Research Paper on:
Indians by Arthur Kopit

Unformatted Sample Text from the Research Paper:
rich in natural resources, a land full of opportunity. There was one small catch. This "New World" was already occupied. In South America, the Spanish and the Portuguese handled this  problem by making Native Americans a permanent underclass. However, in North America, public policy was more inclined toward systematic extinction. Kopits play tells the plight of the American Indian  in the nineteenth century through the eyes of William "Buffalo Bill" Cody, who -- although caught in the conventions of his day -- at least acknowledges the humanity of the  Indians. The play is structured so that the viewers will share in the frustration that Cody and the Indians feel towards the system that is oppressing them. The student researching  this paper asks for a personal response to specified list of scenes. The student should choose the scenes that strike a chord with his or her own personal tastes,  but the following offers an example of how scenes can be related to the overall thesis, which is that the structure of the play is emotional, intended to build up  a growing sense of frustration. This is achieved by actively engaging the viewers emotions. For example, the scene in which Buffalo Bill, Ned Buntline, and Wild Bill Hickok are  putting on a play for the President and the First Lady is obviously designed to make the viewer angry (i.e. this is the "most pissing-off" scene, as requested by the  student). This reason behind this anger is that this scene perfectly portrays the shallowness, crassness, and ethnocentric attitudes of whites toward Native Americans. The scene is symbolic of a  whole attitude and cultural paradigm. The "play" that the three men put on represents all of the propaganda that was manufactured to paint Native Americans as animals and whites