The Identity Dilemma of the Protagonist in Carol Daniels' 'Lori'

This essay analyzes the identity dilemma of the protagonist, Lori, in Carol Daniels' short story. Lori, a survivor of the 60s scoop, grapples with her identity and her relationship with her deceased foster mother, who was cruel and racist towards her. The essay explores themes of racism, trauma, and the struggle to reconcile the past with the present. It delves into Lori's internal conflict regarding whether to attend her foster mother's funeral, highlighting her journey of self-discovery and her ultimate decision to prioritize her own peace of mind. The analysis examines the impact of the foster care system, the challenges faced by Indigenous individuals, and the lasting effects of childhood experiences on identity formation. Lori's story underscores the importance of self-acceptance, resilience, and the courage to choose one's own path. The essay also references Archibald-Barber's work on Indigenous voices, further contextualizing Lori's experience within a broader cultural and historical framework.

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Identity Dilemma of Protagonist in Carol Daniels’ “Lori”
Identity dilemma is a very common theme in the literature. Literature throughout the time
has provided with stories where protagonists or any other character is in an identity dilemma;
either the character is not being able to accept the way he/she is, or they are having a trouble
choosing between what they are and what the others want them to be (Archibald-Barber). Carol
Daniels’ short story is about the character of Lori and she is also having an identity dilemma, but
it revolves around the fact that whether she should or should not mend her feelings with her
foster mother, who has died, but was extremely cruel towards her in her childhood.
According to the short story, Lori is an Indian by origin and was fostered by a German
family. Lori states how she was bullied right from the morning in the foster parent’s house to the
evening on the playground. The story highlighted the social issue of racism and the impact it has
on the one who is bullied because of his/her skin complexion. One might feel that parents are the
one would keep their child safe from any kind of bullying at least inside the premises of the
house; however, Lori was bullied by her foster mother for her dark complexion and was called
schvartze by everyone. Since Lori was too young to understand the meaning of the word and she
asked her foster mother about it, she lied about the meaning and told her it meant “little one”.
However, the meaning did not make any sense to her since each time she was called by that

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name, people used to laugh and point at her as if they were making fun of her. It took her years
to find the meaning of the word in a university where Lori was pursuing her studies and that is
when she realized what her foster parents used to think about her because of her origin; the word
schvartze indicates “Poisonous Pedagogy” and this happens whenever parents have the belief
that their child is showing such development which is “infected with the seeds of the evil”.
Further research leads Lori to know more about the term and she finds out that it is a traditional
method to raise a child, however, sociologists and psychologists have opined that this kind of
method to raise a child is not only repressive but also harmful.
Lori was just a child when she had to face all the brutal pangs of racist acts and moreover
from the people who promised to look after her. She felt betrayed and this was the reason Lori
departed from her foster mother as soon as she turned eighteen and they stopped getting funds to
raise her; moreover Lori was also hurt when she came to know that her foster parents were not
willing to adopt her because they thought that girls of her origins always end up in an unethical
path and thus there is no use of adopting. Lori had to come to her foster parents when she was
young as a part of the sixties scoop and the kind of behaviour that she had to undergo for
belonging to the Indigenous tribe is something that makes her the 60’s scoop survivor. Thus
being a survivor of this 60s scoop, Lori struggles with a dilemma when she comes to know about
the death of her mother. On one hand she is relieved or unmoved by the fact that her foster
mother died, however, on the other hand she has this struggle with herself that whether she
should attend the funeral and show her respects or just be like a strong survivor that she is and
keep the bitterness intact by not even noticing the news.
In reality, no matter if there are differences between a native and a migrant; the society
would give a feeling of isolation to the migrant. Similarly, Lori was segregated when she was

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scooped from her parents’ arms to her foster parents. The challenge was big enough to tackle, but
it went worse when Lori did not receive any kind of support from her foster parents themselves.
In the process of her identity construction, Lori had to face isolation, humiliation, racist
behaviour and it was tough for her to overcome such an experience. However, the dilemma that
she has in the story, about calling once and paying her respect shows that as a person she is not
completely void of love or sympathy. It seems that the kind of identity that she has acquired over
the years was shaped during her childhood suffering and mostly after she was separated from her
foster mother. This is why; she chose not to call her foster mother’s place to pay her respects,
instead she chose her own peace of mind and called the travel agency to have a tour to the
mountains where she would not have to feel the same cold again that she always got from her
foster parents. The conflict that occurred within the protagonist whether to attach herself with her
past again or not to choose to feel the same cold gesture, created a dilemma of her identity where
she finally decided not to forgive the kind of inequality she had to face under the people who
were supposed to nurture and protect her after she was scooped away from her parents under the
white regime.
The protagonist in the short story “Lori” was going through an identity dilemma when
she had a choice of revisiting her past and faces the cruel faces that made her childhood worse. It
took her some time to overcome from the poisonous parenting and prove her foster parents by
educating herself and having a married life where she is respected by others. Being a sixty’s
scoop survivor Lori could not forget the pain that she had to go through and thus in spite of being
in an identity dilemma, she chose not to revisit the past and relive the pain again.

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Works Cited:
Archibald-Barber, Jesse Rae, ed. Kisiskâciwan: Indigenous Voices from where the River Flows
Swiftly. University of Regina Press, 2018.