”Dreamspeaker” by Cam Hubert
Dreamspeaker is a story about neglect, hatred and the lack of nowadays’ western society. It is also a
story telling about how strangers can meet and come to love each other, the wonderful parts of an
Indian society which is now beginning to disappear from this world. In the story we meet 9-year-old
Peter, who was taken away from his neglectful, alcoholic mother at the age of 4, and since then has
spent part of his life in different foster homes, and the rest of it in several institutions for
challenging children. The first time we hear from Peter he is about to move in to one of these
institutions. At this point of time he is extremely disturbed, he wets his bed and he does not feel like
socializing with the other boys. He also has continual sights of a big snake that is coming to choke
him. One day the “snake”, which is a symbol of his own fear, is about to choke him to death which
makes the leader of the institution send him to a hospital. Here he “sees” the snake again and in
order to escape from it, he runs away from the hospital. Now, a journey to a new life begins. He
meets Dreamspeaker, an extremely old Indian man, and He Who Would Sing, a mute, rather young
man. They bring him to their little cabin and by involving him in their daily activities and teaching
him the principles of the Indian society, they show him a new way of life. They also give him love,
and both of them understand Peter in a way he has never been understood before. Here, Peter learns
how to manage his own anger and that makes him a happy person. However, one day some people
from the official society find him and bring him back to the institution where they think he belongs.
Even though the two Indian men go to court to gain custody over Peter the case is lost.
Materialistically, the men are poor so the judge believes it to be better for Peter to stay at an
institution. Peter cannot live with that, he turns into a wild person again and starts a ravage at the
institution. Afterwards he realizes that Dreamspeaker is about to die and tries to escape from the
home, but the doors are locked. Thus, Peter hangs himself. The Mute realizes that Peter is dying and
commits suicide too. In the end we hear that the 3 persons are together again in a new world without
poverty, anger, sadness or death.
“Dreamspeaker” tells about more than one important theme. First of all, it tells about the extreme
neglect many children without any means of parental support are subject to. Peter’s case is one out
of many. Often we hear about children who get moved around from place to place throughout their
childhood because they are categorized as challenging. And who do we blame? The children! The