Juanita Platero’s “Chee’s Daughter”: Character’s Environment Reveals A Great Deal
About Personality Essay, Research Paper

Juanita Platero’s “Chee’s Daughter”: Character’s Environment Reveals A Great Deal

About Personality

A characters environment reveals a great deal about his personality. In

Chee’s Daughter by Juanita Platero and Siyowin Miller this theory is displayed.

In this story a young Navajo Indian girl is taken from her home by her deceased

mother’s parents. Two different environments which reflect values and

personalities are conflicting. A young traditional Navajo,Chee , and a non-

traditional Navajo businessman, Old Man Fat , fight over Chee’s daughter,

Little One. The two distinctly different settings in this story reflect the

personalities of the protagonist,Chee , and the antagonist Old Man Fat.

Chee’s setting reflects his caring nature. He shows this by caring for

the land he lives on like a father would do for his son. He shows that he cares

for the land by thinking that “if he sang the proper songs, if he cared for the

land faithfully, it would not forsake him now…”(82) Chee is trying to grow

food and he thinks that if he cares for the land and respects it that the earth

would in turn make the food grow well. Another way to show this is how Chee

thought that if he “Take care of the land and it will take care of you.”(81)

Chee cared and respected the land and in turn the land gave him food for which

he would to barter back Little One from Old Man Fat. Chee treats the land as an

equal. “he felt so strongly that just now this was something between himself

and the land.”(82) Chee treats the land as an equal, respects it and it

respects him by giving him the food he needs. Where he lives is pure and real,

like the earth.

The setting Old Man Fat chooses to live in reflects his personality and

values. Old Man Fat owns a small store one the side of the highway that

disregards some Navaho customs and beliefs. He does this by flaunting

“…pseudo-Navajo designs on the roof.”(78) This is very disrespectful to his

tribe. He does not even try to find some real Navajo symbols with real meaning.

Another way Old Man Fat’s values are portrayed in his setting is how he has a

“garish blue door which faced north to the highway.”(78) Navajo Indians face

their hogans, homes, to the east so that they awake with the sun which

symbolizes a new beginning. Lastly Old Man Fat’s setting reflects his

personality is when he has his grand-daughter, Little One, stand in a hogan so

that tourists could “see inside a real Navajo home 25 c.” This depicts his

personality because it shows that he would rather make money than to have his

grand-daughter shown-off like an exhibit.

In the story two contrasting settings display opposite personalities.

Old Man Fat’s disrespectful, greedy nature clashes with Chee’s respectful and

unselfish ways. This world would be a whole lot better if it was filled with

more people like Chee instead of those profiteering gluttons like Old Man Fat.