READING APESS’S EULOGY ON
KING PHILIP,
AS PRONOUNCED AT THE ODEON, IN FEDERAL STREET, BOSTON
You’re already somewhat familiar with the outlines of King Philip’s story from Irving’s "Philip of Pokanoket." Here, Apess presents this story as well, though he couches it in a very different framework. As you read, you might consider the following issues:
What issues does Apess stress? How does he treat the various parties involved? What strategies does he use to undermine the prejudices that he expects his audience to have? How, for example, does Apess treat oppositions between civilized and uncivilized, Christian and savage? Notice his interest in the names and terms used to describe people and groups. For example, early in his address he says that "the blood of a denominated savage runs in his veins" (105). To what extent does he call into question traditional evaluations of Europeans and Native Americans? And who emerges as really American in this text?
How does Apess characterize King Philip? Look closely at the descriptions of him, and at passages in which he quotes King Philip. Consider as well his representation of Philip’s death.
How does Apess use historical sources? What effects do his extensive quotations from and references to historical accounts have on his narrative? Does he accept all of these accounts as equally valid? How does he connect his account of seventeenth-century events with the political situation in 1836?
Consider as well the fact that this text was initially delivered as a speech. Does it have any identifiably oral qualities? How does Apess relate to his audience? How does he position himself as a speaker?
Finally, compare Apess’s text with the representations of Philip, and of Native Americans more generally, that we’ve seen in Irving and Cooper. How does his account differ from theirs? Are there ways in which his account resembles theirs as well? Does he, for example, romanticize his subjects? Note that Apess had clearly read The Sketch-Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., and in fact quotes extensively from "Traits of Indian Character" in the appendix to A Son of the Forest.