Leslie Marmon Silko's In The Combat Zone

Most women do allow themselves to be a target in today’s age. As it talks about in the story “In the combat zone” by Leslie Marmon Silko. It’s very important to be able to protect yourself as a woman. The author and I were brought up in different environments. It was okay for her to be a tomboy, while it was not okay for me. I was very secluded growing up, compared to the author who was out there in the world doing things, experiencing and learning things with her father. In addition to being raised in different households, I was unprepared for what could happen to me, the author seemed prepared and unafraid.
If the author's father didn’t give her the chance to hunt, and the opportunity to take care of herself and not be afraid, her predicaments would end with probable unfortunate circumstances just like mine. Thankfully her father’s knowledge and words of

inspiration kept her from being a victim, also kept her sane and safe.

In her younger ages, she used a gun for entertainment, she loved to hunt with her father. The author was educated and taught about guns, by her father because of the unsaddling event of her grandmother and mother on highway 66 when the three men that were trying to run them off the road for the large cash amount that was used for cashing payroll checks for the miners. As she got older her gun was there for protection and security. She was more assured with it that she would be able to protect herself.
As for myself growing up in a family of three boys and being the middle child, my father taught me to defend myself yet I now know that I should have learned much more. When I was a toddler and even when I was in high school my father would tell me to defend myself. I wasn’t afraid of anything because I had no idea what was really going on. The only thing I was taught was to act immediately, right when someone attempted to harm me and when it came down to it, I knew my older brother Julian was there to

defend me. Even though I had protection by my older brother, I wasn’t necessarily prepared for the real world. I was out there unprepared for the circumstances that happen to me. I didn’t think about bad things happening around me. When I was in my early twenties I found myself in a violent and abusive drug abused world unprepared by my sheltered and protected upbringing. Growing up in the south valley where it seemed everyone walked around in fear of one another but true fear was still to come my way one night. Well for a seemliness uneventful evening just hanging with the girls. I found myself in a situation I never thought I would be in I had just come to a school party that one of my friends had invited us to, when I first got there it seem like a casual party yet as the night got later and people got more intoxicated, it just felt uncomfortable for me, I was ready to leave!! So I started looking for my friend that went to the party with me. I went through the house from room to room, opening all the doors, asking everyone if they had seen her. Down the hallway I could see there were some guys standing around laughing and looking into the room. As I walked closer my heart began to beating faster, I pushed my way through, to find my friend in the room, without any clothes on and there was a guy on her as another pulling up his pants. I froze for a second, then I began to plead and beg them to leave her alone. Couple of guys grabbed me. At once I started to struggle with them, and began to yell for help, when a close friend someone I’d known from school, who knew my brother walked in and said” Let Her GO! Are you crazy? don’t you know who’s sister she is? Julian. As a result they then let me go and left. There isn’t a day that goes by that those chilling memories don’t follow me. There is a cold chill witch goes though me when I think: what if Julian’s friend wasn’t there? And as the thought goes through my mind unlike our authors, I still cling to the ideal that women are to be protected by men. Never the less, after reading this story it became an eye-opener for me and the though came to mind: NO! I will not stand to be a victim anymore!
There are women out there who are like myself, women just like the author. Women shouldn’t be faced with having to protect themselves but thank God for my father who gave some pointers just in case. Although, I was raised by a great father, I should have been taught more about the world and how things can happen. I was stuck in a predicament although the author had a gun to protect herself. I don’t necessarily believe that every female needs to keep a gun next to them, but should at least be prepared with a physical self-defense plan or strategy like, pepper spray, Taser-guns, or something of an effective nature.