Though I loved the majority of the reading for this week, I took special interest in the second section titled, "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective" (Imagine a Literature major selecting that piece, its unthinkable). What caught my attention was her comparison of the Pueblo style of narrative with a spider's web. After reading that, I looked at every book on my shelf and realized that I had never read anything that description before this class.
Silko describes the literature as a web "with many little threads radiating from the center, crisscrossing one another." As I pondered this thought, it hit me that this does not apply only to individual stories, but all of the stories act in the same manner. They all connect to one another in an intricate, beautiful circle. Spider webs do not necessarily have a beginning and in end, they aren't "linear," just as humanity and the natural world is not linear. Everything happens in cycles, and it is difficult to prove that life works in a linear fashion. The stories that are so deeply rooted in the Pueblo culture embody the cyclical pattern of life quite well.
It hit me after reading this section that it connected very well with the portion before it, "Interior and Exterior Landscapes." The idea that the natural world reveals things about humanity and represents truths about life and living fits perfectly with the web analogy. The web reveals the unity of the stories and their connection to the rest of the world. Consider a spider web. Certainly it is beautifully connected, but not every strand is perfectly placed. Some strands are crooked compared to others. Some strands appear to be unnecessary, but they all fit into the web nonetheless (much like the portions of Silko's book).
Pay attention to the strands. Not one is the same and none are "perfect" (as the mainstream might define it).
No comments:
Post a Comment