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Anders Praest

Professor Shackett

English 122

04 March 2019

Good Book, But For A College Class?

As students make the transition from highschool to college, one of the most important

factors for a class is to be more advanced but to also ease the students into this new territory. In

highschool, students are taught all different aspects and qualities of literature, yet are basically

spoon fed a book’s meaning by the teacher. This is understandable as they are just now learning

and need the help to understand it. However, in college, students cannot be helped as much. They

need to figure most of these things out on their own. ​Killers of the Flower Moon​ by David Grann

uses a slew of literary techniques, keeps the reader interested, touches on a subject in history, and

for those reasons I believe that it is a good choice for a college level read.

Not only has Grann published a well written book, but the story he is trying to convey is

nearly, if not more, important. All the events that take place in the book are real and Grann is

bringing to light the atrocities that occured to the Osage. According to the book, “A Fairfax

newspaper published an editorial arguing that the bombing was beyond comprehension” (92).

Despite what many people imagine when they think of the “west”, killings so cold blooded and

on this scale was not typical of this time period. As murders started to rack up, these cases started

gaining national publicity. However, like with most cases in the US, the outrage and hype behind

these started to die out. And within a few years, nearly forgotten completely by everyone except
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the Osage. Grann is doing everyone a great favor by bringing to light these problems. The same

thing happens today, cases of racism and intolerance seem to lose traction after only a short

amount of time. It really shows how the US hasn’t changed too much since 1920 with their

policies and reactions to racism.

In close to every chapter, Grann mentions at least one aspect of racism affecting the

Osage. Grann does a great job of showcasing the blatant racism of this time period. “Money was

the one means at Mollie’s disposal that might induce the indifferent white authorities to pursue a

killer of Indians” (56). Grann really highlights the struggles that Indians went through during this

time when there was a major divide between people of different colors. Not to mention, that

besides these sub issues mentioned in chapters, the entire book itself revolves around the terror

these Osage Indians experienced at the hand of white folk.

Killers of the Flower Moon ​is riddled with a lot of the devices that were taught to us in

high school. One of the largest in this book would be foreshadowing. Grann does an excellent

job of alluding to what possibly could be happening as he continues the story. “When the

bombing occurred, Hale had been in Texas” (97). Later in the book, we learn the Hale had gone

to Texas intentionally to mask the fact that he had been the mastermind behind the murders. In

fact, he does it so well that the reader is just barely aware that something is being foreshadowed

as they read it, but after you finish reading and go back, it all makes sense and almost looks

obvious. Grann’s use of diction was astounding. Like with foreshadowing, Grann does a fantastic

job with his word choice that it’s doesn’t strike you as too much, but rather it’s almost like a

subconscious recognition of impeccable choice words. Not to mention that besides the obvious
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examples of racism, the entire book itself is an allegory for the political problems stemming in

the US from all time periods.

In fact, one of the reasons this book is great for a college class is that it is indeed based on

a true period in time. This is great because it allows students to not only glean information from

the book, but if they so choose they can research that time in general. Having additional ways for

students to be able to learn about specific events or times in a book is very useful as it allows a

deeper understanding of the book, and also lets students perhaps understand what they are

reading in a deeper way. Grann does an amazing job of portraying this story in the form of an

actual narrative instead of simply just facts and statements. In terms of this class specifically, it’s

great because it also ties into the sister class of history. Not only are students reading a book that

can teach them a lot about writing and novels, but at the same time they are gaining insightful

knowledge about a tragedy that occured not too long ago.

Grann is also able to keep the readers interested and invested in this book, a great help in

making students read in depth and discover the meanings behind the words. The first few

chapters were a bit shaky with all the character introductions and scene building, but once the

meaty part of the story started to progress, you cannot help but become intrigued and interested.

This is wonderful as it helps student digest the story better than say if they were reading a book

that they found completely boring and nonsense. I’m not saying the book is interesting from my

personal opinion, but the fact that there are these mysteries and unsolved cases simply provoke

the human curiosity in general. The more engaged a reader is with a book, the better they will be

able to understand and analyze the piece of text.

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All in all, this book is a perfect piece of literature for a freshman college english class. It

beautifully combines multiple aspects of writing into a great read. The book also would be great

for a sister history class, due to the content being historically nonfiction written as a great

narrative. Keeping readers engaged in the story while also telling a compelling narrative is great

for freshmen students who still need to get used to the new environment of a college level

English class. Combine all of these aspects into a single book, and you have yourself a great

book perfect for class reading.