Final Paper Assignment

Myth as Controversy in Ceremony or The Woman Warrior or both

Due: Noon, May 6 (or earlier) in my box in the English department (3rd floor Callaway)

As we have discussed in class, the use of myth in both Ceremony and The Woman Warrior has stirred up controversy. Why is this? What is it about the incorporation of sacred stories into secular ones that makes readers intrigued but also uncomfortable? How is such a response affected by the reader's familiarity, or lack thereof, with the culture from which the myths derive? Do myths lose or gain power when incorporated into literature? What kind of power?

These are just some questions to get you thinking about what myth's role is in Silko's and Kingston's works. You don't have to deal with the specific controversies, eg. the issues raised by Allen or Chin, but I do what you making an argument about the role of myth in Silko's and Kingston's works and the implications of it. Why do Silko and Kingston take the risk of using such sensitive materials in their literary works? What is it that myths do that make them worth the risk? In other words, how do you see mythic narratives contributing to their projects in unique ways? How do myths fuel their political statements about minority American identity, feminism, war, etc?

To support your argument about myth's role in the context of literature, please cite AT LEAST ONE of the following thinkers: McCutcheon (remember him?), Frazer, Eliade, Levi-Strauss, DuPlessis, Doniger. You can look to them to help explicate how you see myth working in Silko’s or Kingston’s text, or you may see Silko and Kingston revising or departing from them.

The majority of your paper should consist of close readings as well as careful, articulate, and focused literary analysis that supports your thesis statement. Please abstain from extensive summary.

You are welcome to do additional research, though it is not required. Of course, if you do, cite your sources in the body of your paper and include a Works Cited page. Do not cite from the Internet, though on-line library databases are fine.

Your paper should be at least ten pages in length, double-spaced, twelve-point Times New Roman font and formatted according to MLA research guidelines.

You will each meet with me individually during the week of 4/20 to discuss either a rough draft or a very thorough outline or plan. The farther you are in the writing process, the better I will be able to help you polish your paper into something really impressive and sophisticated. Remember: Difficult ideas and concepts require time to develop, so the more work you do earlier on, the more room you allow yourself to complicate and clarify your argument. Please staple the draft that we work on together behind your final draft.

Allen Article

I guess this blog entry sort of coincides with Claudia's post (and Mike's comment).  I agree with Claudia somewhat that Paula Allen seems to be cheating her profession's mission by not disclosing information she knows to her students, especially when they ask directly about specific events or ceremonies.  At the same time, I understand that she feels a tie to her people's privacy and feels obligated to keep the secrets of her tribe and people.  

I thought it was really interesting that some Indians thought that "preserving tradition in print is not worth the price" (380) and, like in the example that Mike mentioned, dire consequences might befall anyone who openly shared the stories or inside information of the tribes.  Western culture is so obsessed with recording every minute aspect of even irrelevant events that this seems counterintuitive.  To be from a culture who Twitters every little detail, posts blogs or journal entries with the whole world on a whim, and to read about people who would prefer their stories and historical data disappear entirely rather than share them with ignorant outsiders is completely foreign.  Allen addresses the problem between Western culture's [is this the right term? since the Indians are geographically 'western' too] desire to know everything but also want privacy.  I think it is disingenuous to keep information from interested scholars, but some things should be kept private.  I guess that's one of Allen's main arguments--where to draw the line, in teaching and in writing.  

Allen's example with the anthropologist Elsie Parsons who conducted a very sterile and almost-autopsy-like analysis of the Laguna people is the wrong approach.  Allen says Parsons "objectified, explained, detailed and analyzed their lives as though they were simply curios, artifacts, fetishes."  No culture or people can be so precisely pigeonholed.  There is always some exception, and I think that's where science fails in trying to understand different cultures.  There has to be a balance between observations and analysis that is not too scientific, but also not completely worthless.  I think Silko (and the other myth writers we've read) struggle with this balance also, giving the readers enough to be able to grasp the ideas and struggles presented within the cultures, but also keep some information, ceremonies and traditions, mysterious.  

Tayo's Concept of Floyd Lee

Tayo hesitates to accuse the white Texan, Floyd Lee a thief because of his general assumption that the white man has money and their is no reason for him to steal. On page 190 in Silko's Ceremony, Tayo, "Had a crazy desire to believe that there had been some mistake, that Floyd Lee had gotten them innocently, maybe buying them from the real thieves." Tayo was forced to learn that the white man worked for what he earned and people like the Mexicans and the Indians were the ones that stole. Tayo knew that, "He had learned that lie by heart-- the lie which they had wanted him to learn." The "They" in the quotation is ambiguous, but ultimately the "They" could be the white man, his teachers in school, or societal norms. The lie which Tayo refers to is that, "only brown skinned people were thieves; white people didn't steal, because they always had the money to buy whatever they wanted." Tayo assumes that the white man "always had the money" and that others like the Indians were always poor; therefore, if Floyd Lee was a thief than he would be no better than the Indians and the Mexicans. The only difference Floyd Lee would ultimately have would be the color of his skin.

Disappointment

In the final portion of the section entitled "White Tigers," The narrator begins by plainly stating that her "American life has been such a disappointment" (45). This statement is the first one produced by the narrator after recounting a version of the Mulan myth. Such an utterance, which follows a tale of a legendary female warrior who avenges her family and overthrows a tyrannical emperor, leads the reader to assume that the narrator's own life is much different from that of Fa Mu Lan. It soon becomes clear that the reason the narrator is such a disappointment lies primarily in the fact that she is a woman. She explains that in the Chinese culture - or at least in her native village - women are seen in a very negative light. She recalls sayings that she heard such as "better to raise geese than girls," and "when you're raising girls, you're raising children for strangers" (46). The narrator also provides instances when neighbors and relatives would show preference for sons over daughters, like when her uncle refuses to bring the narrator and her sister shopping. In simply being born female, the narrator is a disappointment to her family and her community. There is also another source of disappointment, which is expressed by the narrator herself. This disappointment comes from her inability to change the way that she is perceived. In the Mulan myth we see that a young woman is able to assume the role of a male when she is trained as a warrior and goes on to protect her family from harm. It took a tremendous amount of time, effort and courage for Fa Mu Lan to become a son for her parents, but in the end she succeeded. The narrator seems to feel that to perform this feat in mid-20th century America is close to impossible. She laments that she cannot raise a child and plow fields simultaneously, like the swordswomen she idolizes. She says she can determine who the enemies are - the businessmen who took her parents' laundry - but she cannot go out and avenge her family like Fa Mu Lan. Her visions of retributions are only "gun and knife fantasies" and her enemies are much bigger than her and "impossible to meet eye to eye" (48). The narrator is not able to conquer both the capitalists in American and the Communists in China. She feels that she can never be the kind of person that Fa Mu Lan was, nor can she embark on a journey like hers. The fact that she is a woman, and can do nothing to change it, is doubly disappointing.

Allen's Article

I have never reacted quite as strongly to a piece of reading as I did to Paula Gunn Allen's article. My first reaction is to ask, why even teach? Perhaps because I fall into the "wanna be" category, I feel opposed to Allen's reaction to teaching, or more accurately "non-teaching" because she seems to undermine the ability of the student to show respect for another's culture. While reading the article, I never found concrete reasons for her apparently inherent inability to provide her students with an education. Her statements like, "I find myself physically ill when I attempt to override those early lessons" (384) make me want to suggest that she find a different profession, or at the very least stop attempting to teach literary works that she cannot support. I can respect her decision to not teach a certain work, rather than try to half teach a work. As a student, I find myself curious to know about the history and myths of the people we read. In order to understand a work of literature, a reader must understand the history of the text. Allen strongly suggests that students, as outsiders, do not have the capacity to understand the sacredness of an event within a text. As an academic, I find this suggestion insulting. She closes with "Perhaps they will find themselves ever more aware that native people are people, and their ways are not a spectacle but simply and significantly, a way of life" (386). I disagree with her opinion that a fascination and interest in other cultures reverts that culture and people to a spectacle. If anything, in order to preserve and maintain culture it must be understood and appreciated by those interacting with it.

Cultural Identity in The Woman Warrior

The narrator's "American life has been such a disappointment" (45) to her parents because she begun to assimilate into American culture, behaving as other young American girls do instead of remaining totally true to her parent's' traditional Asian values. Kingston juxtaposes this statement about the narrator's disillusionment with her Asian background with Fa Mu Lan's myth, which highlights feminine strength and courage, suggesting that her parents wish that she would aim for this ideal. Although the protagonist accomplishes more than the average girl living in America when she earns "straight A's" in school, she bemoans the fact that she will never be able to "do something big and fine" (46) in order to please her parents. They demand that she adhere to the Asian standard of accomplishment, perhaps in order to keep her from slipping away from them and into the American culture abyss, a world about which they understand very little. The fact that they belittle something great she thinks she has attained shows that their conceptualization of what she should do with her life diverges sharply from the path she wants to take. In short, the major disparity between Asian values and American beliefs keeps the narrator from being happy with her successes. She has to struggle to fulfill her parents' wishes while remaining true to her own personal aspirations. I think the rest of the novel will probably show her journey to reconcile these two cultural halves that compose her overall identity.

Sexuality in Ceremony vs The Woman Warrior

Throughout the opening pages in The Woman Warrior, what really struck me is the way in which the author illustrated the stigma of sexuality through the figure of the aunt. The aunt is literally shamed to death for her sexual deeds, even though she did not necessarily mean to bring it upon herself. This appears in stark contrast to what we saw in Ceremony, where intercourse was part Tayo's spiritual journey. Just as the aunt commits adultery, we see Ts'eh sleep with Tayo, despite her marriage to the hunter. Unlike the aunt, Ts'eh is not punished or looked down upon for she is a divine figure and, thus, has slightly different standards. However, the fact that Silko does not stigmatize Night Swan for sleeping with many men, suggests that it is not Ts'eh'a divinity that sepparates her from the aunt, but something greater: the cultures. One reason the culture create different reactions to sexuality within reality is because of the mythic precedence within each culture. I am wondering how else the dissimiliar cultures will create points of both unity and contention.

Does anyone see a place where they see unity either within the mythic traditions or the general cultures of Ceremony and The Woman Warrior?

Reminder and Link to Prof. Nelson's Ceremony webpage

For those of you who were absent: We did not get to Allen's article, so we will start class on Tuesday discussing it.

And here's the link to the Ceremony website that Robert Nelson made:

http://facultystaff.richmond.edu/~rnelson/mapping

Sixth Blog Post Assignment

By Monday, March 30 at noon: Those of you whose last names begin with A-M, please post with your responses to either Ceremony or The Woman Warrior, or both. See below for jumping off points, which you are welcome to use or ignore at your discretion.

By Wednesday, April 1 at noon: Those of you whose last names begin with N-Z, please comment on at least one of your fellow classmate's posts.

Jumping off points:

Ceremony:

Why does Tayo hesitate to refer to Floyd Lee, the man who has the cattle, as a thief on p. 191?

On p. 169 and 204, the narrator describes how Indians continue to mourn the land they have lost. Loss seems to be a big part of this book, and attempting to deal with something you've lost (especially when you see it in front of you every day), proves a monumental challenge for Tayo and Indians more generally. What do you make of these passages? What does Silko believe helps?

Why do the atom bomb and uranium figure so prominently in Ceremony, especially pages 243-247?

What is Tayo doing in the kiva at the end?

The Woman Warrior:

Why does the narrator tell the story her mother told her not to tell any one?

What is "talk-story"?

Why has the narrator's life been such a "disappointment" (45)?

Tayo's Ceremony

I agree with Claudia's confusion about the ceremony Tayo completes.

I can see clear connections between the myths in throughout the novel and Tayo's journey to complete his ceremony. The continuing myth about Hummingbird and Fly seeking water for their starving world lines up in many ways with Tayo's life. The Laguna reservation is in the midst of a drought, and Emo's horrific treatment of Harley, Leroy, and Pinkie seems to be a type of witchery or "ck'o'yo'" magic that the people are swayed and distracted by. As the myth about Hummingbird and Fly resolves itself and the people are purified, Tayo refuses to give in to "the witchery" of killing Emo and presumably the drought will end.

I also agree with you, Claudia, about your idea that Tayo's healing comes from a deepended understanding of the earth and the ways that his community is connected to the earth. But, I think that it is overly simplistic for Silko to let the novel end where it does and let Tayo complete his ceremony when he does. I understood a huge part of Tayo's distress and sickness to be connected with the war. He has flashbacks about the Japanese jungle, certain sounds and experiences send him into a frenzy, and he is unable to keep food on his stomach for the majority of the novel. Nowhere in the ceremony Tayo completes does it seem like he begins to deal with the trauma of the war. How does Tayo forget the horrors of the war? Why is his ceremony completely wrapped up in the Laguna reservation, his home, and his enemies at home (namely Emo), and not the world around him or the white world that sent him to the war and then rejected him?

What is the Ceremony?

Having just finished the novel, I'm confused about Tayo's ceremony and how it's portrayed throughout the story. Yesterday in class, we discussed that his ceremony is his journey throughout the whole book, as well as the physical ceremony Betonie performs. What struck me most was for the ceremony to be complete, Tayo had to resist the urge of "the witchery" of killing Emo and return home. His return home corresponds with many of the myths found within the novel. The way I read home, though, is by returning to the land. For example, Tayo finds peace when he understands "we came out of this land and we are hers" (255).

Another question I have is how do the myths differ from Tayo's ceremony? Are they meant solely to show the history and beliefs of the people, and in that way they are healing?

What I found most interesting was the book's resolution. When Old Grandma states, "It seems like I already heard these stories before...only thing is, the names sound different" (260) she shows the reader that time continues and encircles itself. This is much like Betonie reasoning that ceremonies are always changing because the voices differ with each generation. Is the ceremony, then, the acceptance of the ever-present flow of time? If so, then Tayo's healing comes from his understanding that he belongs to the earth and that life continues even through hardship and evil doings, and that the sun will always rise.

Auntie's Relationship with the Sins of Others

Although Ceremony is a Native American novel that deals in part with the adverse effects the white man has had on Native American culture, the Native Americans characters in the story are not idealized, nor are they made to appear as entirely positive characters.  Along with Emo, Auntie is one of the most negative characters in the book.

Auntie is entirely preoccupied with how Laura's and Josiah's actions will affect the respect the community attributes to her family and what gossip they may spread and cares very little for their welfare. 

This is in part due to the fact that Auntie is a devout Christian who thrives on a narrow and warped interpretation of the concept of martyrdom and suffering.  In her understanding of martyrdom, she will gain the respect of her peers if she is seen to suffer for the sins of others, namely Laura and Josiah. It is in this spirit that she raises Tayo, rather than out of any love for him or any sense of the Native American concept of family which typically extends beyond the norms of the nuclear family. Therefore, she is not necessarily filled with resentment or simmering hatred toward Tayo, but she rather uses the sins of her daughter as a tool to cause herself to appear noble for suffering due to the sins of others.

Notably, even though Auntie is a highly problematic character who causes a great deal of unnecessary problems in Tayo's life, she is not demonized by Silko.  This suggests that Auntie’s misunderstanding of the Christian tradition is the result of the same clashing of cultures that affects every character in the novel.

Almost all contact between Native Americans and white people in this novel results in destruction for American Indian culture as a whole. Whites are constantly either maliciously or unthinkingly causing harm both to their community and to their individual pride. Indian women are forced into prostitution a la Tayo's mother or Helen Jean, whom Silko apparentally intended to represent all the Native American women to which this actually happened. Indian men fared no better, garnering little if any respect from the white community, and even then only when they were wearing American military uniforms, showing that they were willing to work with the whites to defend and support the whites' vision of a better America. The most blatantly offensive exploitation of Native Americans in the novel, however, is the Indian "ceremonial" put on by white people in the town of Gallup. Whites here are eager to praise their culture as a whole but are unable to come to terms with any one Native American man or woman on an individual basis. Tayo embodies the outcome of the only situation wherein it is acceptable for one white person to encounter one Indian person privately: during sexual intercourse. He is, therefore, one of the very few instances in the book where something good (human life) springs from a meeting between Native Americans and white people. Whether he meant to or not, this unknown white man worked together with Tayo's Indian mother to create a productive thing, a healthy son who went on to fight for their country in World War II. Tayo's hazel eyes represent this symbiotic relationship perfectly: his mother's brown eyes (Native American heritage) combine with his father's green eyes (or green-eye genes) to form his hazel ones, creating the most recognizable mark of miscegenation on Tayo's body. Silko uses the color of his eyes to show that whites and American Indians do not have to clash with one another. Not only can they coexist, they can work together to build beautiful things that can benefit both of their cultures, like Tayo does when he fights for both his Indian friends/family and for white America in the Phillipines, in the final great American war.

Fragmentation, Confusion

One of the most interesting aspects of the book to me is how the structure and the plot of the novel seem to parallel and guide each other. We talked about the element of fragmentation that seems pervasive in the book and Tayo's confusion and inability to fuse together the broken pieces of his mind.
Tayo is a broken individual. Both before the war and after, he has been living a life conflicted by the multiple facets and oppositions--he is the child of a white and Native American union, he is living in both a modern and traditional era, he has to deal with the death of his cousin. He resides in a position similar to Antonio Márez and must figure out how to sort out these seemingly irreconcilable oppositions in order to proceed with his life.
The structure of the book, I have to admit, has been confusing me. I lose track of who is telling the story and if I am reading a recollection or a present moment. The nonlinear format seems to encourage this jarring feeling; I can feel Tayo's disjointed stream of consciousness as though it is my own. The short paragraphs interspersed with the longer ones, the lack of chapters, the sporadic myths--each of these reveal a personality on another level by going beyond just the content of the plot and characterization.
Modernist fiction contains these exact same elements. Fragmentation and disillusionment are common themes and, like Tayo, stem from a similar source: the search for meaning and spirit in the face of great dehumanization. How does one find meaning in a world that does not seem to offer it? The answer comes in the form of the traditional. Essentially, Tayo must look back to his Laguna roots in order to heal his mental rift.

Myths and Curses

After reading the myth on pages 132-138 that Silko supposedly made up, there was one thing that I found particularly interesting. In this myth, the coming of the white man to America is explained as being the result of something that the native Americans did. The myth opens by explaining that "in the beginning there where no white people in this world...and this world may have gone on like that except for one thing: witchery" (132-133). The myth then tells of a conference of witches from all tribes who have gathered to show off their skills. When one tells the others, "What I have is a story," they laugh. This unnamed witch then proceeds to tell the story of the coming of the white man and the effect they will have on their lives. As he explained beforehand, this story will begin to happen as he tells it. It is implied here that the arrival of Europeans on American soil - and the destruction that they cause - is the fault of the witches of the Native American tribes. There is no clear answer given as to why the tribes are being punished in such a way. It is possible that it is due to their competitiveness and attempts to outdo each other in their horrid acts of witchcraft. A reason that I find to be more suitable is the witches disregard for the power of myth and stories. The prophesying witch does not unleash his curse/story until after he is laughed at for suggesting it amongst all of the powerful and dreadful acts of witchcraft going on. This makes me think that this myth is not actually intended to imply that the coming of white men to America and all of the terrible things that ensue is the fault of the Native Americans, but rather it is an exhibition and possibly a warning of the power that a myth can contain. Perhaps the author is trying to stress the fact that Native Americans may not be facing the troubles that they currently are if they had only realized the power of their mythology and tried harder to preserve it.

The Invention of Myth

Silko's origin myth on page 132-138 represents the idea that everything comes from something. Throughout the novel the white man is deemed a negative, foreign, destructive character; however, in the origin myth it is revealed that an Indian witch created the White man. Therefore the White man is the product of Indian folklore and beliefs. If the reader considers this myth to be factual (whether or not Silko intended it to be) then the Indians are ultimately the Creators. Therefore, the White man and the Indians have a relationship similar to an artist and his painting. The White man is a work of art, or a product of his environment. He is created by an Indian witch and therefore he taken the form which was given to him by his creator. Much as how the style of a painting reflects the artist. Essentially the painting and the artist as well as the Indian and the White man are connected. Silko's inventive myth serves as a link connecting the Indians and the white men in a spiritual and mythic sense.

Considering the white man's origin in a mythic sense, it is important to note that the witch in Silko's invented myth reveals the cruse of the white man through a story. This emphasizes the power of oral tradition which is often associated with the recollection of myths. The revelation of the white man story also demonstrates the power of language. In the beginning of the book Ceremony, Silko opens the book with the mythic character Thought Woman and, "whatever she thinks about appears" (Silko 1). Silko then relates Thought Woman to the narrative of the novel, "I'm telling you the story she is thinking" (Silko 1). This quotation ties together different aspects found in the book: myth and narrative. Ultimately Silko blends the mythic with the narrative form within her novel and thus she is able to create a "fictional" myth, such as the one reference on page 132, and portray it as a plausible origin story for the emergence of the White man.

The Spirtuality of Sexuality

After talking about the perverse myth on pages 57-59 today I began to think that maybe sexuality and intercourse offer a sort of spiritual revelation necessary to complete Tayo's larger ceremony. Throughout Ceremony, Tayo gains a sort of security and spiritual affirmation through his various sexual experiences. We first see Tayo with Night Swan. The vivid description of the intercourse indicates that the occurrence holds great significance. Within the experience, Tayo delivers a physical message to Night Swan, while Tayo gains a sort of clarity that he cannot identify at first. However, when Tayo sleeps with Ts'eh, he clearly gains comfort both physically mentally. No longer does Tayo get nauseous, nor does he feel invisible within his own world. It is through Ts'eh physical love that Tayo discovers " the people were strong, the fifth world endured, and nothing was ever lost as long as the love remained." (220) I believe that it is this idea of love that pervades Tayo's modern ceremony. From love, he will achieve spiritual and mental satisfaction. I am curious how everyone else interprets these sexual interactions, especially considering both of these women can be interepreted as manifestation of Thought-Woman.

Mixed Blood and Hazel Eyes -- a further discussion

Christina was talking about mixed blood and its significance in mixing cultures, beliefs, and heritage; in this discussion, she briefly mentioned the importance of hazel eyes. Within the novel Ceremony, I think this small detail is extremely important. First, it points out people to pay attention to: Tayo, obviously, as the protagonist; Betonie, as a guide for Tayo; and last, the Night Swan, who though she does not have hazel eyes herself, she works for her children, who do. Within the novel, eye color represents not only openness and spirituality, as Christina has shown, but a progressive change to what Silko, at least, believes as a better world.

I think this can also be considered part of the structural element of the novel. Of course, this isn't in the way that Mike has discussed, which points out the structural significance of various terms, but in the actual structure of the novel. The most progressive, helpful, and accepting people that Tayo meets are those with hazel eyes. As a protagonist who is trying to find acceptance both within himself and within the world he is a part of, this is an important structural construction. Tayo seems lost within the world: he cannot seem to find the peace necessary to move on from the pain he feels from the war, Rocky's death, the drought he believes he has caused, etc. In this struggle, it is those with hazel eyes that guide him, and I think it is this structure / detail which could potentially foreshadow Tayo's eventual acceptance of himself and reconciliation with the cultures and feelings he is torn between.

mixed blood

There is an interesting correlation in the book between having mixed blood and being more spiritually connected to the past or to earth than the Indians with pure blood.  Tayo constantly imagines his connections to the earth.  When he's peeing in the bar, he imagines the liquid rejoining the world's water supply.  The Night Swan is Mexican but has mixed children.  The has a strong connection to her family and its latter generations and says that she dances for her granddaughters now.  She left Mexico when there was a drought, but a connection to nature made her take down roots in the Laguna town--she connected to the mountain.  Both Tayo and Betonie, a deeply spiritual Indian medicine man, have hazel eyes.  Betonie had a Mexican grandmother, and maybe the slight mixing of his blood has opened his eyes to other cultures and helped him connect to the earth better.  He collects lots of artifacts and objects from the past, from other medicine men, but also objects from the white culture as well, to gain a better and more complete understanding of the past.  He is a bit strange, but quite wise, and when compared with Koosh, the medicine man who attempts to heal Tayo at the beginning of the book, is clearly more open and enlightened.  Koosh's language was old fashioned and he stuck adamantly with the old traditional ways.  Although he heals Tayo enough to help the boy eat again, Tayo knows he can have no understanding of modern warfare and killing distant enemy without knowing the results of one's shot.  The mixing of cultures biologically seems to have a strong positive correlation with the openness and spirituality of characters.   

Tayo's Battle Fatigue and the Limits of Structuralism

The limits of structuralism’s distinction between signifier and signified can be seen in the evolution of language concerning the emotional state of veterans like Tayo. Tayo is conscious about how he feels empty inside. What is he missing? We don’t quite know; maybe innocence. Despite feeling empty, he also feels guilt for not protecting his symbolic brother, Rocky. He also experiences flashbacks, like how crunchy food makes him think of skulls crushed in the jungle. These all can be symptoms of what we now call post-traumatic stress disorder. Besides the survivors of war, many others experience this same disorder: children who’ve survived extreme trauma and survivors of sexual violence. In the context of war survivors, the terminology we use has lengthened in terms of syllables – specifically since WWI. In WW I, the sickness which results from the horrors of war was called “Shell Shock.” It is two syllables, direct, in your face, and harsh. Tayo and others who fought in the Second World War are also described as experiencing shell shock, but also a different thing called battle fatigue. This phrase has four syllables, so it’s longer, and does not have the blunt rhetorical force of “shell shock.” Starting with Vietnam veterans in the 1970s, the language further lengthened to post-traumatic stress syndrome (7 syllables) and finally settling on post-traumatic stress disorder (8 syllables).
Two questions are in order: why has the language changed and what is the effect of the change? The language change mirrors a more technical understanding of psychological trauma. But is also dampens the rhetorical effect of the diagnosis. Shell shock is, rhetorically, a much more severe phrase than post-traumatic stress disorder. Even though our psychological understanding of the disease has become more clear, our linguistic expression has become more convoluted. I heard a comedian, maybe George Carlin, first make this observation and I think he’s on to something. By comparing several terms (signifiers), shell shock, battle fatigue, Post-traumatic stress disorder with the experience of traumatic psychological war stress (signified), you can see that shell shock feels comparatively closer to what’s signified than a phrase like PTSD. There are times when a comparison of various signifiers with what’s signified can show that some signifiers are more or less inherently related to the signified.


-Mike

Tayo's mother vs. Rocky

I would like to discuss further the similarities and double standards present in this book concerning the respect versus hatred of the white mans world. For example, Tayo’s mother’s abandonment of Tayo and Rocky’s complete dismissal of all of the traditional Laguna beliefs and practices are both done, by the individual person, in an attempt to enter the white mans world and leave their past to hopefully life a life of wider prospects. They were, however, treated quite differently during their lives as well as after their deaths. Tayo’s mother was viewed as a loose woman who had no respect for herself in her life and viewed perhaps in a worse light upon abandoning her child at her sister’s home. It must be understood, and I believe this may be what Silko is trying to tell her reader through Tayo, that Tayo’s mother was just trying to make a better life for herself but failed because of circumstances outside of her control. Rocky, who has no respect for his family or beliefs, is able to get away with anything throughout his life even blatantly disrespecting his grandmother. Rocky is no less revered by his family after his death despite the things he said and did not do for his family during his life in order to be more a part of the new white society in New Mexico. I think this is an odd contradiction in this book by Silko that either the reader or Tayo, through his own enlightenment about his mixed blood, will be able to answer at the close of this novel.

Helen Jean

Although having a comparably small part in Ceremony, the character Helen Jean is important as she is representative of many of the young Native American women who cross over into the white community. Silko introduces Helen Jean as a woman who Harley and Leroy pick up at the bar while they are out drinking. She is described as wearing “tight blue western pants and a frilly pink western blouse.” And although she does not say anything when she first comes onto the scene, she interacts with Leroy by “rubbing her leg against [him], but staring out the window as she did it, as if her mind were somewhere else” (p. 144). Like Tayo’s mother, Helen Jean left the reservation and tried to assimilate into the white man’s culture in hopes of more career opportunities and a better life. Helen Jean appeared to be full of hope in the beginning, yet because of outside circumstances (mainly the context of Gallup, NM) her dreams do not come to fruition. Helen Jean is symbolic of the larger group of young Native American women, who despite having good intentions, get sucked into a life of alcoholism and prostitution, thus being dependent on the white man in order to survive.

Follow-up to Class Tuesday

I just want to respond to two comments/questions from class:

1. Daniel asked how significant hunting was to the diets of the Pueblos. I've just done a little research and found that the hunting of such game as deer and rabbit was a supplement to the growing of crops and the gathering of nuts and berries.

2. I want to apologize to Mike who said that Momaday was from New Mexico and I corrected him and said Oklahoma. Momaday was born in Oklahoma and spent much of his adulthood there since that is the homeland of the Kiowas, but Mike was right that Momaday spent a lot of his childhood in New Mexico, specifically on and around the Pueblos, that of the Jemez. He also went to the same college as Silko, though years earlier: the University of New Mexico.

See you Thursday!

Fifth Blog Post Assignment

Here are some jumping off points that you may or may not refer to when you share your ideas, questions, confusions about Ceremony. Please do so any time before noon on 3/25.

1. What do you think of the myth (which Silko claims to have invented) on p. 132-138?

2. What's the significance of hazel eyes in the book?

3. Who's Helen Jean, and what is she doing in Ceremony?

4. What's Auntie's beef?

5. What kind of person is Rocky?

6. Why does Tayo's mother leave him?

My wife and I went to Savannah for part of Spring Break. It's a wonderful city, and we happened to stop by Flannery O'Connor's childhood home. So, we did the touristy thing and took a few pictures. Enjoy :-)




-Mike