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
Gloria Bird’s article called, Toward a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony,” Bird discusses her feelings of decolonization 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 cultures 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.
Her mother believed that, “once the old people are gone, the songs, the stories, the knowledge will be lost.” (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 feel embarrassed. This continues throughout Ceremony as Tayos’ grandmother makes Tayo aware that he is different and not a full-blooded Indian.
You did a good job explaining how the song relates to the entire article. This is a good example.
ReplyDeleteAshlee, you covered this first point of Bird's article very thoroughly and with great accuracy. However, I feel like this was just a summary of the beginning of the article and that some points were missing. Good work.
ReplyDeleteI liked that you mentioned the song Bird's mother used to sing, I felt that this was a key point in her article.
ReplyDeleteI feel you didn't touch enough on the second half of the article, but the summary here of the first part is very good. I didn't even think about the song Bird's mother used to sing. Good point. Great work, regardless.
ReplyDelete