’s vision portrays the transcendental being as a liberal being who understand the intriguing and dynamic feature fo the society. Therefore, he provides the unexpected features leaving the populace to enjoy the numerous other unlisted expected features.
The unexpected Indian as portrayed in Black Elk’s great visions makes it possible to understand the features of both the expected Indian and the Indian society arising from the relation of the people. The vision provides guidelines for the relationship among the people in the society. From the analysis of the unexpected for example, an expected Indian must develop a close relationship with the transcendental order. The religion defines the society, the vision therefore provides numerous unexpected features including transgressing from the traditional religion (Neihardt, Elk and Raymond 22). Additionally, the visions validate the position of the communicator thus expecting the people to relate with such people appropriately. Black Elk was a famous medicine man born in a lineage of equally famous medicine men. As such, he is a voice of authority in the society. The fact that he receives the vision defines the relationship between the people, the transcendental order, and the medicine men, who act as the intermediaries between the people and the transcendental order (Neihardt 5).
Through the outline of unexpected features, Black Elk strives to revamp critical thinking in the society. Critical thinking helps decipher the information in the vision thereby understanding the expected personality features from the list of the unexpected features. Critical thinking is fundamental in understanding the messages of a vision, as is always the case in many other similar circumstances. A vision is a dream and just as Black Elk portrays in the narration of his vision deciphering the messages of a vision requires critical thinking and effective consideration of the features of both the society and the dream.
The vision portrays an understanding of the role of cultural interactions in the society. It therefore outlines the features expected of both an invented and blood and flesh Indian. A blood and flesh Indian is one born in the culture. Such individuals grew up as part of the society while an invented Indian is one who assimilates into the culture as a grown adult through intermarriages among other forms of assimilations. Invented Indians may not therefore understand particular features of the culture and the vision provides a degree of leniency on the society’s expectations. In this way, it differentiates the roles of the two category of Indians thus creating a peaceful society in which the people interact freely with others.