This is Part 2, covering themes, literary devices, symbolism, exam flags, and practice questions for "The Medicine Bag" by Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve. For the plot summary, characters, setting, and key terms, see Part 1.
The central theme. Martin is caught between two worlds: the suburban, predominantly white neighbourhood where he lives and the Lakota Sioux heritage he has romanticised for his friends but is uncomfortable confronting in person.
Grandpa's visit forces Martin to see his heritage as it is, not as a glamorous story. The medicine bag is the physical embodiment of that heritage: real, worn, unglamorous, and profoundly meaningful.
Sneve uses Martin's discomfort to show how cultural identity can be distorted by assimilation. Martin has absorbed enough of the dominant culture's values to feel embarrassed by the authentic version of his own.
Martin's emotional arc moves from shame to pride. At the start, he is ashamed of Grandpa's appearance. By the time his friends visit, he is proud of Grandpa. By the end, he has accepted the medicine bag and completed the sacred sage ritual.
The shame is never about Grandpa's character. Martin recognises Grandpa's courage (travelling alone at eighty-six), dignity, and wisdom throughout. The shame is about how others will perceive Martin through Grandpa.
Cheryl functions as a contrast. She feels no shame, brings friends freely, and is openly affectionate. Her ease highlights how much of Martin's discomfort is self-imposed.
The story does not frame tradition and modernity as enemies. Grandpa himself adapts: he tells Martin he need not wear the bag in Iowa, only on the reservation. The first Iron Shell's vision was about the white man's iron, and his medicine led him to the blacksmith shop, blending old spiritual practice with a new practical skill.
The tension is about whether the next generation will carry tradition forward at all, not whether tradition and modern life are incompatible.
The medicine bag has passed through at least four generations: the first Iron Shell, Grandpa Joe Iron Shell, Joe's son (Martin's maternal grandfather, who died in the war), and now Martin.
Each generation's relationship with the bag reflects its historical moment. The first Iron Shell used it to make sense of forced confinement. The son who went to war left it behind, afraid of losing it. Martin receives it in a suburban bedroom, far from the reservation.
The story implies that tradition survives only if someone chooses to carry it. Martin's acceptance is not automatic; he has to overcome real reluctance.
The bag symbolises Lakota heritage, family continuity, and spiritual identity. It is not decorative or impressive to look at, which mirrors the story's broader point: what matters about heritage is its substance, not its appearance.
The contents (iron shard, pebble, sage) each connect to a specific moment in the family's history. The bag is not generic; it is particular to the Iron Shell line.
On arrival, Grandpa's clothes mark him as out of place: a rumpled black suit, bright-red satin shirt, beaded bolo tie, cowboy boots. Martin finds this embarrassing.
When Martin's friends visit, Grandpa wears his best: a fringed leather vest with beads, beaded moccasins, his black hat brushed with the feather erect. The same man in deliberate ceremonial dress commands respect. Sneve uses clothing to show that dignity is context-dependent and self-possessed, not granted by others.
The neighbourhood dogs that chase Grandpa on arrival represent the hostility (or at least indifference) of Martin's suburban world toward what Grandpa represents. They are "yippy poodles" and "fancy little dogs," small and trivial, yet they mob the old man. Martin has to physically drive them off.
Martin narrates, so readers experience his shame, guilt, and eventual pride directly. This is a deliberate choice by Sneve: the reader cannot dismiss Martin's discomfort because the reader is inside it.
The first-person perspective also means readers learn the medicine bag's history only when Martin does, during the private ceremony. This creates suspense and emotional weight.
Grandpa's statement "it is soon time for Martin to have the medicine bag" foreshadows both the ceremony and his approaching death.
Martin's dreams of "thunder and lightning on a high hill" and the distant drumbeat the night before the ceremony echo the vision quest that created the medicine bag, linking Martin to the first Iron Shell.
Cheryl's unself-conscious acceptance of Grandpa highlights Martin's internal struggle. She brings her friends to see him daily, and the younger children think Grandpa is "great." Martin's avoidance looks all the more conspicuous beside her ease.
The story's central tension, feeling caught between inherited culture and the desire to fit in, is a lived experience for children of immigrants, Indigenous communities, and anyone navigating dual identities. It is widely taught precisely because the emotional pattern (romanticise the heritage at a distance, feel embarrassed by it up close) maps onto real adolescent experience across many cultural backgrounds.
The medicine bag's contents and what each item represents are frequently tested. Know the three items: the broken shell of an iron kettle, a pebble from the butte, and a piece of sacred sage.
Martin's character arc (shame to pride to acceptance) is a common essay topic. Be ready to trace specific moments that mark each stage.
The difference between Martin's and Cheryl's reactions to Grandpa is a classic foil question.
The vision quest backstory is often tested separately: who undertook it, what the dream was, how the dream was fulfilled (the blacksmith shop), and how the name Iron Shell originated.
Expect questions on why Grandpa tells Martin he need not wear the bag in Iowa. This is about Grandpa's practical wisdom and cultural sensitivity, not about the bag being unimportant.
The story's ending (Martin placing sage in the bag on the reservation) is deliberately ambiguous about whether Grandpa has died. Be prepared to discuss what the ending implies and how it resolves Martin's arc.
True or false: Martin is ashamed of Grandpa because Grandpa is unkind to him.
False. Martin is ashamed of how Grandpa's appearance will look to his friends.
Fill in the blank: The medicine bag contains three items: a piece of iron from a broken ______, a ______ from the butte, and a piece of sacred ______.
Kettle, pebble, sage.
True or false: Grandpa insists that Martin wear the medicine bag around his neck at all times.
False. Grandpa tells Martin he need not wear it until he is back on the reservation.
Fill in the blank: Grandpa Joe Iron Shell travelled to Iowa by ______ for two and a half days.
Bus.
True or false: Cheryl is embarrassed to introduce her friends to Grandpa.
False. Cheryl brings friends to see Grandpa daily and is openly happy about his visit.
Q: How does Martin's attitude toward Grandpa change over the course of the story? Cite specific moments.
A: Martin begins by feeling deep embarrassment when Grandpa arrives in the neighbourhood, wanting to "sink right through the pavement." His shame continues as he avoids letting friends visit for two months. The turning point comes when his friends meet Grandpa on the patio and respond with respect and admiration. By the time Grandpa tells him the medicine bag's history, Martin feels genuine reverence. He completes his arc by travelling to the reservation to place sacred sage in the bag, an act of willing participation in his heritage.
Q: What is the significance of the first Iron Shell's vision quest, and how does the vision eventually come true?
A: The first Iron Shell fasted and prayed on a butte and received a vision of the white man's iron. He did not understand why his spiritual guide pointed toward something belonging to the enemy. The vision was confirmed when he found a broken iron kettle at the base of the butte. Later, when he was forcibly sent to a boarding school, he was assigned to the blacksmith shop and recognised that his medicine had led him there to learn the trade. The vision quest thus turned an act of colonial violence (forced education) into something the first Iron Shell could claim as spiritually guided.
Q: Why does Grandpa tell Martin he does not need to wear the medicine bag in Iowa?
A: Grandpa recognises that the bag would be misunderstood in Martin's suburban world and that forcing Martin to wear it would cause unnecessary difficulty. This shows Grandpa's pragmatism and cultural sensitivity: tradition is to be honoured, but it does not require performative suffering. Martin should wear it on the reservation, where it will be understood, and replace the sacred sage there.
Q: What role does Cheryl play in the story, and why is she important?
A: Cheryl serves as a foil to Martin. She is openly affectionate with Grandpa, brings her friends to see him without hesitation, and feels no conflict about his appearance or background. Her ease makes Martin's avoidance more visible and more clearly a product of adolescent self-consciousness rather than any real problem with Grandpa.
Q: Explain the symbolism of the medicine bag's contents.
A: The broken shell of the iron kettle represents the first Iron Shell's vision and his eventual mastery of the blacksmith trade; it connects spiritual calling to practical life. The pebble from the butte represents the sacred place where the vision was received. The piece of sacred sage represents spiritual purification and the continuity of Lakota ritual. Together, the contents are a compressed history of the Iron Shell family's spiritual and material journey.
Q: What does the ending of the story suggest about Grandpa's fate?
A: The story implies that Grandpa has died, though it never states this directly. On the night of the ceremony, Mom and Dad take Grandpa to hospital. Two weeks later, Martin stands "alone on the lonely prairie of the reservation" and places sage in the bag. The solemnity, the solitude, and the completion of the ritual all suggest that Grandpa has passed and Martin is fulfilling his inherited responsibility.
This story connects to broader units on coming-of-age literature: compare Martin's arc with characters in texts like "Everyday Use" by Alice Walker, where a family object (a quilt) becomes the site of a disagreement about heritage, or "Two Kinds" by Amy Tan, where a daughter resists her mother's cultural expectations. All three stories explore who gets to define what heritage means and how it should be carried forward.
If your course covers Native American history, the boarding-school episode in Iron Shell's backstory connects directly to the U.S. government's forced assimilation policies of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. The phrase "Kill the Indian, save the man" summarises the philosophy behind those schools.
For literary analysis skills, the first-person narrator with a clear emotional arc makes this a strong text for practising how to track characterisation through specific textual evidence, a skill that transfers to any close-reading task.
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