Part One: Summary

In her essay “Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1”, Gloria Bird essentially discusses the thoughts, morals, and treatment of Native Americans and how they have changed over time because of society and of conformity. The author believes that there are many concerns addressed within Ceremony and even mentions how “colonization”, as she puts it, is now inside the minds and works of people. A couple of this issues that she mentions are language, narrative strategy done by Silko, and general results of colonization. Bird believes that the language is a good way for Native Americans to remember some of their important cultural characteristics. Colonization has taught natives to be embarrassed about speaking their native language because English is now the most common language that is spoken. The narrative strategy done by Silko, I believe, is the most interesting part about reading this novel and I would have never realized what she had been doing if it not were for this particular essay. By speaking in many fragments and using different speech, you must rely on the previous sentences to understand the meaning of the story. Ergo, this goes back to the interconnectedness of all things, which Bird discusses excessively in her essay. It is pretty apparent throughout this essay that Gloria Bird is disapproving of what she believes colonization has not only done to Native Americans, but to us as readers as well. She says that we must be open minded to what we take in so we can form our own options about things.

Part Two: Application

Something in Bird’s essay that really stood out to me was her mention of “the hegemonic phase” which basically means that “natives accept a version of the colonizers entire system of values, attitudes, morality”, etc (Bird 3). We see a lot of this happening in Ceremony all the way through it. Bird shows us how it has happened through language, but Silko shows us how it is adapted into their lifestyles in the novel. Tayo’s brother Rocky, at one point in the story, is talking to his Uncle Josiah about how to care for cattle. When Josiah mentions that they will raise the cattle their own way through Indian traditions not through the help books, Rocky states that “those books are written by scientists…That’s the trouble with the way people around here have always done things—they never knew what they were doing (Silko 69 - 70). Rocky’s education has taught him to move away from the Native American traditions and adapt to what he has learned in school. Even Tayo starts to believe this as well when he states that “in school the science teacher had explained what superstition was…He had studied those books, and he had no reasons to believe the stories any more. The science books explained the causes and effects” (87). It is easy to see that through the school system, both Rocky and Tayo have started to distrust their native stories and believe what they had been taught by the colonizers

.One issue that was not directly discussed in Gloria Bird’s essay but relates to stereotyping is racism. I believe that it does indeed occur throughout the novel in several different ways. During the part where Tayo goes to find Josiah’s cattle he is stopped by a great fence built by a white man, Floyd Lee. Floyd Lee called it a “wolf-proof fence” even though there were no more wolves left in the area because of him but the “people knew what the fence was for; a thousand dollars a mile to keep Indians and Mexicans out” (174). I actually read this and felt bad for Tayo. In this story he knows the reality of how white people obviously act towards Native Americans and even though it is sad, they have to deal with it. It continues in that same scene where the armed cowboys have almost found Tayo trespassing on the grounds and while he is waiting for them he hopes that they will realize that “it was a lot of trouble just for an Indian; maybe it would be too much trouble, and they would let him go (186). After reading both Ceremony and Gloria Bird’s article, it was easier for me to understand the novel and the hidden messages within it.

Bird, Gloria. "Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1: Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"" Wicazo Sa Review, Vol 9, No. 2 Autumn 1993. University of Minnesota Press. 04 Jan. 2009 .

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony (Penguin Classics Deluxe Edition). New York: Penguin Books, 2006.

"Towards a Decolonization of the Mind and Text 1" Summaryyyy

Gloria Bird is the author of this essay where she discusses "Ceremony" the novel we have read for our english class. Bird brings up several great and insightful points throughout her essay, which I think are very important for people to hear and comprehend. A general idea the author uses is about colonization: how we take the beliefs of people around us and accept them as our own. Something we should do, she suggests, it look at texts in the broader sense of the mind, as in what many other people would think about it, not just your own personal beliefs. One important device she discusses throughout her essay is language and just because you don't know a certain language, does not mean you can't appreciate it and the culture behind it. Ceremony shows us how to free ourselves of what others believe we must be, and this makes it a very inspirational novel to read.

Something that Bird said in her essay really stood out to me. She brought out the point that "readers must learn to 'see' the world differently if they want to understand this work" (3). I think this is very important because this is very true of several different pieces of work related to our understanding. It goes back to the idea of decolonization: you must take yourself our of your familiar realm and take in new ideas and experiences to understand other people and their beliefs. I really enjoyed this essay because of the message it sends out to readers, and it also helps in the understanding of reading Ceremony.

Ceremony: pg 1-58

Explain why Tayo blames himself for the six year drought.

From the very beginning of Ceremony, our main character Tayo is haunted with images from the war's past, and how he is missing a couple of really important people in his life who are now dead. These two men are Josiah and Rocky, and all of the memories of Rocky come from when they were in the war together. One of these memories is Tayo helping carrying Rocky on a stretcher, and it had been raining, and the ground was slippery and muddy. Because of this he dropped the stretcher and was having a hard time finding it to carry Rocky. Then he "damned the rain unitil the words were a chant, and he sang it while it crawled through the mud" (11). I think this passage is very interesting because it gives us a very visual image of what Tayo is going through. He goes on to say that "he prayed the rain away, and for the sixth year it was dry". For this is the reason that Tayo blames himself for the drought thats occuring because of how passionately he wanted it to go away during the war.

Describe, as best as you can, Auntie’s attitudes about Tayo, mixed blood, and religion.

When reading Ceremony it is pretty obvious to see how his Auntie feels about Tayo and the way he was born. There is a passage when Grandma and Auntie are discussing whether or not to get a medicine man and Auntie is concerned because the town will start gossipping and saying "Dont do it. He's not full blood anyways". Her feelings about this are obvious because she had hidden Josiah and a white woman when she was having his baby. It honestly seems like she is disgraced by Tayo, not because of his illness, but because of how he is of mixed blood. She doesn't care about getting him the proper help, and jus feels obligated to take him in because he has nobody else.

"She Had Some Horses" - reflections

While first reading this poem, I thought it was very interesting how the author used horses as symbols for the message she was trying to send. There was much evidence that represent a female experiencing reconciliation of contradictory feelings. One being that she says that these horses "thought they were the sun and their bodies shone and burned like stars", yet a few lines later she says "the horses were much too shy , and kept quite in their stalls of their own making". This is a contridictory thought: they think of themselves as the sun but they are too shy. What I like the most about this poem is how honest Joy Harjo is in her writing. Some of the images she gives us in this poem are very detailed and it is easy to see how it is one of her most famous works.
I feel like the spirits that are described in this poem have neither female nor male gender as a whole. i believe that she describes both males and females at different points in this poem, or at least the images she presents to us make us feel that way. For example: at one point in the poem there is a visual of beer and "spitting at male queens", which has a more masculine feel to it. And at one point in the poem Harjo talks about "raping her", and obviously we know what comes to mind here. So it is my belief that her horses really have no specific gender throughout this poem, only that there are differences in masculinity and femininity.
What makes this poem even more interesting is you think you understand the message the author is trying to send until we get her last 3 lines:

She had some horses she loved.

She had some horses she hated.

These were the same horses.

As I mentioned before, the authors points in this poem are very honest and I think they highlight some of the things that really does happen in society that she has experienced. And here it is as if she is summing that up by saying there are some good things, and there are some bad things, but really when you look at the grand scheme of things it is like they balance out. These are just my opinions on what this poem might mean and I am sure there are many different interpretations that could follow.