LITR 5731 Seminar in American Multicultural Literature (Immigrant) UHCL summer 2006 text objective discussion

Thursday, 8 June 2006: American Indian Minority vs. the immigrant narrative.

Background on Native American as Minority: The Native Americans’ place within the dominant culture is often confusing as the dominant culture simultaneously admires and destroys Native American culture. The dominant culture admires the Indian who is gone, yet it ignores the Indian who survives. Furthermore, even though the Native Americans’ continued existence is the result of years of loss and survival, the survival story of the Native American is not the same as the American Dream of the immigrant narrative.

Objective 3 – To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative.

Objective 4 – To identify signs of the “dominant culture” to which immigrants assimilate in terms of class, ethnicity, gender or family life, and religion.

In Silko’s narrative, the Native American lives somewhere in between the two cultures. In order to weave this theme throughout the story, the author pairs words and phrases from the two cultures together in many of the sentences/paragraphs. The following examples demonstrate this technique, and as a result, the author successfully brings the reader into the never ending cultural war faced by the Native Americans.

Ex: (206) “Leon nodded his head and finished his coffee. After Ken had been gone for a while, the neighbors and clanspeople came quietly to embrace Teofilo’s family…”

“The funeral was over, and the old men had taken their candles and medicine bags and were gone.

Ex: (107) “She touched his arm, and he noticed that her hands were still dusty from the corn meal that she had sprinkled around the old man.”

“About the priest sprinkling holy water for Grandpa. So he won’t be thirsty.”

At one point in the story, the dominant culture and the minority culture collide. Is this an indication that the Native American culture and the White Man’s culture coexist peacefully and respectfully?

Ex: (208) “Leon put on his green cap and pulled the flaps down over his ears. “It’s getting late, Father. I’ve got to go.”

“When Leon opened the door Father Paul stood up and said, “Wait.” He left the room and came back wearing a long brown overcoat. He followed Leon out the door and across the churchyard to the adobe steps in front of the church. They both stooped through the low adobe entrance.”

“Drops of water fell on the red blanket and soaked into dark icy spots. He sprinkled the grave and the water disappeared almost before it touched the dim, cold sand, it reminded him of something- he tried to remember what it was, because he thought if he could remember he might understand this. He sprinkled more water, he shook the container until it was empty, and the water fell through the light from sundown like August rain that fell while the sun was still shining, almost evaporating before it touched the wilted squash flowers.”

Question: How does Silko’s narrative differ from the immigrant narrative? Are there characteristics of the immigrant narrative in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds?”

Objective 3 – To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative.

Objective 4 – To identify signs of the “dominant culture” to which immigrants assimilate in terms of class, ethnicity, gender or family life, and religion.

The minority narrative (especially the Native American and Mexican American narrative) often incorporates visions and/or dreams as a distinct cultural element, and this aspect of the narrative gives it status as minority literature. In Louise Erdrich’s “American Horse,” Buddy experiences a similar phenomenon, and we see his dream become his reality at the end of the story. There is no doubt that at the end of the story Buddy’s life will be ruled by the dominant culture.

Another important point made in the story is the dominant culture’s insistence on “salvaging” Buddy from his indigenous life. A recurrent theme in Native American literature is the idea that only the white man can save the poor Indian children from total destruction, thus the social worker’s exclamation of “Look at his family life – the old man crazy as a bedbug, the mother intoxicated somewhere” (215).

Ex: (211) “He closed his eyes and got the feeling that the cot was lifting up beneath him, that it was arching its canvas back and then traveling, traveling very fast and in the wrong direction for when he looked up he saw three of them were advancing to meet the great metal thing with hooks and barbs and all sorts of sharp equipment to catch their bodies and draw their blood. He heard its insides as it rushed toward them, purring softly like a powerful motor and then they were right in its shadow. He pulled the reins as hard as he could and the beast reared, lifting him.”

(220) “Buddy felt the road and wheels pummeling each other and the rush of the heavy motor purring in high gear. Buddy knew that what he’d seen in his mind that morning, the thing coming out of the sky with barbs and chains, had hooked him.”

Question: How does the social worker immediately stereotype Buddy and Albertine upon her entrance into their home? What does this say about the dominant culture’s intrusion into the lives of the Native American?

Objective 3 – To compare and contrast the immigrant narrative with the minority narrative.

Objective 4 – To identify signs of the “dominant culture” to which immigrants assimilate in terms of class, ethnicity, gender or family life, and religion.

This story combines the immigrant and the minority narrative. A second generation immigrant (Chinese American) enters a minority world (Native American/Eskimo), and the resulting narrative offers insight not only into the world of the minority but the world of the immigrant as well.

The author uses the metaphor of the salmon and its treacherous, life-ending journey to illuminate the difficult, sometimes futile journey of the minority within the dominant culture’s oppressive world. (Relate this idea to Robert and his apparent unhappy life in his small town/village.)

Ex: (245) “It hadn’t occurred to Lucy that the salmon were already dying, having stopped eating once they entered fresh water. She considered the fact that none of these thousands of fish would ever swim in the ocean again, and would in fact be dead in a matter of weeks. It was an awesome thought.”

Ex: (250) “She didn’t see him again until late in August, when the nights were darkening and the very last straggling salmon, their skin tattered and infected with freshwater fungus, had passed beyond the village. Every now and then the pale carcass of the dead fish washed ashore.”

Also, the author brings the concept of stereotyping into the narrative through both the immigrant as well as the minority figures. Not only is the immigrant culture stereotyped, but the minority culture as well becomes victim of the same.

Ex: “Three husky-type dogs with matted fur followed them around, evening coming inside the schoolhouse. Amos assured her it was all right for them to be in there when Lucy tried to shoo them out. She asked him if they were sled dogs.”

Questions: What characteristics of the immigrant narrative are present in this story?

Is the “American Dream” present in this story in relation to Lucy? Or, as an immigrant, does Lucy experience “The American Nightmare?”