As I started blogging for this course I was not afraid to state my opinions about what we were reading. I really read deep into what we as a class were focusing on and by doing that I felt that I was able to create good solid ideas that were reflected in my blog posts. As the quarter went on I will admit that I did not put as much time and effort into what I was writing. It defiantly showed because the comments that I was receiving from my classmates were becoming more and more negative and quite frankly I started to lose confidence in my capability of forming a strong blog post. But when I started getting grades that I was not too happy about I began to shape up and really take my time to go over and revise what I was posting to my blog. I believe now, at the end of the quarter, I am back to really caring about what I produce to my classmates as well as to my professor.
My first blog post, She Had Some Horses, I really think I nailed it. I had good arguments and good evidence to back up what I was discussing. I argued Joy Harjo was referring to the “horses” as emotions. I received six different comments from my classmates. They said that they really liked what I had to say and I made them think of the horses in a different way than they had originally thought. That was a good confidence boost since it was the beginning of the quarter. It made me feel like what I had to say really mattered. In the next post, again, the comments from different people in the class were positive. Even my professor noticed my idea that I found the animals as a very important part of Ceremony.
When I wrote about Decolonization of the Mind by Gloria Bird, the comments were not as positive as they had been before. This was the point where I started to get discouraged. I started to lose a little confidence in what I was writing and I did not want anyone in the class to be reading it. This pattern continued until I did my last revision for the Summary/Application blog post about Sherman Alexie and his humor. I really worked hard to revise it and the professor could tell, so I ended up with a better grade. This brought back my confidence in myself to be able to produce a worthwhile essay.
I felt that my comments on the other classmate’s blog were decent. I told them if I felt that they could have answered a question more thoroughly and I also told them if they did a really nice job completing the assignment. I think that by commenting on other classmates’ blogs, they were able to get another point of view of what they had wrote. By receiving opinions by other people they are able to see where they could have improved and also where they made a really good point. It’s always nice to be complimented on your good work regardless of the subject.
Knowing that my blog was public I wanted to write something that had substance and meaning. I did not want to just write a bunch of junk that no one wanted to read. I looked for the approval of my classmates when they would leave me comments. I really appreciated their feedback, even if sometimes it did hurt when they did not have many good things to say about it. Above all else I wanted to impress my professor because in the end, he is has the final say about how well I have completed each assignment. I really hope that I have made some type of impression on the readers of my blog and I hope that I have helped spark new ideas and interpretations of what we have studied this quarter.
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Summary/Application - Alexie - Revised
Alexie uses humor in his writings not to make fun of his culture and the people in it, but so that his audience can connect and understand him more clearly. Some argue that Alexie's tactic is ineffective and leaves his reader with the idea that all Indians actually do act the way that they have been stereotyped in American society. Coulombe agrees with Alexie’s way of communing with his audience and argues that Alexie uses his humor to show how relationships can be strengthened and hindered between characters and how humor can allow them to recognize their problems, grow from them, as well as being able to see the distortions in order to make fun of them. Also, Coulombe argues for Alexie that he uses humor as a way to distract his readers from true reality of the hard lives in which he writes about, especially in his book, "The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven". By writing in a “joking manner”, Alexie allows his characters to show the type of emotion that for them in their situation, is easier to make a joke than to feel sorry about their selves. In this sense, Alexie is using his jokes to lighten the weight of the heavy truth about the struggles that Indians have had to suffer through. Possibly, Alexie is saying that laughing and humor was the only thing that saw the Indians through the rough times. Though some may not understand the real reason behind his humor, Coulombe finds reason to believe Alexie’s motives for writing with humor is vital to getting his point across to this audience. Coulombe’s main motive is to show how Alexie successfully shows how his ability to write with humor allows different cultures to find enough common ground for understanding of one another.
Frank Ross asked Alexie, during their interview, 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.” Alexie admits that he does like to make his readers laugh and then catch them off guard with a double bind. But as Coulombe notes in his article, “Alexie’s sophisticated use of humor unsettles conventional ways of thinking and compels re-evaluation and growth, which ultimately allows Indian characters to connect to their heritage in novel ways and forces non-Indian readers to reconsiders simplistic generalizations” (Coulombe 95). Even though some of the situations that Alexie writes about in his novel are a bit heavy, by doing this he gives readers from different backgrounds a very real look into the lives of Indians. As he sprinkles humor and wit all over these life-changing situations, Alexie proves that his characters were able to overcome struggle and find humor within their situation.
In “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”, Alexie describes how humor can make connections and also can create barrios. In the second story, “A Drug called Tradition”, Alexie gives an example of how the government will just pay off the Indians so they can use their land to extend their businesses. But Thomas, the man who received the money is not really sure if getting the money and losing a bit of land is going to help him or not help him at all. Here is where the colonization hits hard without even making a sound. The Indians do not even understand what they are conforming to. Since their elders are no longer there anymore to talk to them in order to remind them of the sacredness of the land, then all things will soon be forgotten. “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” (Pg. 13). Thomas though, “wants to feel some alliance with past Indians, to share with them a triumph over white dominance (however small)” (Coulombe). Another character, Victor, say’s this statement that means that the ancestors are watching as the new generation is giving into the American culture of expansion and growth. He believes that Thomas “is the target of their laughter” (Coulombe). Also, the Indians can hear their ancestors laughing because it is believed that the Indians really can hear their ancestors laughing and talking to them through nature. It is a part of their oral and spiritual culture. Alexie is giving his readers more background to his culture in order to understand it better.
Another short story written by Alexie, “The Fun House”, a simple fart leads to an emotional and chaotic rebirth of Aunt Nezzy. The fart startles a mouse and runs up the pant leg of the aunt, which causes her to freak out and attempt to take her pants off. The husband and son laugh at her as she struggles to fight off the mouse. Though to situation is hysterical, the aunt in no way finds it funny. She curses the son and the husband. She calls out her son for being a jobless, alcoholic. Though the thought of a mother calling out her son seems funny, alcoholism is a huge problem in Indian culture. The aunt eventually storms out of the house and down to the Tshimikain Creek. She jumped in the water, but she did not know how to swim. She begins to float and cleanses herself of her anger, as if being baptized and reborn. She comes back to her home later that night and surprises her husband and her son by putting on a heavy beaded dress that she made. She said, “When a woman comes along who can carry the weight of this dress on her back, then we’ll have found the one who will save us all” (Pg.76). Even though, Nezzy fell the first time she tried to take a step in that dress, she got right back up and took another step. She didn’t fall that time. Eventually she began to dance. She was the one who would save them all. In his article, Coulombe says, “Alexie creates characters who showcase individual strength and ability” (Coulombe). Indeed, this story shows Aunt Nezzy’s strength to not only life up the dress but her is also able to find her own inner-strength.
Coulombe uses these examples to show why he agrees with Alexie’s style of writing with humor. “He uses humor—or his characters use humor—to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds” (Coulombe 94). Though Alexie throws some of his critics for a loop as they claim to find no purpose to his style of writing, it ultimately comes down to catching the attention of his audience. Even if the critics are right, at least his audience is reading his works and subconsciously absorbing his style and laughing along with him.
Work Cited:
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 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.
Frank Ross asked Alexie, during their interview, 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.” Alexie admits that he does like to make his readers laugh and then catch them off guard with a double bind. But as Coulombe notes in his article, “Alexie’s sophisticated use of humor unsettles conventional ways of thinking and compels re-evaluation and growth, which ultimately allows Indian characters to connect to their heritage in novel ways and forces non-Indian readers to reconsiders simplistic generalizations” (Coulombe 95). Even though some of the situations that Alexie writes about in his novel are a bit heavy, by doing this he gives readers from different backgrounds a very real look into the lives of Indians. As he sprinkles humor and wit all over these life-changing situations, Alexie proves that his characters were able to overcome struggle and find humor within their situation.
In “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”, Alexie describes how humor can make connections and also can create barrios. In the second story, “A Drug called Tradition”, Alexie gives an example of how the government will just pay off the Indians so they can use their land to extend their businesses. But Thomas, the man who received the money is not really sure if getting the money and losing a bit of land is going to help him or not help him at all. Here is where the colonization hits hard without even making a sound. The Indians do not even understand what they are conforming to. Since their elders are no longer there anymore to talk to them in order to remind them of the sacredness of the land, then all things will soon be forgotten. “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” (Pg. 13). Thomas though, “wants to feel some alliance with past Indians, to share with them a triumph over white dominance (however small)” (Coulombe). Another character, Victor, say’s this statement that means that the ancestors are watching as the new generation is giving into the American culture of expansion and growth. He believes that Thomas “is the target of their laughter” (Coulombe). Also, the Indians can hear their ancestors laughing because it is believed that the Indians really can hear their ancestors laughing and talking to them through nature. It is a part of their oral and spiritual culture. Alexie is giving his readers more background to his culture in order to understand it better.
Another short story written by Alexie, “The Fun House”, a simple fart leads to an emotional and chaotic rebirth of Aunt Nezzy. The fart startles a mouse and runs up the pant leg of the aunt, which causes her to freak out and attempt to take her pants off. The husband and son laugh at her as she struggles to fight off the mouse. Though to situation is hysterical, the aunt in no way finds it funny. She curses the son and the husband. She calls out her son for being a jobless, alcoholic. Though the thought of a mother calling out her son seems funny, alcoholism is a huge problem in Indian culture. The aunt eventually storms out of the house and down to the Tshimikain Creek. She jumped in the water, but she did not know how to swim. She begins to float and cleanses herself of her anger, as if being baptized and reborn. She comes back to her home later that night and surprises her husband and her son by putting on a heavy beaded dress that she made. She said, “When a woman comes along who can carry the weight of this dress on her back, then we’ll have found the one who will save us all” (Pg.76). Even though, Nezzy fell the first time she tried to take a step in that dress, she got right back up and took another step. She didn’t fall that time. Eventually she began to dance. She was the one who would save them all. In his article, Coulombe says, “Alexie creates characters who showcase individual strength and ability” (Coulombe). Indeed, this story shows Aunt Nezzy’s strength to not only life up the dress but her is also able to find her own inner-strength.
Coulombe uses these examples to show why he agrees with Alexie’s style of writing with humor. “He uses humor—or his characters use humor—to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds” (Coulombe 94). Though Alexie throws some of his critics for a loop as they claim to find no purpose to his style of writing, it ultimately comes down to catching the attention of his audience. Even if the critics are right, at least his audience is reading his works and subconsciously absorbing his style and laughing along with him.
Work Cited:
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 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.
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Group Project Ideas
For my group project, I would be very interested in doing option E. I would really like to focus on four or five different short stories from Sherman Alexie’s, “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven”. I really enjoyed his style of writing and how he played with words in order to add humor to his stories. I would really like to write about Alexie’s use of his Indian culture and real life experiences.
Since Alexie’s main goal is to educate his readers as well as make them laugh, in my blog I will point out where and how Alexie uses humor and explain why he does this. I will also point out other topics in which he discusses in his different stories such as alcoholism, family issues, colonization and much more. I would really like readers of the site to get a true understanding of Indian culture as well as to try and forget about different stereotypes in which Americans have placed upon their culture and traditions. But doing this I believe I can help explain to others why Alexie uses humor to dicuss serious and very real topics in the Indian culture. I want to add different interviews and some of Alexie’s stand-up comedy to prove how his humor is a part of his every day life.
I hope someone would like to tackle this task with me. Also, I’ve done one of these group projects with Dr. R last quarter, so I know what he’s looking for! (And my group got an A) haha! =)
Since Alexie’s main goal is to educate his readers as well as make them laugh, in my blog I will point out where and how Alexie uses humor and explain why he does this. I will also point out other topics in which he discusses in his different stories such as alcoholism, family issues, colonization and much more. I would really like readers of the site to get a true understanding of Indian culture as well as to try and forget about different stereotypes in which Americans have placed upon their culture and traditions. But doing this I believe I can help explain to others why Alexie uses humor to dicuss serious and very real topics in the Indian culture. I want to add different interviews and some of Alexie’s stand-up comedy to prove how his humor is a part of his every day life.
I hope someone would like to tackle this task with me. Also, I’ve done one of these group projects with Dr. R last quarter, so I know what he’s looking for! (And my group got an A) haha! =)
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Summary/Application - Alexie
Alexie uses humor in his writings not to make fun of his culture and the people in it, but so that his audience can connect and understand him more clearly. Critics argue that Alexie's tactic is ineffective and leaves his reader with the idea that all Indians actually do act the way that they have been stereotyped in American society. Coulombe agrees with Alexie’s way of communing with his audience and argues that Alexie uses his humor in a way to show connections between characters and how humor can better fasten a relationship together. Also, Coulombe argues for Alexie in the way that he uses humor as a way to distract his readers from true reality of the hard lives in which he writes about, especially in his book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. By writing in a “joking manner”, Alexie allows his characters to show the type of emotion that for them in their situation, is easier to make a joke than to feel sorry about their selves. In this sense, Alexie is using his jokes to lighten the weight of the heavy truth about the struggles that Indians have had to suffer through. Possibly, Alexie is saying that laughing and humor was the only thing that saw the Indians through the rough times. Though critics may not understand the real reason behind his stereotypical humor, Coulombe finds reason to believe Alexie’s motives for writing with humor is vital to getting his point across to this audience. Coulombe’s main motive is to show how Alexie successfully shows how his sill for writing with humor allows different cultures to find enough common ground for understanding of one another.
Frank Ross asked Alexie, during their interview, 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.” Alexie admits that he does like to make his readers laugh and then catch them off guard with a double bind. But as Coulombe notes in his article, “Alexie’s sophisticated use of humor unsettles conventional ways of thinking and compels re-evaluation and growth, which ultimately allows Indian characters to connect to their heritage in novel ways and forces non-Indian readers to reconsiders to reconsider simplistic generalizations” (Coulombe 95). Even though some of the situations that Alexie writes about in his novel are a bit heavy, by doing this he gives readers from different backgrounds a very real look into the lives of Indians. As he smothers humor and wit all over these life-changing situations, Alexie opens up a universal world for all nationalities to be able to forget about common Indian stereotypes.
In “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” Alexie describes how humor can make connections and also can create barrios. In the second story, “A Drug called Tradition”, Alexie gives an example of how the government will just pay off the Indians so they can use their land to extend their businesses. But Thomas, the man who received the money is okay with getting the money and losing a bit of land. But that is where the colonization hits hard, but without even making a sound. The Indians do not even understand what they are conforming to. Since their elders are no longer there anymore to talk to them in order to remind them of the sacredness of the land, then all things will soon be forgotten. “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.” Another character, Victor, say’s this statement that means that the ancestors are watching as the new generation is giving into the American culture of expansion and growth.
In “The Approximate Size of my favorite Tumor”, Alexie proves how humor can be a good thing and a bad thing when dealing with relationships. Just the title gets the reader ready for something humorous because honestly, who really has a “favorite tumor”? Though it is a bit shocking to find that Jimmy really does have cancer, he is able to find humor in his situation. The biggest example that Alexie establishes Jimmys’ humor as bad is that he may be covering up his fear. In real life people have very different ways of handling their insecurities and their fears. In this case, Jimmy seems to show that if he is laughing about his tumor more than worrying about it, maybe his time would be better well spent while still alive. Alexie uses his tactic of making his reader laugh by using Jimmy as a positive and funny guy, who is possibly just trying to cover up his real emotions. The relationship between Jimmy and his wife, though, proves that humor can also be beneficial. Jimmy and his wife, Norma laughs together and Raymond has no idea what they are laughing about. That little joke gives them both something in common. Something in common brings the couple closer together. Humor can be used differently to evoke a different reaction in the reader and sometimes also allows the author secretly let out a few insecurities of his own as well.
Coulombe uses these examples in his article to show the true meaning as to why he agrees with Alexie’s style of writing with humor. “He uses humor—or his characters use humor—to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds” (Coulombe 94). Though Alexie throws some of his critics for a loop as they claim to find no purpose to his style of writing, it ultimately comes down to catching the attention of his audience. Even if the critics are right, at least his audience is reading his works and subconsciously absorbing his style and laughing along with him.
Work Cited:
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 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.
Frank Ross asked Alexie, during their interview, 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.” Alexie admits that he does like to make his readers laugh and then catch them off guard with a double bind. But as Coulombe notes in his article, “Alexie’s sophisticated use of humor unsettles conventional ways of thinking and compels re-evaluation and growth, which ultimately allows Indian characters to connect to their heritage in novel ways and forces non-Indian readers to reconsiders to reconsider simplistic generalizations” (Coulombe 95). Even though some of the situations that Alexie writes about in his novel are a bit heavy, by doing this he gives readers from different backgrounds a very real look into the lives of Indians. As he smothers humor and wit all over these life-changing situations, Alexie opens up a universal world for all nationalities to be able to forget about common Indian stereotypes.
In “The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven,” Alexie describes how humor can make connections and also can create barrios. In the second story, “A Drug called Tradition”, Alexie gives an example of how the government will just pay off the Indians so they can use their land to extend their businesses. But Thomas, the man who received the money is okay with getting the money and losing a bit of land. But that is where the colonization hits hard, but without even making a sound. The Indians do not even understand what they are conforming to. Since their elders are no longer there anymore to talk to them in order to remind them of the sacredness of the land, then all things will soon be forgotten. “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.” Another character, Victor, say’s this statement that means that the ancestors are watching as the new generation is giving into the American culture of expansion and growth.
In “The Approximate Size of my favorite Tumor”, Alexie proves how humor can be a good thing and a bad thing when dealing with relationships. Just the title gets the reader ready for something humorous because honestly, who really has a “favorite tumor”? Though it is a bit shocking to find that Jimmy really does have cancer, he is able to find humor in his situation. The biggest example that Alexie establishes Jimmys’ humor as bad is that he may be covering up his fear. In real life people have very different ways of handling their insecurities and their fears. In this case, Jimmy seems to show that if he is laughing about his tumor more than worrying about it, maybe his time would be better well spent while still alive. Alexie uses his tactic of making his reader laugh by using Jimmy as a positive and funny guy, who is possibly just trying to cover up his real emotions. The relationship between Jimmy and his wife, though, proves that humor can also be beneficial. Jimmy and his wife, Norma laughs together and Raymond has no idea what they are laughing about. That little joke gives them both something in common. Something in common brings the couple closer together. Humor can be used differently to evoke a different reaction in the reader and sometimes also allows the author secretly let out a few insecurities of his own as well.
Coulombe uses these examples in his article to show the true meaning as to why he agrees with Alexie’s style of writing with humor. “He uses humor—or his characters use humor—to reveal injustice, protect self-esteem, heal wounds, and create bonds” (Coulombe 94). Though Alexie throws some of his critics for a loop as they claim to find no purpose to his style of writing, it ultimately comes down to catching the attention of his audience. Even if the critics are right, at least his audience is reading his works and subconsciously absorbing his style and laughing along with him.
Work Cited:
Alexie, Sherman. The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. New York: Grove Press, 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.
Monday, May 11, 2009
Coulombe Summary
Alexie uses humor in his writings not to make fun of his culture and the people in it, but so that his audience can connect and understand him and his characters more clearly. Critics argue that Alexie's tactic is ineffective and leaves his reader with the idea that all Indians actually do act the way in which they have been stereotyped in white American society. Coulombe argues that Alexie uses his humor in a way to show connections between characters and how humor can cover up sadness. Also, Coulombe argues that Alexie uses humor as a way to distract his readers from true reality of the hard lives in which he writes about, especially in his book, The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven. By writing in a “joking manner”, Alexie allows his characters to show that for them, it is easier to make a joke than to feel sorry about themselves and their situation. In this sense, Alexie is using his jokes to lighten the weight of the heavy truth about the struggles that Indians have had to suffer through. Possibly, Alexie is saying that laughing and humor was the only thing that saw the Indians through the rough times. Though critics may not understand the real reason behind his stereotypical humor, Coulombe finds reason to believe Alexie’s motives for writing with humor is vital to getting his point across to this audience.
Friday, May 8, 2009
Final Revision - Summary/Application
Part One: Summary
In “Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s ‘Ceremony,’” Gloria Bird discusses her feelings about the colonization of her language and culture, but most importantly Bird talks about the lie of the whites. He realizes that he is equal to the whites and is no better than them. Tayo comes to understand that his Indian friends were wrong about hating the whites. “Silko is at once bringing the problems to our attention and undermining them. Identifying the source of the “lie” is the first liberating gesture by which Tayo is then free from its hold over him” (Bird 6). Not only does Tayo figure out the lie of the whites, he figures out that Emo, Harley, and a few other Indians were part of the lie too. “Though he “wanted to scream at Indians like Harley and Helen Jean and Emo” and all of the “people [who] had been taught to despise themselves,” he comes to the realization that, “they were wrong (Ceremony 191)” (Bird 6). Emo betrayed Tayo by trying to kill him. This shows Tayo’s struggle to avoid becoming colonized by the ideas about the whites that other Indians were suppressed under, and then having his eyes opened to the sight of reality of the equality between the whites and the Indians.
Part Two: Application
Silko’s Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s article suggest that a productive topic is “the lie,” but not just the lie about the whites, but the lies and the deceptions of your own people. Tayo, a veteran of World War II, had to cope with the colonization of not only the white people and their mind control over the Indians, but Tayo had to deal with the troublesome antics of Emo.
Bird describes Tayo’s view of “the lie” as, “Tayo is employed to reject the internalization of negative typifications as he frees his cattle from the white man’s land debating whether or not to label the man a ‘thief’” (Bird 6). Here this is where Tayo begins to see through the lie and break out of the colonization, which has been embedded in his head for so long. Tayo and his people have been forced to think that they are the ones whom are to be thought of as the “thieves” and not the white people. In Ceremony, it is even admitted by Tayo that, “he had learned the lie by heart – the lie which they had wanted him to learn” (Silko 191). As the lie unfolds in the novel, Tayo cuts open the wire that held captive Josiah’s cattle. Not only did the white man take the horses, the white man also took advantage and raped the land. The Pueblo culture believed that the land was there for everyone to share, which is why the Indians never used fences. The land does not belong to one single person. The whites had no respect for the land as they used it to only better themselves and to make up for any insecurities or doubts that they may have within themselves. Most importantly though, Tayo realizes that the white men are actually just like the Indians, they are no more powerful than the Indians. But since the Indian’s were brainwashed to believe that the White man was better, they were able to just take and take from them.
Emo, a troublemaker from the start of Ceremony, betrays Tayo with a plan to hunt him down and kill him. But once Tayo figures out the betrayal and runs away from all of his friends, as Harley then eventually takes the blame and has to face the consequences. “Tayo was halfway up the hill before he stopped: suddenly it hit him, in the belly, and spread to his chest in a single surge: he knew then that they were not his friends but had turned against him, and the knowledge left him hollow and dry inside, like the locust’s shell” (Silko 225). Not only has Tayo believed the lie about the whites, now he comes to find out all of his friends have turned on him.
Bird also shows a bit of betrayal by her family. She had always felt like she was “stealing” the language of her people. For example, her mother, “she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me” (Bird 1). Also, at family gatherings, Bird would have no idea what her aunts and uncles were talking about because she had a lack of understanding of the language. Her family’s actions made her believe that she was unworthy of her language. She admits, “It seems I have lived under the weight of meaninglessness, the nadir of making meaning, of finding a way in the only language I know to reconnect something, as if to somehow jar the language out of the illusion of its impotence. Auntie did this same sort of thing to Tayo, when she did not fully accept him because he was mixed-blood.
Staying true to the landscape, giving thanks to it, taking care of it, and sharing it; all these things are what keeps the Pueblo culture alive within its people. Tayo finally discovers this when he cut the wire that caged Josiah’s cattle. As he cut the fencing, he was also breaking free of “the lie” and of his insecurities. Finally, Tayo, cured from his ailments, sees the truth, that no matter what color skin, we are all equal within the land.
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.
In “Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s ‘Ceremony,’” Gloria Bird discusses her feelings about the colonization of her language and culture, but most importantly Bird talks about the lie of the whites. He realizes that he is equal to the whites and is no better than them. Tayo comes to understand that his Indian friends were wrong about hating the whites. “Silko is at once bringing the problems to our attention and undermining them. Identifying the source of the “lie” is the first liberating gesture by which Tayo is then free from its hold over him” (Bird 6). Not only does Tayo figure out the lie of the whites, he figures out that Emo, Harley, and a few other Indians were part of the lie too. “Though he “wanted to scream at Indians like Harley and Helen Jean and Emo” and all of the “people [who] had been taught to despise themselves,” he comes to the realization that, “they were wrong (Ceremony 191)” (Bird 6). Emo betrayed Tayo by trying to kill him. This shows Tayo’s struggle to avoid becoming colonized by the ideas about the whites that other Indians were suppressed under, and then having his eyes opened to the sight of reality of the equality between the whites and the Indians.
Part Two: Application
Silko’s Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s article suggest that a productive topic is “the lie,” but not just the lie about the whites, but the lies and the deceptions of your own people. Tayo, a veteran of World War II, had to cope with the colonization of not only the white people and their mind control over the Indians, but Tayo had to deal with the troublesome antics of Emo.
Bird describes Tayo’s view of “the lie” as, “Tayo is employed to reject the internalization of negative typifications as he frees his cattle from the white man’s land debating whether or not to label the man a ‘thief’” (Bird 6). Here this is where Tayo begins to see through the lie and break out of the colonization, which has been embedded in his head for so long. Tayo and his people have been forced to think that they are the ones whom are to be thought of as the “thieves” and not the white people. In Ceremony, it is even admitted by Tayo that, “he had learned the lie by heart – the lie which they had wanted him to learn” (Silko 191). As the lie unfolds in the novel, Tayo cuts open the wire that held captive Josiah’s cattle. Not only did the white man take the horses, the white man also took advantage and raped the land. The Pueblo culture believed that the land was there for everyone to share, which is why the Indians never used fences. The land does not belong to one single person. The whites had no respect for the land as they used it to only better themselves and to make up for any insecurities or doubts that they may have within themselves. Most importantly though, Tayo realizes that the white men are actually just like the Indians, they are no more powerful than the Indians. But since the Indian’s were brainwashed to believe that the White man was better, they were able to just take and take from them.
Emo, a troublemaker from the start of Ceremony, betrays Tayo with a plan to hunt him down and kill him. But once Tayo figures out the betrayal and runs away from all of his friends, as Harley then eventually takes the blame and has to face the consequences. “Tayo was halfway up the hill before he stopped: suddenly it hit him, in the belly, and spread to his chest in a single surge: he knew then that they were not his friends but had turned against him, and the knowledge left him hollow and dry inside, like the locust’s shell” (Silko 225). Not only has Tayo believed the lie about the whites, now he comes to find out all of his friends have turned on him.
Bird also shows a bit of betrayal by her family. She had always felt like she was “stealing” the language of her people. For example, her mother, “she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me” (Bird 1). Also, at family gatherings, Bird would have no idea what her aunts and uncles were talking about because she had a lack of understanding of the language. Her family’s actions made her believe that she was unworthy of her language. She admits, “It seems I have lived under the weight of meaninglessness, the nadir of making meaning, of finding a way in the only language I know to reconnect something, as if to somehow jar the language out of the illusion of its impotence. Auntie did this same sort of thing to Tayo, when she did not fully accept him because he was mixed-blood.
Staying true to the landscape, giving thanks to it, taking care of it, and sharing it; all these things are what keeps the Pueblo culture alive within its people. Tayo finally discovers this when he cut the wire that caged Josiah’s cattle. As he cut the fencing, he was also breaking free of “the lie” and of his insecurities. Finally, Tayo, cured from his ailments, sees the truth, that no matter what color skin, we are all equal within the land.
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.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
Application/Summary Revised
Part One: Summary
In “Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s ‘Ceremony,’” Gloria Bird discusses her feelings about the colonization of her language and culture. She remembers a song that went along with a game. She knew the words and everything, but she felt like the song did not belong to her. Her feelings were the same when it came to her culture’s language. She felt left out because she did not understand the language, so when her mother did not want her to hear something, she would speak in their Indian language. Not only does her lack of connection with her language bother her, the fact that she feels as if she is losing her culture due to the colonization of other cultures coming in and filling the Indian ideas with their own toxic waste. Eventually, what will be left for the Indians to hold onto? As Bird’s ancestors will eventually one day die off, Bird has no chance of retaining the ideals of her culture, and for her then, her whole background will be lost. Her mother believed that, “once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost” (Bird 1). Bird found herself in a double bind with the song, feeling as if she did not have the right to sing that song. She makes a reference to Leslie Silko’s, Ceremony. The first time that Tayo meets the medicine man, Ku’oosh, and as he speaks to Tayo, he is unable to understand fully what the medicine man is saying. Tayo feels embarrassed for not knowing the language well enough to have a decent conversation with him. His insecurities begin to show through, for example, being a mixed blood, once the language burrier between him and Ku’oosh is obvious. This continues throughout Ceremony as Tayos’ grandmother makes Tayo aware many times that he is different because he is not a full-blooded Indian. Tayo also, must struggle to find his own way to stay connected to his Pueblo background.
Part Two: Application
Silko’s Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s article suggest that a productive topic is “the lie,” but not just the lie about the whites, but the lies and the deceptions of your own people. Tayo, a veteran of World War II, had to cope with the colonization of not only the white people and their mind control over the Indians, but Tayo had to deal with the troublesome antics of Emo.
Bird describes Tayo’s view of “the lie” as, “Tayo is employed to reject the internalization of negative typifications as he frees his cattle from the white man’s land debating whether or not to label the man a ‘thief’” (Bird 6). Here this is where Tayo begins to see through the lie and break out of the colonization, which has been embedded in his head for so long. Tayo and his people have been forced to think that they are the ones whom are to be thought of as the “thieves” and not the white people. In Ceremony, it is even admitted by Tayo that, “he had learned the lie by heart – the lie which they had wanted him to learn” (Silko 191). As the lie unfolds in the novel, Tayo cuts open the wire that held captive Josiah’s cattle. Not only did the white man take the horses, the white man also took advantage and raped the land. The Pueblo culture believed that the land was there for everyone to share, which is why the Indians never used fences. The land does not belong to one single person. The whites had no respect for the land as they used it to only better themselves and to make up for any insecurities or doubts that they may have within themselves. Most importantly though, Tayo realizes that the white men are actually just like the Indians, they are no more powerful than the Indians. But since the Indian’s were brainwashed to believe that the White man was better, they were able to just take and take from them.
Emo, a troublemaker from the start of Ceremony, betrays Tayo with a plan to hunt him down and kill him. But once Tayo figures out the betrayal and runs away from all of his friends, as Harley then eventually takes the blame and has to face the consequences. “Tayo was halfway up the hill before he stopped: suddenly it hit him, in the belly, and spread to his chest in a single surge: he knew then that they were not his friends but had turned against him, and the knowledge left him hollow and dry inside, like the locust’s shell” (Silko 225). Not only has Tayo believed the lie about the whites, now he comes to find out all of his friends have turned on him.
Bird also shows a bit of betrayal by her family. She had always felt like she was “stealing” the language of her people. For example, her mother, “she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me” (Bird 1). Also, at family gatherings, Bird would have no idea what her aunts and uncles were talking about because she had a lack of understanding of the language. Her family’s actions made her believe that she was unworthy of her language. She admits, “It seems I have lived under the weight of meaninglessness, the nadir of making meaning, of finding a way in the only language I know to reconnect something, as if to somehow jar the language out of the illusion of its impotence. Auntie did this same sort of thing to Tayo, when she did not fully accept him because he was mixed-blood.
Staying true to the landscape, giving thanks to it, taking care of it, and sharing it; all these things are what keeps the Pueblo culture alive within its people. Tayo finally discovers this when he cut the wire that caged Josiah’s cattle. As he cut the fencing, he was also breaking free of “the lie” and of his insecurities. Finally, Tayo, cured from his ailments, sees the truth, that no matter what color skin, we are all equal within the land.
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.
In “Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s ‘Ceremony,’” Gloria Bird discusses her feelings about the colonization of her language and culture. She remembers a song that went along with a game. She knew the words and everything, but she felt like the song did not belong to her. Her feelings were the same when it came to her culture’s language. She felt left out because she did not understand the language, so when her mother did not want her to hear something, she would speak in their Indian language. Not only does her lack of connection with her language bother her, the fact that she feels as if she is losing her culture due to the colonization of other cultures coming in and filling the Indian ideas with their own toxic waste. Eventually, what will be left for the Indians to hold onto? As Bird’s ancestors will eventually one day die off, Bird has no chance of retaining the ideals of her culture, and for her then, her whole background will be lost. Her mother believed that, “once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost” (Bird 1). Bird found herself in a double bind with the song, feeling as if she did not have the right to sing that song. She makes a reference to Leslie Silko’s, Ceremony. The first time that Tayo meets the medicine man, Ku’oosh, and as he speaks to Tayo, he is unable to understand fully what the medicine man is saying. Tayo feels embarrassed for not knowing the language well enough to have a decent conversation with him. His insecurities begin to show through, for example, being a mixed blood, once the language burrier between him and Ku’oosh is obvious. This continues throughout Ceremony as Tayos’ grandmother makes Tayo aware many times that he is different because he is not a full-blooded Indian. Tayo also, must struggle to find his own way to stay connected to his Pueblo background.
Part Two: Application
Silko’s Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s article suggest that a productive topic is “the lie,” but not just the lie about the whites, but the lies and the deceptions of your own people. Tayo, a veteran of World War II, had to cope with the colonization of not only the white people and their mind control over the Indians, but Tayo had to deal with the troublesome antics of Emo.
Bird describes Tayo’s view of “the lie” as, “Tayo is employed to reject the internalization of negative typifications as he frees his cattle from the white man’s land debating whether or not to label the man a ‘thief’” (Bird 6). Here this is where Tayo begins to see through the lie and break out of the colonization, which has been embedded in his head for so long. Tayo and his people have been forced to think that they are the ones whom are to be thought of as the “thieves” and not the white people. In Ceremony, it is even admitted by Tayo that, “he had learned the lie by heart – the lie which they had wanted him to learn” (Silko 191). As the lie unfolds in the novel, Tayo cuts open the wire that held captive Josiah’s cattle. Not only did the white man take the horses, the white man also took advantage and raped the land. The Pueblo culture believed that the land was there for everyone to share, which is why the Indians never used fences. The land does not belong to one single person. The whites had no respect for the land as they used it to only better themselves and to make up for any insecurities or doubts that they may have within themselves. Most importantly though, Tayo realizes that the white men are actually just like the Indians, they are no more powerful than the Indians. But since the Indian’s were brainwashed to believe that the White man was better, they were able to just take and take from them.
Emo, a troublemaker from the start of Ceremony, betrays Tayo with a plan to hunt him down and kill him. But once Tayo figures out the betrayal and runs away from all of his friends, as Harley then eventually takes the blame and has to face the consequences. “Tayo was halfway up the hill before he stopped: suddenly it hit him, in the belly, and spread to his chest in a single surge: he knew then that they were not his friends but had turned against him, and the knowledge left him hollow and dry inside, like the locust’s shell” (Silko 225). Not only has Tayo believed the lie about the whites, now he comes to find out all of his friends have turned on him.
Bird also shows a bit of betrayal by her family. She had always felt like she was “stealing” the language of her people. For example, her mother, “she spoke Indian around me only when she wanted to exclude me” (Bird 1). Also, at family gatherings, Bird would have no idea what her aunts and uncles were talking about because she had a lack of understanding of the language. Her family’s actions made her believe that she was unworthy of her language. She admits, “It seems I have lived under the weight of meaninglessness, the nadir of making meaning, of finding a way in the only language I know to reconnect something, as if to somehow jar the language out of the illusion of its impotence. Auntie did this same sort of thing to Tayo, when she did not fully accept him because he was mixed-blood.
Staying true to the landscape, giving thanks to it, taking care of it, and sharing it; all these things are what keeps the Pueblo culture alive within its people. Tayo finally discovers this when he cut the wire that caged Josiah’s cattle. As he cut the fencing, he was also breaking free of “the lie” and of his insecurities. Finally, Tayo, cured from his ailments, sees the truth, that no matter what color skin, we are all equal within the land.
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.
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