...Kathleen Muenzen MLA The Emergence: Pueblo Cultural Narrative in Edward Abbey’s Desert Solitaire According to an ancient Pueblo legend, passed down through generations of oral storytelling, all life emerged at once from the interior of the Earth into the “fifth world,” the habitable Earth, in an event called the Emergence. Leslie Marmon Silko, a nature writer and member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe, examines the natural world through the Native American cultural lens in “Landscape, History and the Pueblo Imagination.” She characterizes the human-nature relationship as one of partnership and integration, justified by the communal Emergence into being, and emphasizes that survival in a natural world rife with danger relies on eternal respect for and connection with all other elements in an environment. The opening and closing chapters of Edward Abbey’s autobiographical narrative, Desert Solitaire, parallel the Pueblo Emergence as they recount the experiences of a man who spends a summer in Arches National Park in Moab, Utah, and finds companionship in a non-human setting. Abbey’s odyssey from a separate world dominated by human civilization, through the metaphorical door of the Earth-worn arches, and into an ancient wilderness controlled by the collaboration of each composing element marks a “re-emergence” into an original state of existence. As Abbey migrates alone between the cold, dark material world that characterizes the human reality and the warm, colorful and illuminated...
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...Writing 30 November 2011 Leslie Marmon Silko: A Closer Look Into Racist Struggles The controversial dilemma of illegal immigration is a prominent part of politics today more than ever. Leslie Marmon Silko’s persuasive essay, “Fences Against Freedom,” exemplifies the constant battle on racism and immigration our nation faces today. Through her own experiences, she has concluded that the government evokes racism among the population in a negative manner. Silko’s essay explains that the government is a body that is not to be trusted and that their mischievous ways trickle down the ladder to us. She speaks for all persons with mixed ancestry on the point that their lives are daily struggles as a result of our nation’s leaders and their misperceived views on race. Racism is one of the leading social problems that Americans can associate themselves with because it is seen everywhere and it is spreading the wrong message. The ineffectiveness of Silko’s argument, that the government and media is to blame for the apparent racism in the country today, is exemplified through her constant contradiction of statements and child-like motives. Silko blames the government for their actions that have affected her life as well as many other people of different race. Leslie Marmon Silko grew up in Native American home in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She is well known for her English and writing skills and she was raised as a Laguna Pueblo child since 1948. Silko loved stories ever since...
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...In the narrative essay “Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit” written by Leslie Silko, she goes into details on why she felt she was different.Even though she felt she felt she was different, her family loved and accepted her. Throughout the essay she encountered many challenges in which she gained knowledge from. Silko used reflection, flashback, and point of view to develop different central ideas and to make her points conclusive and clear. Reflection is the act of thinking back, a consideration of a subject, idea, or past event. Silko used reflection to develop up her essay. Throughout the essay Silko mentions old stories she was told by her family members. The stories helped her throughout her life, she learned to accept everyone and...
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...1) Siddhartha- Hermann Hesse A) Archetypal Criticism: Hermann Hesse has incorporated numerous symbols, metaphors and allusions into his work to help the reader understand the story of Siddhartha better. Similarly, Archetypes are also present in this book. The main Archetypal character in the book is Siddhartha. He is a seeker who wants to experience a better, more authentic and more fulfilling life by achieving enlightenment. He fears being trapped and is true to his soul. For example, he leaves the Brahmins, the Samanas and Gotama Buddha in pursuit of more knowledge to fulfill his desire of gaining enlightenment. Similarly, Vasudeva is also another Archetypal character in the story. He serves as a counselor towards Siddhartha and is a role model to him. For example, in the chapter “the ferryman” Siddhartha surrenders to Vasudeva his entire self, even his clothes, in order to follow his example in leading a life of calm fulfillment and wisdom. Along with archetypal characters, archetypal symbols are also present in the book. The River is definitely the most influential archetypal symbol in the book. It represents the flowing of time and transitional phases of the life cycle. For example, whenever a great transition occurred in the book like when Siddhartha left Gotama Buddha and also when he abandoned his wealth he came to the river. When Siddhartha observed the river he learned that the river exists only in the present, it is everywhere at once, upstream...
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...In Leslie Marmon Silko’s “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” the Laguna Native American tribe finds itself in a spiritual quandary against the Roman Catholic Church. Some members of the local Native American tribe, Ken and Leon, are challenged when their grandfather, Teofilo, passes away. They come to a moral crossroads in the burial process, as to whether or not carry out their traditional tribal rituals, given they interfered with the new belief system that was being taught to them by the Catholic Church. They ultimately choose both burial strategies, but particular elements of a feather, a blanket, colors, and corn meal/pollen are used during the Native American burial process, and holy water was used for the Catholic Church process. It is clear that these elements hold symbolic value in the Laguna/Pueblo Native...
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...Lit211J February 19, 2012 Wk 5 Silko Annotation She retraces the mountain of her ancestry every single day quietly. In the wind she can smell the scent of her ancestors made from crushed pale blue leaves of the mountain. The smell is coming from up the mountain side from which her ancestors descended from, where the mountain lion laid down and ate their deer. It is better to be where she once came from, where her ancestors came from, up on that mountain watching nature. The elderly that remember it once are all gone, the old songs of ancestors are forgotten, and the story where it all began died with its memory. The memory of the culture dances in the snow frost moonlight, swam in the freezing mountain water, went through the narrow mossy canyon down and out of the mountain, out of the deep canyon stone, becoming a memory spilling into the world. The theme of ancestry is seen in this poem. Ancestry to the protagonist can be felt in all of her days and smelt in the wind that comes from the mountains. It is the main reason for this poem and it is very important to the protagonist. The ancestry of her people was once rich in a time before and is now lost but she can still sense it in nature. Ancestry is important to her in her every day dealings and she remembers it in all the aspects of her life. She knows where her culture came from and where she came. Her people are from the mountain and she will never forget where she came from. Disinheritance is another theme...
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...“Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer”: A Poem Analysis (1973) Leslie Marmon Silko wrote this poem, and she is known for her lyric treatment of Native American subjects. Born in 1948, Silko is of Laguna Pueblo, Mexican and Anglo-American heritage. The poem can be paraphrased with the line, “when I go out into nature, I see that Native American culture and nature itself is being forgotten and destroyed.” Silko portrays a beautiful day in nature, with vivid imagery through the entire poem to add effect and enrich the beauty of the words. Throughout the poem, words and lines such as, “silently” and “returning” are indented to show the progression of the speaker climbing up and down the mountain. It is like she is stepping back in time to a forgotten place. In the fourth line she states, “I smell the wind for my ancestors”, to portray a search for her culture that is fading away. The line “where mountain lion lay down with deer” is very significant. It shows that past or present, things coexist and change each other. Three lines stating, “It is better to stay up here watching wind’s reflection in tall yellow flowers”, follow it. This shows that she would rather be enjoying the exquisiteness of nature. The imagery makes you think of beautiful flowers, swaying in the wind. The three consecutive lines “The old ones who remember me are gone”, “the old songs are all forgotten”, “and the story of my birth”, portray that with time, things are forgotten which should be treasured...
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...Tony’s Story Tony’s story is a short story written by Leslie Marmon Silko. The story is about Tony and his good friend Leon. In the beginning of the story, Leon had just returned from the army. Leon is a character who according to his friend Tony, has a drinking problem. When Tony first saw Leon at what seems to be a fair, based on the description given from Tony that Leon was standing near a ferris wheel. Leon is drinking a wine bottle out of a paper bag. Leon is a drinker that possibly has PTSD from his stint in serving in the army. The first event to happen in the short story occurs right after Leon gives Tony a dollar to buy cheeseburger. This indicates that the story is taking place in a very old time period. If a hamburger only costs a dollar then the story must have taken place sometime in the early to mid 90’s. When Tony is getting his hamburger, he is alarmed when he sees a cop pushing through crowds of people heading in Leon’s direction. His first thought is about the wine bottle in Leon’s hand. He then sees the cop punch Leon in the face. Leon is laying on the dusty ground in pain, blood bubbling out of his mouth. What did Leon do to deserve a punch in the face from a state trooper? The story reads, “The cop didn’t leave until they laid Leon in the back of the paddy wagon” (Silko 362). Why did the cop have to wait and make sure that Leon was taken away. Would the cop have done more if Leon was able to walk away from this first incident? Why does this cop have it...
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...From the Depths of the Soul Leslie Silko writes with such passion because much of her work comes from the very depth of her soul .She has suffered great loss from a very early age. Many people would have succumbed and become bitter or worn down. Silko is one of those amazing authors and artist who are able to share the loss and redemption of finding themselves through unique writing styles and paintings. The influences of alcoholism on a personal level, the devastation of what has become of her native lands and to the Laguna people, and the death of love ones are all reflected in her writing. Alcoholism has always run rapid within the Indian nations. Silko’s maternal grandfather and her mother were alcoholics. In her nonfiction novel The Turquoise Ledge she writes about many family members who had problems with drinking even though alcohol was forbidden on the reservation. She says this of her mother: “My mother was a bright well-educated woman, and a great teacher, but she was also an alcoholic” (Silko Turquoise 38).She also remarks that “She didn’t drink on the job and she never missed work, but after work and on the weekends, my mother kept a coffee cup full of whiskey nearby” (Silko Turquoise 39). Teaching saved her mother because as long as she taught she was a functional alcoholic. Many of her cousins returning from the war did not fare so well. She expresses their voice and her own emotions in the first novel she wrote Ceremony, (Silko Good Novel).Alcoholism is not something...
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... nor Laguna. By interweaving traditional Native American poetry into the prose of the novel, Leslie Marmon Silko is able to tell a powerful account of this man’s quest to defeat his “virulent afflictions” through a traditional ceremony. This ceremony helps Tayo to reach a resolution, one that rids him of both his despair...
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...Alexandra Edwards March 6, 2015 AFST 397 Midterm The significance of Leslie Marmon Silko’s poem “A Long Time Ago” lies within the story told by the mysterious witch. The witch predicts the coming of the Spanish and the death and destruction that would come from their arrival. She defined certain characteristics of the Spanish such as how they viewed the earth as “dead”, taking as much as possible from it without giving back, and how violence was a direct response to fear. The story that this witch told was viewed as a curse on the pueblos that could not be defied. Oral tradition was a way of preserving history in pueblo tribes and this story was passed down a warning to future generations. The racial diversity of Spain as described by Martha...
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...One self preservation that has held its prevalence for a long time is hand to hand fighting. It is a self preservation that instructs an assortment of battling and self protection abilities. Some well known types of this guard include: jeet kune do,krav maga, and hapkido. All types of this self preservation began as a man's thing, yet now there are ladies getting included. Ladies' hand to hand fighting and self protection classes is developing in notoriety to some degree in light of the fact that our general public is turning out to be more savage. Ladies are the most widely recognized casualties of brutal violations so it is basic that all ladies know how to shield themselves ought to the need emerge. Three Reasons Why You Should Take Self Defense Classes Other than learning self protection, there are a considerable measure of ways that ladies could profit by learning hand to hand fighting self preservation. The main advantage that it enhances is wellbeing and wellness. This conveys a full body practice and has been demonstrated to help the body tone and get more fit. Another advantage is fearlessness. It additionally fabricates trust from multiple points of view. The main way that certainty is through the abilities and preparing. On the off chance that a lady realizes that she can guard herself, he or she can stroll down the road dreading nothing and nobody. This type of self protection is additionally is exceptionally mental, so it can give a lady trust in all aspects...
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