Blog Discourse Reflection Essay

Blog discourse is public, out there on the web for anyone to read. Did this affect the way you wrote for it?  What audience(s) did you imagine when writing? (the professor?  Your class peers?  Both? Outside readers? All of the above?)  How did these imagined audiences affect how you wrote for the blog?

Writing in a blog was new to me this year.  To be honest, I did not even really know what a blog was until it was introduced to me in this English 254 class.  Writing in a blog was definitely intimidating because everyone that wanted to see what I had written could see it.  Although I was not as worried about writing in it because it was all about my insights on things that we have read for the course, it was still a bit intimidating that all of the class members could see it.  Writing in this blog affected the way I wrote dramatically.  I feel that it helped me to think about things much more than I usually would have since I knew that people would be reading about my thoughts in class.  I wanted to do my work thoroughly and completely and sound intelligent in my summaries and answers so that I would not be inferior to my classmates.  

When writing in this blog, I considered many different things including the professor, the classmates, and even some outside readers.  I was trying to impress the professor in order to receive an A.  Trying to impress the professor swayed my writing in a different direction.  I felt that I could not be as honest as I could have been if this were a personal blog.  Classmates also affected my writing because I did not want to sound "stupid" to any of them.  Having a public blog helped to make me think about things in a thorough way instead of just throwing my thoughts down on paper.  I would even do rough drafts and read them over and over again to make sure that I did not leave anything out and that I sounded like an intelligent individual.

Another thing that I had to get used to about this blog was knowing that people would be leaving comments about my work.  This was, again, intimidating for someone that has never used a blog before.  I would actually get nervous to read comments that classmates had written to me because I wanted my work to sufficiently compare to everyone else's work.  I had a much easier time summarizing things that I have read rather than providing an opinion on things that we have read.  I knew that instead of classmates commenting on an straightforward summary, they would be commenting on my ideas and how I was concluding things in my own mind.  It was difficult not to sway my opinion to what people wanted to hear.

In my blog titled "Christianity, Cattle, and Night Swan," I realized that I had a different opinion than most on one of the questions and this scared me a bit because I had a feeling that I was completely wrong.  When I looked at my comments, they were things like, "I did not look at this that way but I can see where you are coming from on this issue."  After reading comments over time, I became a lot more confident in my writing because I realized that people have different opinions and like to read what others think of the same issue.  I also did this with others.  Reading what they thought about certain things really opened my mind and made me think about things in a more thorough way. 

This blog was very new to me and after completing an entire quarter writing in it, I have learned to be a better writer and accept comments in a positive rather than negative way.  Writing publicly definitely influenced my writing but I think that it influenced it in a good way.  I thought about things with more enthusiasm and took charge of my beliefs.  This was a very positive first blog experience for me.

Group Project

C. Use a variety of resources to educate readers about American Indian literature, its history and the major critical issues in order to provide a context for reading our two books.  Consider creating a timeline with information and links. Maybe deal with Nativism, Postmodernism, gender, colonization, and so on. Use the web’s linking abilities to put users in touch with electronically reachable sources.  Include an intro to your pages. Add images and otherwise use visual resources to make the site attractive and engaging.

I think that option C looks the most interesting to me.  I was unaware of anything in the Native American culture until I took this class and from what I have learned, I think that I could do a good job with this option.  Also, I think that doing this option will allow me to learn even more about the Native American culture because it requires a lot of research.  It  would be fun to learn about the different events and critical issues of Native Americans.  Using the two novels that we read and the articles that we found, we could make a lot of good points about all of the issues Native Americans have gone through.

Annotated bib- TLRATFIH

The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven is a novel by Sherman Alexie comprised of many short stories explaining the culture of the Spokane Indians.  Alexie uses humor to allow for the novel to be more enjoyable.  Some say that Sherman Alexie’s use of humor is a way of depicting the Native Americans in a negative way.  Critics argue that it is demeaning and offensive to many people of Native American decent.  The articles found below are about the white people’s depiction of Native American culture relating to The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.  They are about the different ways that Sherman Alexie uses humor to incorporate an understanding of Native American culture and the Spokane tribe in his novel.  The “white” depictions in the novel are that the Indians are drunken and very lazy people.  There are even some critics that have said they are presented as people with no purpose and people to be laughed at.  The story in the novel, “Amusements” does not help this argument at all because it is about a man who was drunk and his friends put him on an amusement ride and watched him roll around on the ride while people laughed at him.  I do not believe that Alexie did this to makea claim that Indians are just a bunch of drunks.  He thought that it was humorous so he decided to write about it.  These articles give a great outlook on the different ways of looking at The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.

 

Dix, Andrew.  “Escape Stories: Narratives and Native Americans in Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.”  The Yearbook of English Studies 31. (2001): 155-167. JSTOR. Ohio University, Alden Lib. 17 May 2009.

 

            This article is an argument that that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is actually a story of many different voices including Sherman Alexie’s own.  It is an article comparing the works of Sherman Alexie’s The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Storyteller.  It is explained that the the authors have a different way of conveying their culture to one another. Silko is more constant and Alexie’s is more controlled.  Dix claimed that Alexie’s works are incomplete and unfulfilled.  Dix also claims that Alexie’s short stories are pretty suggestive because of the fact that he chooses to use short stories instead of an entire story.  He goes on to compare the two big characters in the stories, Thomas-Builds-the-Fire and the woman in Storyteller.  He comments on the fact that Alexie’s novel was categorized as a social embarrassment.  The story is now a controversy between the white and Native American disposition.  Dix talks of the value of the culture in “A Drug Called Tradition.”  This story helps explain the traditions of the Spokane tribe.

 

Carroll, Kathleen.  “Ceremonial Tradition as Form and Theme in Sherman Alexie's The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven: A Performance-Based Approach to Native American Literature.”  The Journal of the Midwest Modern Language Association 38 (2005):  74-84. JSTOR. Ohio University, Alden Lib. 17 May 2009.

 

            This article by Kathleen Carroll speaks of how students read about the white depiction of Native Americans.  She talks of how a person must be careful when watching the movie because it focusing more on an individualistic nature instead of a group or tribe.  She claims that the idea of American writers is to try and reestablish and new tradition of learning and to try and unlearn a certain stereotype about different cultures or people.  Carroll says that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven is a way to overturn the white stereotype of the Indian and get their heritage back.  She discusses the graphics of the cover of the novel and explains what everything means and I did not realize that everything on the cover represents something else.  She explains that the orange color and the fire represent the burning of the Indians by the white people.  Carroll speaks of the story of “The Trial of Thomas Builds-the-Fire and claims that it draws the Indians to tears.  This article predominately speaks of the different short stories in the novel and how they relate to the “white” descriptions of the Spokane tribe.

 

Slethaug, Gordon.  “Hurricanes and Fires: Chaotics in Sherman Alexie's Smoke Signals and The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven." Literature Film Quarterly 31. (2003): 1-13.  EBSCOhost.  Ohio University, Alden Lib. 17 May 2009.

           

This article speaks of the ways to depict Native Americans in both The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven and “Smoke Signals.”  The film gives a very serious feel to the book.  In comparing the two, a person starts to feel very sorry for Thomas Build-the-Fire in the movie more than in the book.  Both the movie and the novel have a feeling of humor and enjoyment but the film makes a person feel bad for Victor and Thomas.  This article speaks of the importance of weather in both the novel and the book and shows how nature and weather are very important in the Spokane tribe and for most Native Americans.  Slethaug speaks of the significance of “Every Little Hurricane.” He speaks of how the hurricane represents everything that when on in the New Year’s party including his two uncles fighting and his parents passing out from alcohol.  Slethaugh also speaks of the story “The Only Traffic Signal on the Reservation Won’t Flash Red Anymore.”  He speaks of the different ways that this story depicts the reservation in a good way.The significance of the Fourth of July is important in the novel because it is said that Indians don’t even celebrate it but they have taken up the “white” holiday.

 

Evans, Stephen.  “Open Containers": Sherman Alexie's Drunken Indians.”  American Indian Quarterly 1. (2001): 46-72. JSTOR. Ohio University, Alden Lib. 17 May 2009.

 

This article, like many of the others, speaks of the struggles Native Americans face in the eyes of a white man.  Evans praises Sherman Alexie for his ability to write about difficult times and do everything from sad to heroic pieces of work.  Alexie was the target of fire for many critics when The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven came out because of his use of irony in the novel. Evans says that Alexie brings hopes of change into his writing and pieces of work.  He brings his life into the stories and things that he has been through and makes his audience feel the things that he has felt. This article also speaks of the humor that Alexie brings to his novels.  If possible, Evans talks about the strengths he brings to his drunken Indian depiction.  It shows the honesty in his work and the realism associated with The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. Alexie confronts the reader and makes them feel the story he is conveying.

 

Armbruster-Sandoval, Ralph. “Teaching Smoke Signals: Fatherhood, Forgiveness, and "Freedom".”  Discussion In Education 23. (2008): 123-146. EBSCOhost. Ohio University, Alden Lib. 18 May 2009.

 

This article focuses on the film “Smoke Signals” that derived from The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven.  Armbruster-Sandoval speaks of forgiveness in the movie.  He speaks of how Victor had to forgive his father and the relationship between Thomas Builds-the-Fire and Victor’s father, Arnold Joseph. It then brings up the problems of the United States and Native Americans.  Armbruster-Sandoval asks the question of whether or not Alexie is suggesting that the Native Americans forgive America for the conquest.  The problem facing Arnold Joseph in Smoke Signals is that when his wife tells him there is no more alcohol he storms out thinking that he does not have a problem. He hits her first which also suggests that he has a problem.  The article talks about how Arnold had started the fire that killed Thomas’s parents and how he could not recover from this accident.  At the end of the movie, Victor spreads his father’s ashes and screams in pain that he must forgive his father. 

 

Works Cited:

Alexie, Sherman. “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight In Heaven.”Grove Press. New York: 2005

Coulombe, Joseph. “The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor: Sherman Alexie’s Comic Connections and Disconnections in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven” American Indian Quarterly 26 (winter 2002) : p. 94-115. Project Muse. Ohio University Lib. Athens, OH.

Summary/ Application TLRATFIH

Summary:

In this article, Critics arguet hat Alexie's writing demonstrates Indians and their culture as a cliche to be laughed at.  They claims that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven disrupts the Indian and white community.   Coulombe thinks that Alexie's humor creates positive interactions betweeen individuals. Coulombe claims that Alexie doesn't ever use a moral to the story but that his humor is written in an honest way.  He brings up the second story in Alexie's novel, "A Drug Called Tradition" by saying that Victor may feel like the target of their laughter.  Coulombe says that Alexie writes with a purpose and sometimes, his use of humor distracts critics and readers or his audience.  Critics argue that Sherman Alexie's writing pokes fun at Spokane Indians and their traditions but in reality, Alexie writes stories that help explain the problems that Indians still face today.  Alexie'swriting tells the truth with humor.  Making jokes about a culture helps to accept the problems for some people.  Coulombe argues that Alexie's writing might poke fun at some of the Indian culture, but at the same time, it allows stories of Indian people to be put out in public so people will understand them more clearly.  Coulombe explains that humor is another type of intimacy that allows friendship and connection and humor is something that everyone has in common.

Application:

Sherman Alexie and Joseph Coulombe are writers that attempt to spread the culture of the Spokane Indians in a different way than most.  Coulombe defends Alexie by saying that he tells the truth in writing about his culture.  Alexie uses much humor in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven to write about the Spokane tribe.  Many of his stories are very sad and some may call them shameful against the Spokane people but Alexie and Coulombe just believe that his stories are honest and real.  

In "Amusements," a character known as Dirty Joe passes out from too much alcohol and Victor and Sadie decide that it would be a good idea to put him on an amusement ride and watch him tumble around in the car.  In the meantime, the white people are gathering around him and judging him be  cause he is a Spokane Indian and it seems that they are making assumptions that he is a shameful person.  Victor and Sadie stand around laughing at the amusement they had made for themselves until they realize that all of the white people are laughing at them and not with them.  This is a good example of why the critics in Coulombe's article characterized Alexie's writing as shameful and often misleading.  In Alexie's eyes, this story is about the good times he had and also about how life being a Spokane Indian can be tough because of the image others perceive in them.

Another example of how Alexie demonstrates Spokane Indians with humor is in the story, "A Drug Called Tradition."  In this story, they are having a large party and Thomas Builds-the-Fire, Junior, and Victor run off to tr a new drug.  On their way to Benjamin Lake, Thomas tries the new drug and begins to tell Victor and Junior stories of what he sees.  Alexie writes, "when Indians make lots of money from corporations that way, we can all hear our ancestors laughing in the trees. But we never can tell whether they're laughing at the Indians or the whites.  I think they're laughing at pretty much everybody." (Lone 13)  Victor thinks that he is a target for the whites and ancestor's laughter.  Alexie transforms the troubles he feels into humor in this story speaking of stories they all see while on their drug.

 

In The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,  Alexie uses humor to substitute the hardships of his Spokane tribe. Coulombe defends and agrees with Sherman Alexie whereas the critics critisize his way of writing by saying that it is shameful and misleading.  Critics are somewhat offended by the way Alexie uses alcoholism and how the Spokane Indians have dreams that the critics believe are made unreachable by Alexie.  Coulombe claims that the critics did not read the stories all the way through but just stopped as the humor upset them.  I agree with Coulombe on this statement because I believe that they critics would find more meaning by the conclusion of the stories.  I know I did.

Summary Application Revision

Works Cited:

Bird, Gloria. "Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"" Wicazo Sa Review, Vol 9, No. 2 Autumn 1993. University of Minnesota Press. 04 Jan. 2009 .

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

Summary:

Gloria Bird begins the essay by talking about how people are living results of their colonization.  She talks of how stories, songs, and knowledge will be gone because of people passing away but then soon realizes that this is not necessarily true.  Bird is trying to free the mind of Native American “otherness.”  To do this, she compares Silko’s way of telling the story in different pieces, or nonlinear storytelling, to actual Indian stories.  Bird says that it is not right to classify people into groups through their races or their language.  She adds examples from her life to help better understand this feeling of decolonizing the mind and “otherness.”  For example, she recalls a song that she still knows even without the existence of the people who began it.  She then feels as though she is stealing a language because her mother was multilingual and she only spoke in English.  

 Bird claims that readers must learn to 'see' the world differently if they want to understand Ceremony. This is the fundamental challenge of critical fictions. This is referencing Ceremony, a novel that pushes a person to see the world through different eyes.  She explains that the challenge is getting the reader to view reality through the perceptions of the native other.  This means that the reader would put him or herself into the story and try to experience the story through the native's eyes.  She demonstrates that Silko writing Ceremony in fragments explains how each thing belongs to something else.  This means that the fragments are connected in some way and come together at the end to have more meaning.  Perhaps Tayo never noticed little things as much as he did after going through a traumatic war experience.

 Bird says that nothing was all good or all bad either.  She says that it all depends.  Gloria Bird explains that we must be willing to see the world differently and then references Ku'oosh by talking of how he uses old language to talk to Tayo.  None of the words were his own.  

 Gloria Bird continues to give many examples of how people need to learn to see the world differently.  She explains that she now knows that Western culture has known all along of the potential for language's capacity to create.

 

Application:

After reading Ceremony, it is clear that Tayo has a feeling of “otherness” because of his mixed blood.  He feels  that he does not belong anywhere and that he is decolonized from his Indian culture.  Tayo has mixed blood and Auntie is ashamed to have someone in the family that is of a different ethnicity.  She is also ashamed of Tayo’s mother for having a mixed boy like Tayo.  It is true that Auntie takes Tayo in and takes care of him but Tayo can tell that she is ashamed of him and he cannot help but feel betrayed by his own family. Also, Tayo struggles with trusting many different people.  At one point in the novel, Tayo feels betrayed by Harley but it turns out that Harley did not mean to betray him.  Instead it was Pinkie and Emo.  “He knew then that they were not his friends but had turned against him…He was not sure why he was crying, for the betrayal or because they were lost.  (Ceremony 225)  These people acted as his friends before but Tayo finally realized that he had been betrayed and that he was alone and afraid. 

 In her essay, Gloria bird sends a message that she has betrayed her family.  Although she does not actually say the word, anyone can tell that this is how she feels.  “I must recognize that I am also the product of colonization in that I speak English though my mother is multilingual.”  Internalizing the colonizer’s terms regarding the axiom of our Otherness and obvious difference, she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me.”  This is also showing a bit of embarrassment.  Bird’s mother was obviously a bit ashamed that her daughter did not know their language.  Bird felt betrayed when her mother excluded her this way and she felt as if she wasn’t good enough for her family.  She felt as though she was decolonized from her culture and falling into Tayo’s feeling of “otherness.”

Another thing that comes to mind about these two pieces of writing is the religion or culture in both of them.  Auntie is a Christian woman which is a lot of the reason that she is ashamed of Tayo being of mixed decent.  Bird’s essay claims that the songs and stories of her religion and culture would be gone when the older people pass.  “In what may appear to be a contradiction, I catch myself thinking in my mother’s colonized version of reality:  that once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost.”  She then realizes that as time goes on, these stories and song are still passed throughout her culture and that is how even today, she knows them.  

Coulombe

Write a 200 word summary of Coulombe's argument in "The Approximate Size of His Favorite Humor."

For this summary, express a clear sense of the criticism of Alexie's humor with which Coloumbe is arguing.

In this article, Critics arguet hat Alexie's writing demonstrates Indians and their culture as a cliche to be laughed at.  He claims that The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven disrupts the Indian and white community but at the same time, it creates positive interactions betweeen individuals.  Coulombe claims that Alexie doesn't ever use a moral to the story but that his humor is written in an honest way.  He brings up the second story in Alexie's novel, "A Drug Called Tradition" by saying that Victor may feel like the target of their laughter.  Coulombe says that Alexie writes with a purpose and sometimes, his use of humor distracts critics and readers or his audience.  Alexie writes stories that help explain the problems that Indians still face today.  Alexie'swriting tells the truth with humor.  Making jokes about a culture helps to accept it for some people.  Coulombe argues that Alexie's writing might poke fun at some of the Indian culture, but at the same time, it allows stories of Indian people to be put out in public so people will understand them more clearly.  Coulombe explains that humor is another type of intimacy that allows friendship and connection and humor is something that everyone has in common.

7 stories in The Lone Ranger

Frank Ross asked Alexie about the political nature of his writing, quoting him as saying he does not like to beat readers over the head with it. Alexie replied: “I like to make them laugh first, then beat them over the head . . . when they are defenseless.” Describe some examples from the stories that demonstrate this tactic. Choose one example to focus on and explain how the humor and political point work together as in the above quote.

On The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven, Alexie uses many different examples of humor while including stories of the past as well.  In many of them, he will include humor before the serious stories to kind of make the stories a little more light.  In the story of Amusements, Alexie talks of how Dirty Joe is drunk and passed out.  Victor and Sadie put him on a rollercoaster to get some fun out of it.  They end up laughing until they cried until reality set in.  All the "white faces" laughed at the Indian on the rollercoaster and soon they realized that this was not funny anymore.  Alexie used humor and reality to explain this story.

On whiteness, Indian identity and colonialism, Alexie says, “What is colonialism but the breeding out of existence of the colonized? The most dangerous thing for Indians, then, now and forever is that we love our colonizers. And we do.” He goes on to say, and I paraphrase, that Indian identity now is mostly a matter of cultural difference; that culture is received knowledge, because the authentic practitioners are gone. The culture is all adopted culture, not innate. Colonization is complete. Think about how what he is discussing plays out in his stories. Choose one (a different one than for the first question) and discuss how a story represents the characters' relationship to the tribe's past and to the colonizing culture.

In, This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona, Alexie explains of the death of Victor's father.  He also explains of when Victor and Thomas Builds-the-Fire went to see the fireworks on the fourth of July.  This is a very good example of the relationship between the tribe's past and to the colonizing culture.  "You know," Thomas said, "It's strange how us Indians celebrate the Fourth of July.  It ain't like it was our independence everybody was fighting for."  Victor speaks of how it was weird for them to celebrate the "white people's" holiday.  

Betrayal.

Works Cited:

Bird, Gloria. "Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"" Wicazo Sa Review, Vol 9, No. 2 Autumn 1993. University of Minnesota Press. 04 Jan. 2009 .

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

Summary:

Gloria Bird begins the essay by talking about how people are living results of their colonization.  She talks of how stories, songs, and knowledge will be gone because of people passing away but then soon realizes that this is not necessarily true.  She recalls a song that she still knows even without the existence of the people who began it.  She then feels as though she is stealing a language because her mother was multilingual and she only spoke in English.  

 

Bird claims that readers must learn to 'see' the world differently if they want to understand this work. This is the fundamental challenge of critical fictions. This is referencing Ceremony, a novel that pushes a person to see the world through different eyes.  She explains that the challenge is getting the reader to view reality through the perceptions of the native other.  This means that the reader would put him or herself into the story and try to experience the story through the native's eyes.  She explains that when Silko writes Ceremony in fragments, explains how each thing belongs to something else.  This means that the fragments are connected in some way and come together at the end to have more meaning.  Perhaps Tayo never noticed little things as much as he did after going through a traumatic war experience.  

 

Bird says that nothing was all good or all bad either.  She says that it all depends.  Gloria Bird explains that we must be willing to see the world differently and then references Ku'oosh by talking of how he uses old language to talk to Tayo.  None of the words were his own.  

 

 Bird then discusses Auntie and how she always went to church and said she was a Christian to save her own soul.  She always went by herself.  Silko's strategy was to present Tayo and Auntie's tribal historicity.  

 

Gloria Bird continues to give many examples of how people need to learn to see the world differently.  She explains that she now knows that Western culture has known all along of the potential for language's capacity to create.

 

Application:

When reading both Bird’s essay and Ceremony, one major thing sticks out to me.  Betrayal.  Throughout these two pieces of work, much betrayal is woven throughout them.  In Ceremony, Auntie should be able to be trusted because she is Tayo’s guardian.  Tayo shows her much respect even though she does not respect him.  She treats him as if he is a burden on her and also an embarrassment.  Tayo has mixed blood and Auntie is ashamed to have someone in the family that is of a different ethnicity.  She is also ashamed of Tayo’s mother for having a mixed boy like Tayo.  This is a form of betrayal.  It is true that Auntie takes Tayo in and takes care of him but Tayo can tell that she is ashamed of him and he cannot help but feel betrayed by his own family. Also, Tayo struggles with trusting many different people including his “friend,” Emo.  “He knew

Then that they were not his friends but had turned against him…He was not sure why he was crying, for the betrayal or because they were lost.  (Ceremony 225)  These people acted as his friends before but Tayo finally realized that he had been betrayed and that he was alone and afraid.  Although he was shocked that his older friends would do this to him, I do not think that he was nearly as surprised when it was Emo.  Emo and Tayo always had a rocky relationship and I think that Tayo saw it coming.  Betrayal is one of the strongest forces of disappointment and Gloria Bird and Tayo both felt the same way in the face of it.

In her essay, Gloria bird sends a message that she has betrayed her family.  Although she does not actually say the word, anyone can tell that this is how she feels.  “I must recognize that I am also the product of colonization in that I speak English though my mother is multilingual.”  Internalizing the colonizer’s terms regarding the axiom of our Otherness and obvious difference, she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me.”  This is also showing a bit of embarrassment.  Bird’s mother was obviously a bit ashamed that her daughter did not know their language.  Bird felt betrayed when her mother excluded her this way and she felt as if she wasn’t good enough for her family. 

Another thing that comes to mind about these two pieces of writing is the religion or culture in both of them.  Auntie is a Christian woman which is a lot of the reason that she is ashamed of Tayo being of mixed decent.  Bird’s essay claims that the songs and stories of her religion and culture would be gone when the older people pass.  “In what may appear to be a contradiction, I catch myself thinking in my mother’s colonized version of reality:  that once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost.”  She then realizes that as time goes on, these stories and song are still passed throughout her culture and that is how even today, she knows them.  

Towards decolonization ot the mind and text

Gloria Bird begins the essay by talking about how people are living results of their colonization.  She talks of how stories, songs, and knowledge will be gone because of people passing away but then soon realizes that this is not necessarily true.  She recalls a song that she still knows even without the existence of the people who began it.  She then feels as though she is stealing a language because her mother was mulitlingual and she only spoke in English.  

"Readers must learn to 'see' the world differently if they want to understand this work. This is the fundamental challenge of critical fictions." (4)  This is referencing Ceremony, a novel that pushes a person to to see the world through different eyes.  She explains that the challenge is getting the reader to "view reality through the perceptions of the native other."  This means that the reader would put him or herself into the story and try to experience the story through the native's eyes.  She explains that when Silko writes Ceremony in fragments, explains how each thing belongs to something else.  This means that the fragments are connected in some way and come together at the end to have more meaning.  Perhaps Tayo never noticed little things as much as he did after going through a traumatic war experience.  "Nothing was all good or all bad either; it all depended."(4)  Gloria birds explains that we must be willing to ee the world differently and then references Ku'oosh by talking of how he uses old language to talk to Tayo.  None of the words were his own.  

Bird then discusses Auntie and how she always went to church and said she was a Christian to save her own soul.  She always went by herself.  Silko's strategy was to present Tayo and Auntie's tribal historicity.  

Gloria Bird continues to give many examples of how peopleneed to learn to see the world differently.  She explains that she now knows that Western culture has known all along of the potential for language's capacity to create." (7)

christianity, cattle, and night swan

P. 62-63 covers the theme of Christianity as a coercive force of assimilation. By what means does this occur and what feelings does it evoke?

Tayo claims that him and Auntie understood one another very well.  This is a very coercive force of assimilation because it is sort of showing two different cultures or races coming together.  Even though Auntie was ashamed of Tayo being a mixed person, she can still relate to him.  This shows that race isn't everything and that even different people can identify with one another.  

"An old sesitivity had descended in her, surviving thousands of years from the oldest times, when the people shared a single clan name and they told each other who they were; they recounted the actions and words and actions each of their clan had taken, and would take; from before they were born and long after they died, the people shared the same consciousness."  (p. 62)

This passage also shows the assimilation of cultures.  It shows how things have changed but also how they have stayed the same.  The would share ideas with one another.  This is how Auntie and Tayo acted toward one another.  It is obvious that Auntie cares for Tayo but it is also obvious that she is ashamed of him.  Christianity in these circumstances is kind of the same way; accepting of some things but critical of others.

We learn of Josiah’s new cattle business and of the almost wild Mexican cattle he buys. What symbolic associations do the Mexican cattle carry? (Consider breeds and breeding, contrast with Herefords, where they go, and relation to nature, fences etc).

Josiah says that when an animal feels like they are lost, they don't usually live for long time after.  The fences have a big significance to this.  The cattle break out of the fence to be free because they do not want to be stuck in one place and feel that they are imprisoned.  On the other hand, these cattle had no other choice than to roam across the land because there was a major drought and they had no other way to get water or food.  There was no grass to eat or water to drink and the cattle could have died either way but had a better chance to escape and survive on their own.  Josiah read a book to help him care for his cattle but realized that maybe the book doesn't help him because it was written by "white men" that haven't been in the conditions that Josiah was in.  He wanted to raise a different kind of cattle and this symbolizes the differences in cultures.  

We are also introduced to Josiah’s Mexican lover, the Flamenco dancer, Night Swan. What do we find out about her? What significance attaches to her character? What’s with all the blue? How does what she tells Tayo connect with elements that come up in other parts of the novel?

Night Swan is Josiah's "grilfriend."  She is an older lady and is portrayed as being smart and sexy.  She is also a mixed individual like Tayo.  She would dance in Flamenco to attract men when she was a younger girl.  She seduces Tayo.  Night Swan is a character in the story that acts sort f as a teacher.  She teaches him of change and that it is alright to have change in your life.  I believe that what she tells Tayo is foreshadowing the rest of the novel.

Given what you have read so far (esp. the Pueblo stories, the Hopi film, and Silko essays), what connections can you draw between the first few pages (the poems) of Ceremony and these materials?

From reading the beginning of Ceremony, I have come to the conclusion that land and animals were, and still are, a big part of the indian heritage.  As we were watching the film and class and reading the Silko essays, I have come to the realization that these people need these animals to survive.  In the beginning of the novel, there is a part that talk about Tayo gaining a sense of calmness from thinking of a deer in his mind.  In the readings that we did, the animals provided a sense of comfort because they meant that the people would have all the food that they needed.  Also, in Ceremony, there is a drought and none of the food is growing and the animals are starving becuase there is no grass or anthing for them to consume.  In the readings, there was a sense of understanding that if there was no way to feed the animals, there was no way for them to feed themselves.  In the origin myth story, the sisters were not able to make more seeds because there was not yet enough food for the new animals to consume.  These things are a big factor in the way of life for these people.

Describe, as best as you can, Auntie’s attitudes about Tayo, mixed blood, and religion.

Auntie seems to be a very self-conscience person that worries about what everyone else thinks.  She is ashamed that her nephew is a biracial person and she is embarassed of her sister for having Tayo with a man from a different race.  She comes off as thinking that she is a very christian woman but I can't help but think that she is not because it is not a christian-like attitude to be ashamed of your own family.  She looks down on people that have mixed blood.  She acts as a martyr but does not show it justly.  

The author of "She Had Some Horses" is representing a female speaker reconciling contradictory personal feelings about men.  She is saying that she has had some men that have been good to her and others that have not treated her kindly.  The poem is about the different types of men that the author has had in her life and the "horses" represent "men."  This poem shows a woman's despair when it comes to a man.  I believe that the horses are male. The author is a woman and the end suggests that they are men by saying that they had raped her.  There are many lines that contradict themselves.  For example, one line say that she had horses who had no names and horses with books of names.  This suggests that her feelings weren't completely negative as the feeling of the poem gives a negative vibe

"She had horses who danced in their mothers' arms.

She had horses who thought they were the sun and their

bodies shone and burned like stars.

She had horses who waltzed nightly on the moon.

She had horses who were much too shy, and kept quiet

in stalls of their own making."

This stanza represents a feminist sensibility. The last lines of the poem help to provide a resolution. I was confused as to whether or not the horses represented men until the last line when it says, "she had horses who tried to sve her, who climbed in her bed at night and prayed as they raped her."  This suggests that the horses in the poem were men that treated her unjustly.  This poem is the author's way of expressing the hurt but also the love that she has experienced.