Analysis Of Storyteller By Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko, a Laguna writer, uses Storyteller as a way to express and bridge the gap between oral tradition and writing. Silko connects the past with the present and details the unique way Native Americans have experienced the world. Through these stories, we see the Native American struggle to maintain identity and independence as white culture infiltrates society and attempts to destroy tribal identity. It becomes clear that the Laguna people reject the danger of uniformity and thus use stories to maintain legacy, seek out identity, and as a powerful weapon against assimilation and colonialism.

Silko uses literature to express numerous Laguna Pueblo narratives in order to preserve the Laguna legacy for generations. By physically

writing these stories down, an extra degree of protection is added to ensure survival of these stories, and ultimately Laguna people. Although writing is seen as contemporary, it can be viewed as a compliment to the oral tradition, one that helps disperse it to a larger audience. Although most of these stories were told in the traditional Laguna language, English has become a native language because it aids in the continuation of storytelling and survival. Literature helps convey how people think and perceive the world around them, thus they serve a cultural purpose. Story is seen as one of the most important and vital elements of Native peoples culture and acts as a unifier between generations. Most importantly, Silko attempts not to alter the original tone and spirit of these oral stories. These stories are regarded as living things that continue to exist through being told numerous times. The first story, “Storyteller”, allows the old man to pass his legacy onto the young girl. Legacy can be defined as personal history or life-stories that help others formulate their identities. The old man not only tells these stories for himself, but also as a gift to the girl. He is passionate, intensely detailed, and highlights the Pueblo perspective of nature; that people are secondary to the natural world. As he tells stories to the girl, they quickly transform into her legacy to pass on. When a story is passed down through a generation, the receiver has the duty to continue passing it on. Although the actual story is important, the way in which it is told is paramount. The old man urges her that although, “it will take a long time, [but] the story must be told. There must be no lies” (Silko 25). Recognizing that these stories ensure the Laguna legacy, the girl abides by the old man's rules and even gives up her freedom to defend her truth. When the attorney attempts to get her to say that the murder, “was an accident” (Silko 29), she refuses his plea, even though this lie would grant her freedom. The girl insists on telling the story in her own way, a way that is foreign to the “Gussucks” and a way they will never understand. The girl rejects assimilating and the oppression of white culture by living on her own terms. She continues the old man's legacy and also becomes a storyteller. By telling the story as it is, she asserts her legacy and allows Native American culture to survive.
Silko emphasizes the idea that storytelling can be used as a way to find and confirm identity for both the individual and community as a whole. These stories help Native people know who they are and form their identities as a tribal person. In the title story, the young girl is ignorant of who she is and because of this has no story she can tell. She finds it hard to navigate her place in society. When she goes to school, the girl comes into conflict with the “Gussucks” as they attempt to destroy her tribal identity with their white lifestyle and English language. From this moment on, the girl decides that she will create her own story. When the young girl moves in with the old man who is a prolific storyteller, she listens intently to the old man’s stories and picks up his vigor for storytelling to use in her own. Through these stories, the girl recognizes herself as a daughter, granddaughter, a creator, and most importantly, a Laguna. For the Laguna people, identity lies in the ability to tell stories. Because these stories come from people within their own community who share the same values and perspectives, their identities are affirmed. Overall, the Laguna community is bonded together by stories.
Leslie Marmon Silko combines a western understanding of the world with the traditional Pueblo understanding and addresses the impending doom and darkness of the world in “Long Time Ago”. This narrative poem explains the origin of white people’s destruction and forced assimilation. One witch claims that this is the most extreme evil the earth will ever experience. The evil Silko describes indicates the detrimental role white people played in shaping Pueblo society and ultimately the world. She highlights the western idea that because we view the individual as coming first, we believe nature is fundamentally separate from us, thus granting us complete dominion over the earth. As one witch, who is genderless (an evil within itself), tells the story of nuclear energy and the crumbling earth, the others implore the witch to take it back. Unfortunately, “ the witch shook its head… It’s already coming. It can’t be called back.” (Silko 129). This story explains how the Laguna people thought of World War II as a western conflict, brought on themselves because of white people’s exploitation of nature. White people have attempted to decimate Native American populations by destroying their culture and ceremonies, but despite their attempts, the stories have lived on. Because stories can tell history, retelling them can help prevent similar disasters from ever occurring. Again, the western attitude towards life and lands disposability starkly opposes Indigenous peoples deep respect and appreciation for their land. This poem is shocking and extreme in its language, but it correctly interprets the struggle and plight Native Americans have been forced to undergo.
Telling stories is also a powerful protection against forced assimilation.

Through the continuation of these stories, culture is maintained and will only be destroyed when the story dies. In “Storyteller”, the idea of assimilation is expressed in the merging of the sky and ice. The first story acts as a harbinger of forced assimilation into white culture as Silko explains, “it wasn’t a good sign for the sky to be indistinguishable from the river ice, frozen solid and white against the earth” (Silko 17). The overwhelming white image of this scene is a warning sign to Laguna people that soon their life will be changed by the gussucks. Silko continues this imagery and details that they have been “swallowed by the freezing white” (Silko 28). The Laguna community is losing their traditions, language, lifestyle, land, and ultimately culture. The characteristics that used to define them are being repealed and replaced by the lifestyle of the white people. In “Tony’s Story”, Leon, a Laguna, returns from the army, in which is he was forced to assimilate. Upon his arrival, his community recognizes he has changed and is more similar to a white man. Leon also considers himself as having more rights now and has a chip on his shoulder. When the white cop attempts to harass Leon a second time, Leon explains to Tony that, “ we are just as good as them”(Silko 118). This comment scares Tony as he believes Leon has fallen victim to the white people. Leon now represents the intertwining and clash of culture and is thought of a stuck in purgatory; caught somewhere in the middle between Laguna and white culture. Both of these stories are told as cautionary tales about the misappropriation of white

power.
In Storyteller, Leslie Marmon Silko blends traditionalism and modernity by recording the stories of her childhood. Silko uses these stories not simple as entertainment or fantasies, but as a way to convey that storytelling is central to the Laguna Pueblo culture. Storyteller preserves Laguna legacy, confirms identity, and acts as a defense against assimilation.