The Southwest is very diverse, and the ideas of what and where it is vary greatly from person to person. Many forms of literature and art are used to reflect these various and differing ideas by multiple artists and authors. These ideas, both controversial and stereotypical, of the southwest bring out significance of the culture and diversity that is held within the southwest. The Devil’s Highway, a nonfiction book written by Luis Alberto Urrea, and The Ceremony, a fictional book written by Leslie Marmon Silko, both display ideas of the Southwest that both complicate and expand the stereotypical ideas of the southwest. These ideas are shown through the themes of landscape, borders, and storytelling. The theme of landscape is clearly displayed …show more content…
The borders displayed in The Devil’s Highway show the conflict between both sides as well as the fluidity between the two. The ideas of both Mexico and the U.S. not wanting to be responsible for the tragedies of those crossing shows the shared ideals of lacking ownership of the problem. This idea of the border complicates the stereotypical idea by bringing out ideas of unity. Urrea brings out this idea as he describes the unity between the Mexican consular corps and the Border Patrol when he states, “the two things that most unify the two sides are each one’s deep distrust of its own government, and each sides simmering hatred for the human smugglers, the gangsters who call themselves Coyotes.”(Urrea 54) Although there is a border, the ideas between both sides are similar. The theme of borders can also be found in The Ceremony bringing out the aspect of unity in culture. Silko shows borders in her book by displaying the mixture of cultures that is created. This idea is reflected in the main character, Tayo, who is of mixed race. Although there is conflict between the two cultures and heritages, Tayo represents a blending and unity of the cultures. This is shown as Silko wrote “his cure would be found only in something great and inclusive of everything” (Silko 116) Tayo’s identity is defined as being between the opposing worlds, or a third culture that rests between the two states. This idea is also shown when Tayo says, “I’m half-breed. I’ll be the first to say it. I’ll speak for both sides.” (Silko 39). The theme of borders is clearly displayed in both books and is significant as it brings about more complexity to the general idea of conflict at borders. This complexity is the way it challenges the idea of pure conflict at borders as it displays unity and mixture in culture and
Urrea, Luis Alberto. The Devil’s Highway: A True Story. New York: Little, Brown, 2004. Print.
The western style 2013 Australian feature film Mystery Road centres around indigenous detective Jay Swan as he investigates the murder of indigenous teenager Julie Mason. Swan’s continued struggles to convince the rest of the local police – who all happen to be white males – to help him to solve the case lead him to find a drug ring. Sen represents the idea that indigenous people do not receive justice through the construction of Jay Swan and the unjust way the rest of the Indigenous community are treated by the white community and predominately white police force, encouraging my empathetic response. Sen also explores the police as corrupt and apathetic. In recent years, all over the world, but particularly in Australia in the 1980’s onwards,
Cormac McCarthy was wise in choosing the Southwest as the setting for a novel of unprecedented bloodshed. No other land would have done McCarthy’s ideas justice, given that only the Southwest harbored such wanton violence. A ...
The Life of Two Different Worlds In “Into the Beautiful North,” Luis Alberto Urrea tells a well-known story of life for thousands of Mexican people who seek a better future. He presents his novel through the experiences of the lives of his main characters that have different personalities but share a common goal. Through the main characters we are presented with different situations and problems that the characters encounter during their journey from Mexico to the United States. Urrea’s main theme in this novel is the border that separates both the U.S. and Mexico, and the difficulties that people face in the journey to cross.
As Silko says, "Where I come from, the words most highly valued are those spoken from the heart, unpremeditated and unrehearsed. Among Pueblo people, written speech or statement is highly suspect because the true feelings of speaker remain hidden as she read the words that are detached from the occasion and audience. " (pg 1 ) Now days, whenever you turn on TV or Radio, and there is somebody giving speech, it is read off the paper that has been written by a professional and proof read by a lawyer or two. Silko is absolutely and right, and I agree with her that the speaker does not express what she or he had in the heart and wanted others to hear. For pueblo people, storytelling is very important. "Pueblo expression resembles something like a spider web - with many little threads radiating from the center, crisscrossing each other. As with the web, the structure emerges as it is made and you must simply listen and trust, as Pueblo people do, that meaning will be made." (pg 1 ) From reading this essay, I noticed that one of the distinctive ways stories are told at Laguna Pueblo, many individual words have their own stories, and there are few dimensions of story telling, which always includes the listeners, and story identity. No matter what kind of story is being told, it always has the origins. And since everything and everybody have different origins an...
Martinez, Oscar. Border People: Life and Society in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. (Tucson: The University of Arizona Press, 1994), 232.
In wrapping up the analysis of Silko’s paper the reader is left with a bitter taste. Although Silko points out an important issue, she seems to be too overdramatic when telling of personal experience. Silko leaves the reader too skeptical of what she has to say. The reader has a hard time believing what they read. Silko finds refuge through her writing, but does not handle the subject with as much care as it is due. Silko’s evidence to not justify her accusations, and that hurts the credibility of the work.
Monroy, Douglas. Thrown Among Strangers: The Making of Mexican Culture in Frontier California . 1990.
River of Hope: Forging Identity and Nation in the Rio Grande Borderlands by Omar S. Valerio-Jimenez is a wonderful book exploring the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Gender, cultural change, class, and racial standards are just a few topics Omar touches in his book. This book gives meaning not just to Mexican readers but American readers as well. This outstanding study of the United States-Mexico borderland shows the history of the land starting with the Spanish colonization moving all the way to the Tamaulipas.
In this poem, there is a young woman and her loving mother discussing their heritage through their matrilineal side. The poem itself begins with what she will inherit from each family member starting with her mother. After discussing what she will inherit from each of her family members, the final lines of the poem reflect back to her mother in which she gave her advice on constantly moving and never having a home to call hers. For example, the woman describes how her father will give her “his brown eyes” (Line 7) and how her mother advised her to eat raw deer (Line 40). Perhaps the reader is suggesting that she is the only survivor of a tragedy and it is her heritage that keeps her going to keep safe. In the first two lines of the poem, she explains how the young woman will be taking the lines of her mother’s (Lines 1-2). This demonstrates further that she is physically worried about her features and emotionally worried about taking on the lineage of her heritage. Later, she remembered the years of when her mother baked the most wonderful food and did not want to forget the “smell of baking bread [that warmed] fined hairs in my nostrils” (Lines 3-4). Perhaps the young woman implies that she is restrained through her heritage to effectively move forward and become who she would like to be. When reading this poem, Native American heritage is an apparent theme through the lifestyle examples, the fact lineage is passed through woman, and problems Native Americans had faced while trying to be conquested by Americans. Overall, this poem portrays a confined, young woman trying to overcome her current obstacles in life by accepting her heritage and pursuing through her
Change is one of the tallest hurdles we all must face growing up. We all must watch our relatives die or grow old, our pets do the same, change school or employment, and take responsibility for our own lives one way or another. Change is what shapes our personalities, it molds us as we journey through life, for some people, change is what breaks us. Watching everything you once knew as your reality wither away into nothing but memory and photographs is tough, and the most difficult part is continuing on with your life. In the novel Ceremony, author Leslie Silko explores how change impacted the entirety of Native American people, and the continual battle to keep up with an evolving world while still holding onto their past. Through Silko’s
The poem is about the early stages in the narrator’s pregnancy. The doctor gives her news that the baby may be unhealthy. In a state of panic, we see the narrator turning to the methods of her homeland and native people to carry her through this tough time, and ensure her child’s safe delivery into the world. Da’ writes, “In the hospital, I ask for books./Posters from old rodeos. /A photo of a Mimbres pot /from southern New Mexico /black and white line figures—/a woman dusting corn pollen over a baby’s head/during a naming ceremony. /Medieval women/ingested apples/with the skins incised with hymns and verses/as a portent against death in childbirth” (Da’). We not only see her turning to these old rituals of her cultural, but wanting the items of her cultural to surround her and protect her. It proves her point of how sacred a land and cultural is, and how even though she has been exiled from it, she will continue to count it as a part of her
Capitalism, a mode of production based on wage labor and private ownership of the means of production, can allow entrepreneurs to turn a profit while wage laborers suffer from long hours and little pay. In Cauca Valley, Colombia and Cerro Rico, Bolivia, wage laborers may resort to pacts with the devil or baptize money in hopes of making extra profit. These desperate methods expose the dark side of capitalism.
The way that Tapahonso describes the whole ordeal in detail is critical in describing the events in the poem but also in the format of oral story-telling. The author is telling a story to a daughter. A story that must have been passed down for generations and for generations to come. It is a important story that must be told because it explains the history of the Navajos and how the use of turquoise become a part of the traditional regalia. The story also tells how Navajo fry-bread become famous and is now considered a traditional food for all native tribes. Tapahonso gives strength and hope in 1864 to the younger generation by giving them education of their history.
Racism comes from different cultural values, ethnic backgrounds, as well as the physical appearances. The conflict of racism occurs when the majority group of society feels that the different cultures and values of the minority group bring deviance to the society. The novel, set in Topanga Canyon, starts out with an major accident that occurs and involves Delaney Mossbacher, a middle-class working man, and Cándido Rincón, an illegal Mexican immigrant. Delaney accidentally hits Cándido with his car and only pays Cándido twenty dollars for treatment. As the novel progresses, Delaney and his wife accuse the factors that corrupt the society on those illegal immigrants based on their class rank and their backgrounds. In The Tortilla Curtain, Boyle