The Art of Leslie Marmon Silko

When asked to write a blog post this week on the novel Ceremony  by Leslie Marmon Silko, I am not sure what to write about. Not only have I written several blog posts on this novel already, but so much has happened within the story that it has become much harder too put my thoughts and feelings about this novel into words. Now that my class and I are half-way done with the novel, and the reading has become harder and more confusing with its jumps in time and symbolism I find it hard to write about one thing and only for a few paragraphs. Even so the pure poetic genius of writing writing Silko has create within this story continues to amaze me.
Never have I read a book in which takes such delicate matters such as racism and P.T.S.D. and truly digs into them. Most authors of historical fiction novels are afraid to dig as deeply as Silko has into the truth in these matters, and yet Silko does her digging not only correctly, but in beautiful style, making the writing flow while making the reader think as well. Silko's art is more about pulling at the emotions and at the strings of the human mind then writing a good novel and or that I am grateful. Silko's novel by far has been one the toughest and one of the most wonderful novels I have read within in school and my life. This will be one of the few book that will change my view point on life.

The Stories That Heal

The novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko has many messages thorough out it, and depending on who reads the novel, the more underlying messages that are discovered. Some of the obvious messages though include; healing through culture and story telling, the racism between Whites and the native Americans, P.T.S.D, racism between Native Americans, and even some sexism. For me I really feel a connection to the idea of story telling healing and the deeper parts of racism that really comes into the light in this novel.  Below I have put two of my favorite quotes from the novel, that ring with what I feel,  Silko is trying to get to in her story  of Tayo's tale.
1. The first is about story telling. After coming back from the war the main character, Tayo, is starting to see how stories will heal him with time. Before the war he don't totally understand how important stories where not just to his culture, but to himself. While suffering with his P.T.S.D., Tayo beings to see what his grandmother and other people in his culture meant with story telling and slowly without knowing it, it has began to heal him.
2. The second quote in about racism and was said the female character Night Swan, a woman who was both involved with Tayo and his uncle, Josiah. Nigh Swan, being of mixed blood herself, says this to Tayo who has been criticized his whole life for being a half breed and not full Native American, creating not only more racism with Whites, but within his Native culture. Although the novel points to the basic racism of all Native Americans and Whites, I think it beautiful how Silko includes the racism within a Native American group. What Night swan says here I feel is very true.  I think part of the reason humans have created racism is because we fear change. Whether we want to admit or not, humans are afraid of change and we lash out because we don't know how to handle that fear, creating think like racism. Silko does great within the novel making the reader see that with quotes like this one.

1. "Everywhere he looked, he saw a world made of stories, the long ago, time immemorial stories, as old Grandma called them. It was a world alive, always changing and moving; and if you knew where to look, you could see it, sometimes almost imperceptible, like the motion of the stars across the sky." (Silko pg.88)
2."'...most people are afraid of change. They think that if their children have the same color of skin, the same color of eyes, that nothing is changing.' She laughed softly. 'They are fools. They blame us, the ones who look different. That way they don't have to think about what has happened inside themselves.'" (Night Swan pg.92)

Reel Ingun; The History of the Native American in Film

In the documentary Reel Injun, we get a look into how Native Americans have been perceived in film throughout time and how in this modern day, Native Americans are trying to get themselves back on the map as humans using film. I have know how harshly Native Americans have been treated in Americas past and I understand that in film they are are usually perceived as savages and killers, but never I  have I really understood how terribly perceived  Natives are until this documentary. Having Native Americans be savages in movies I believe is so ingrained into us at an earlier age, that we no longer question if this is the correct way to see these people. Luckily with the bringing of Dances with Wolves in 1990 and other films during that time, Native Americans have begun to rebuild themselves in the movie industry and across the U.S.

Native Americans within the U.S. are fighting everyday for the survival of their culture and that does not even include their individual tribe's culture but the Native Americans culture as a whole. When the 1990's came around, Native Americans I feel really saw a chance to being their healing as a culture within the U.S. through the media of which had brought them down. We are lucky in this age to now  have Native Americans directing Native American films like Smoke Signals and The Fast Runner, bringing back the human in the Native American. I think with more films and time, Naive Americans will be able to gain back the impedance they have lost and create of better life for their people in reservations and also their image within the land they call home.