As I walk through my hometown Sao Paulo and look up at the sky and my surroundings, I become sick. I feel sick because the sky is grey, not blue; I feel sick because my surroundings are grey, not green, and I feel especially ill because everyone is ignoring it, instead of working to bring our original home, nature, back to our city. In today’s society, dominated by the Western culture, nature is not alive. Western society sees nature as antiquated, and that it should be solely used for power and profit. The consequences of all this destruction is not only losing Nature for us, but destroying it before future generations have a chance to experience it. Leslie Silko, is his book Ceremony, writes about the interaction and the invasion of the Western/Christian …show more content…
culture in the lives of the Native American people of Pueblo. Silko explores this concept through the story of Tayo, who is seeking recovery after a traumatizing battle in Japan during the World War II. Silko addresses the idea that the land and the non-human is essential through Tayo’s healing ceremony. One of the most important figures of Tayo’s ceremony is Josiah’s cattle, which is lost during the novel. Tayo had to go after the cattle to recover it, and that helped him finish his ceremony and bring himself mentally back home. A second concept that Silko refers to is the non-human in the mythological figures that are used to show the primary values of the Pueblo people. The author uses storytelling to demonstrate that there are unique consequences, both positive or negative, for when one does something right or wrong. Contrastingly, Western Culture only tells stories of conquer, omitting their mistakes, and leaving people to believe that their choices have little or no consequences, increasing the problem of lack of connection to nature. The Pueblo people use the land and the non-human to find healing and means to live their lives in a sustainable way, for both the land and themselves. Whereas the Western culture disregards nature, seeing it as dead and just as a resource to generate a profit and gaining power. Silko uses Josiah’s cattle to demonstrate how the land and the non-human guide Tayo and the Pueblo people through their ceremony of healing and that the connection to the Earth is essential to having a healthy life and mind. Tayo had to undergo the journey of retrieving the cattle in order to establish mental stability once again. There is an immense connection between Tayo and the cattle; both represent the progressive change in the Pueblo community. These specific species of cattle are a cross-breed between a Hereford bull with a desert cow, similarly, Tayo is the son of a Mexican woman and a White man. This connection is further demonstrated by the fact that in order for Tayo to complete his healing ceremony, he must bring home his uncle's cattle. Silko utilizes this connection to show how the Pueblo people — even with the predominantly White influence in their culture — always trace back to their roots: the land and the non-human. This connection creates the identity that is the face of the Pueblo people: relentless problem-solving, even those with heavy influences from White individuals, through nature and the non-human. Contrary to the Pueblo people, the Western culture does not use the non-human to guide them through their decision making: "They see no life when they look, they see only objects. The world is a dead thing for them" (Silko, 125). The White society, in general, regards humans as the superior species, as the only ones capable of intelligence, and thus, according to Silko, the world is dead tothem. Their identity is solely based on themselves. This example shows how the Pueblo people use the land and non-human in their day-to-day life — and this helps them as it helped Tayo — opposite to Western cultures, which have their identity based on an anthropocentric view of the world. The Pueblo people use storytelling and mythological figures to pass on the culture’s values from generation to generation and to learn about the proper way of living; Western civilization, on the other hand, aims to manipulate stories to show people their power and potential through victories.
“I will tell you something about stories, [t]hey aren't just for entertainment” (Silko, 2). Silko begins the novel with a poem on stories. The poem explains that the stories are everything the Pueblo people have, and is their biggest defense against the Western world. Storytelling provides moral guidance on how to live and connect to a past full of learnings. Throughout the book, there are several poems and stories about mythical creatures; these poems are orally passed down through generations to establish morality within the Pueblo people. The three main figures in their culture are the Thought Women, the Corn Mother and the Sun Father. The Thought Women is the creator of the world, everything she thinks of is created. The Corn Mother is equivalent to Mother Earth; she represents fertility, growth, and life. Lastly, the Sun Father represents masculinity, power, and light, and is the strong force of the universe. Silko uses these mythical figures to create stories with moral lessons from which the Pueblo people learn that they have to do their offerings in a specific manner and respect the earth. An example of this, is the myth about a Ck’o’yo medicine man; there was a time where he lured the Pueblo people in with his magic and convinced them that he would give them life just as the Corn Mother: “They thought this magic could give life to plants and animals. They didn’t know it was all just a trick” (Silko, 44). The Corn Mother became so angry with them for being fooled that she removed the rain clouds and all the plants from the people. This story serves to teach the Pueblo people that they should always follow the ceremonies based on their cultural values, and if they do
not, the world will not operate as it should (Austgen, 1). This is an example of the reason why the Pueblo’s people identity continues to honor nature and the non-human even after the White invasion of their land. Western culture storytelling shapes their identity towards acquisition and power through anthropocentrism and regarding the nature as dead. Another lesson of the story aforementioned is the display of how easy one may be fooled by false stories that make you lose your identity and make erroneous decisions. The Ck’o’yo medicine man used his story, his magic to trick the people into believing that he would provide them with all they needed, proving himself better than their own Corn Mother, exemplifying what Western storytelling does. In White culture, the stories that prevail are thoses of the greatest conquests, mainly manipulated stories to show the world how men are strong, and how they can make everything and anything happen. These people abandon their core values to follow White culture because these stories convince them that their own culture is not, and will never be, as powerful. An example of this is Emo, the villain in Silko’s novel. Emo is ashamed of his roots, and he disrespects the Pueblo’s people traditions: “Emo liked to say, ‘Look what is here for us. Look. Here’s the Indians’ mother earth. Old-dried up thing” (Silko, 23). After seeing the effect of the droughts, Emo calls out to mother Earth, the Corn Mother, blaming her for not helping their people. He has been brainwashed by the White culture, believing the culture he comes from is flawed, and accepting the imposition of Western culture through conquest stories. The effect of storytelling in building identity is extensive; Pueblo’s people connection to land and to the non-human is based on their stories and their belief of respecting their “Gods” and their home. Unlike, Western culture that teaches people that they are conquerors and that the land and nature are only mediums to reach power and profit. Another great example of how Pueblo people have a respect to land and its contrast to the Western view of the non-human is Tayo’s interaction with the mountain lion when he finds Josiah's cattle. The mountain lion appears to Tayo at night; Tayo sings to him and the lion goes on his way, “The mountain lion blinked at him; there was no fear” (Silko, 182). The mountain lion leads Tayo to the cattle and later saves him from the patrol officers. After capturing Tayo, the officers see the mountain lion’s track in the woods and choose to follow his track instead of bringing Tayo to his boss: “Greasers and Indians— we can run them down anytime. But it’s been a couple of years since anybody up here got a mountain lion” (Silko, 188). We are able to clearly see a difference in how Tayo appreciates the nature in contrast to how the Patrolmen are simply focused on hunting down the lion and the honor that comes with it. Tayo accepts only what the lion offers him, and this leads him to the cattle and later saves him from being killed. The Patrolmen, on the other hand, want to hunt it down just as they did to Tayo; they only chooses the mountain lion over the protagonist because it is more rare, and killing it would give them a higher honor. This happens mainly due to the concepts explored in this paper, that when we see nature in the lense of Western culture, we treat it as inferior and ultimately leads to self-destruction. Furthermore, storytelling in the Pueblo people culture teaches them how to treat the land, and the lack of this custom in the Western culture leads to the development of the identity of aiming solely to conqueror and to become superior The relevance of this topic is that White society fails to understand how harmful they become to themselves and their identity from this disconnection to the land and the non-human. As the mountain lion story shows, the one who has benefited the most in that situation was Tayo, who respected the animal, and thus, was able to find Josiah’s cattle and escape the Patrolmen. This story serves as an example to show the extent of the damage to nature of Westernized culture, as Silko writes, “They see no life when they look they see only objects. The world is a dead thing for them" (Silko 125). The consequences of this anthropocentric view of life creates a set of values that are harmful to our world and to those in it, many who are losing their connections to the beauty of nature. Furthermore, Western people are not trying to change these actions, because, as already mentioned, the stories that are told are only the ones of conqueror, deceiving White people into believing they are doing the right thing. Murder of the land is applauded and seen as progress, money is the only source of wealth that is understood as valuable; their culture is damaged, and there is no coming back. I still dream about the day I will walk around Sao Paulo and see colors other than grey, however, after analyzing the Western culture’s identity through Silko’s book, I do not see this as something conceivable.
The majority of this piece is dedicated to the author stating his opinion in regards to civilization expanding beyond its sustainable limits. The author makes it clear that he believes that humans have failed the natural environment and are in the process of eliminating all traces of wilderness from the planet. Nash points out facts that strengthen his argument, and quotes famous theologians on their similar views on environmental issues and policies. The combination of these facts and quotes validates the author’s opinion.
The novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko follows a young man, Tayo through his journey beginning when he returns home to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation, from World War Two; and is very ill. During the narrative Silko introduces us to Tayo's life before the war, which gives insight to reasons of why Tayo is ill. Through out his illness Tayo goes through many ceremonies both literally and metaphorically to try to cure his ailment. One of the ceremonies that is performed, is lead by Old Ku'oosh, the medicine man, where he performs a cleansing ceremony for someone who has killed someone in battle, even though Tayo doesn't recall killing anyone. However, he adds that this ceremony, which he has been performing for many of the returning war soldiers, has not worked for all of them. He then recommends another medicine man with the tools to cure and perform ceremonies, for the old ceremonies, since the white man had arrived, have not been able to cure the new diseases. Along with the medicine man ceremonies he also goes to American "white" doctors, which also acts as some what of a cleansing for him. In his case vomiting is can also be used as a ceremony for Tayo because he uses it to cleanse his body of the poisons and evil, both physical illness and mental illness. The ceremonies that Tayo goes through whether traditional through a medicine man or contemporary like visits to the psychiatrist and stays in the hospital, all add to his recovery, either through physical or mental cleansing.
Significantly, Welch deconstructs the myth that Plains Indian women were just slaves and beasts of burden and presents them as fully rounded women, women who were crucial to the survival of the tribal community. In fact, it is the women who perform the day-to-day duties and rituals that enable cultural survival for the tribes of...
Leslie Marmon Silko uses the idea of being speckled and/or spotless in her book Ceremony. To try to be spotless is the Laguna people trying to become a part of white society, hence, becoming separated from the Earth and from the roots, tradition, beliefs, rituals and customs of the Native American way. It is letting in white society with the belief that it can somehow improve you. It is destructive change that takes a person away from the Earth. It is change that specifies and names possessions and makes you question your own beliefs.
Leslie Marmon Silko will enlighten the reader with interesting tales and illuminating life lessons in her story “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit”. Silko, being a Native American will show the style in which people in her tribe, the Laguna Pueblo functioned and how their lifestyle varied from westernized customs. (add more here) Silko’s use of thought provoking messages hidden within her literature will challenge the reader to look beyond the text in ornate ways and use their psychological cognition to better portray the views of Silko’s story.
Nomads of the Rainforest is a film which focuses on a tribe in Ecuador called the Waorani. The purpose of this documentary is to discover how this culture has maintained their cultural identity amidst Western culture and remained an enigma. The Waorani were known as savages and likely to attack any outside influence indiscriminately. These people were a mystery due to the fact that their savagery was brushed against the landscape of an egalitarian society in which all people were equal and must contribute to their society. The message of the film is to describe the Waorani lifestyle and how the rainforest is critical to their maintaining their nomadic lifestyle that has been a part of their culture for centuries.
Common sense tells us that it is much easier for one to go downhill rather than uphill. This is certainly evident in Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, where the protagonist, Tayo, must find his way out of a deep rut of sickness and suffering that has consumed his life. Influenced by a variety of factors including war, identity, and environment, Tayo is left questioning himself and his greater relationship with two conflicting cultures. Tayo embarks on a quest to remedy his sickness using certain ceremonies, which will help him recover both physically and emotionally. Ultimately, Tayo’s sickness is mainly defined by his experiences in war, his racial identity, and the “witchery” that created white people. He takes steps to attempt to heal himself
“Yellow Woman” written by Leslie Marmon Silko is a short story based on a Native American Legend story. In this Legend story, a woman has been taken away from her family for a period of time. The Yellow Woman are taken by a Ka’tisna spirit which is better known as a mountain spirit. Throughout the story, the reader learns that the narrator is in an overarching battle with her personal identity as a Pueblo Indian Woman. On top of the narrator's battle with understanding her personal identity she is in a constant battle with trying to understand what events are happening in real life as well as what events are remnants of this legend story told by her grandfather. In sum, the struggle that the narrator has is the common theme occurring throughout.
The inherent desire to belong to a group is one that is fundamental to human nature. In his article “Evolution and Our Inner Conflict,” Edward O. Wilson writes, “A person’s membership in his group – his tribe – is a large part of his identity.” Wilson explores multilevel group selection and the proclivity for people to define themselves based on their belonging to the group. He goes on to say that people often form these groups with those who look like them and belong to the same culture or ethnic group. In the novels Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko and The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick, the identities of the protagonist are predominantly shaped by the ethnicities and heritages that they identify with. The identity of Tayo, the protagonist of the novel Ceremony is largely shaped by his ethnicity as both a Native American and part white. Tayo’s background leads directly to his own identity as an outsider and is central to the storyline. In the novel The Puttermesser Papers by Cynthia Ozick, the title character Puttermesser’s identity and subsequently her story is also influenced by her Jewish heritage.
In Ceremony, Leslie Silko brilliantly crosses racial styles of humor in order to cure the foolish delusions readers may have, if we think we are superior to Indians or inferior to whites, or perhaps superior to whites or inferior to Indians. Silko plays off affectionate Pueblo humor against the black humor so prominent in 20th-century white culture. This comic strategy has the end-result of opening our eyes to our general foolishness, and also to the possibility of combining the merits of all races. Joseph Campbell wrote in The Inner Reaches of Outer Space of the change in mythologies away from the local and tribal toward a mythology that will arise from "this unified earth as of one harmonious being." Ceremony is a work that changes local mythologies in that more inclusive spirit.
In the article The Clash of Cultures, William Cronon and Richard White delve into “the interrelations between people and their environment,” (11) specifically, between the American Indians and the Europeans and the Americas. The reason Cronon and White wrote this article was, “In part, a result of our current concern with pollution and the exhaustion of valuable natural resources, but it has also proved to be a valuable way of learning more about how people of past generations and different cultures dealt with nature and with one another.” (11)
In conditions of modernity, place becomes increasingly phantasmagoric: that is to say, locales are thoroughly penetrated by and shaped in terms of social influences quite distant from them” (Heise 128). This process of lifting out of social relations from local contexts of interaction and their reconstructuring across the indefinite spans of time space is defined as disembedding. After a very accurate and clear summary of the events of Through The Arc of the Rainforest, Heise writes, “At first sight, this story sounds like a rather familiar one: a valuable natural resource is discovered in a remote Third-World locale, multinational corporations and media move in, and as a consequence local ecosystems and social communities are laid to waste, (Heise). This is where the ideas of marxism come into play in Heise’s analysis of the novel; as the natural phenomenon of the Matacao accumulates importance to the surrounding community, and eventually the world world, the Matacao, like everything in a capitalist society, becomes a commodity. All of the passion centered around this commodity slowly drives the creators, the main characters of the novel, to separate themselves and slowly become depressed by the end of the novel. The limitations of this idea are found in basis of the argument. The thesis of this argument basically tackles the idea that the imperialist or nationalist have any stake or say in how the world is used. This essay argues that the collective world should own
Introduction: The concept of the change and longevity of the fairy tale (or myth) is well illustrated in the story “Yellow Woman” by Leslie Silko. Not only is the story a modern explanation of a traditional Native American myth, but the style that Silko uses to tell it evokes and adapts the oral communication style that those old myths were passed down with. The story is also very self-consciously aware of its place as a modern revision of a myth, and makes many internal references to this aspect of itself. “Yellow Woman” becomes, in effect, the modern version of a Native American myth or legend, and therefore is a perfect example of the way in which old tales are made new.
The colonization of civilizations has changed the world’s history forever. From the French, Spaniard, and down to the English, have changed cultures, traditions, religions, and livelihoods of other societies. The Native Americans, for example, were one of the many civilizations that were conquered by the English. The result was their ways of life based on nature changed into the more “civilized” ways of the colonists of the English people. Many Native Americans have lost their old ways and were pulled into the new “civilized” ways. Today only a small amount of Native American nations or tribes exist in remote areas surviving following their traditions. In the book Ceremony, a story of a man named Tayo, did not know himself and the world around him but in the end found out and opened his eyes to the truth. However the Ceremony’s main message is related not only to one man but also to everything and everyone in the world. It is a book with the message that the realization of oneself will open the eyes to see what is truth and false which will consequently turn to freedom.
In the story of “Yellow Women” the writer develops the central ideas of beauty and cultural inheritance by using a first person point of view, reflection over herself, and flashbacks to tell a prior story. In the story Silko realizes that she is different from the people she lives around. She learns to understand and accept her differences because of her white skin color compared to the other Laguna Pueblo people. Silko shows how important her memories are and how she needs them. The effectiveness of the story that Silko shows in her flashbacks and memories give this story beauty and imagery.