I read some stories from Men on the Moon by Simon Ortiz that were really good. As I was reading Men on the Moon I tried to get a sense of what the moral of the story was when I went through each one. Maybe that is silly but it almost felt like there was one if you look at it the right way. However, I don’t think it’s so much a moral as a search for what the meaning is for the Native American in the story. The Panther Waits was especially true in this way because I took from that story that the brother, Taft, was most in touch with what Harry Brown was saying when he told them his story. The parallel between Harry Brown being a drunk and Taft being a drinker in later life shows you how being more in touch with their heritage makes it harder for them to fit into the world around them. At least this is the way I take it. I watched a movie once that talked about how when the Native American man had his land taken, his way of life was diminished. He was no longer what he was raised to be, a warrior. He is in touch with a spiritual world that no longer has land or animals that are treated in the sacred manner of the people. Everything he has known is taken and he is placed on a piece of land nobody wants and told to live on it and be happy. How can you be a brave warrior of your people when you can no longer hunt and provide for them? When you add drinking to this loss you break this Indian warrior down even further. Or maybe the drinking is what makes them numb to their pain, to their loss of the old ways. I think this is the essence of what The Panther Waits is conveying to the reader, that Taft and the old man who are so in tune with their heritage are also the ones who cannot fit into the world around them.
One other story that I really liked was To Change a Life in a Good Way. I liked the way that Bill and Ida became friends with Pete and Mary and they all accepted each other regardless of the differences in their heritage. When Bill’s brother died I liked the way Pete and Mary brought the Indian bundle to them and explained that it would help them, even if they couldn’t explain the old ways of how or why since they didn’t really remember exactly. This is such a modern twist on the way the Native American has lost some of his heritage over time but has still kept the traditions going because they know it has value. In the end it really did help Bill and Ida in their healing and acceptance of the death of Slick. I believe that both of these stories as well as the other’s that Ortiz writes about, show us how the Native American lives and deals with everyday life in a dominant white world. Some have learned to accept it and still hold on to some of the old ways, some don’t deal with it at all and are either broken or damaged, and some of the very old ones sit back and are bewildered by the ways of the white man. He gives us the broken homes of the Native and the hard way of adjusting and the sacrifice they make in order to live as an Indian in a white world. These glimpses of hardship, puzzlement, and acceptance of the modern Indian’s way of life are important to share, to try to make sense of the aftermath of what has been done to these people. How they continue to go on even after they have had their culture ripped from them, how they continue to recapture the old ways, how they have endured is a lesson for everyone.
One other author I wish to share from week before last was Karen Blixen or Isak Dineson who wrote Out of Africa. I really enjoyed this story with it's rich characters and landscapes. I felt that this wasn't just a typical love story but a complicated relationship of various people and you could even say it was a love story to the people and the place of Africa as well. Throughout her story I felt that she was remembering back to a place and time that was vivid unlike any other part of her life before or after. There was such happiness but so much sadness for the people that she had become so immersed in and finally had to leave behind. After I finished the book I watched the movie with Meryl Streep and Robert Redford. The movie was a bit different in that it focused more on her relationship with Robert Redford's character than any of the other characters in the story. You got a sense of her closeness and her feeling for the African people from it but the book was better at conveying...which I feel is always true of books.
Anyway, I really enjoyed this and recommend it to anyone who is looking for a good atypical love story to read.
Did you know that one of your teachers published Simon Ortiz's first collection of short stories, Howbah Indians?
ReplyDeleteI think I did know that...maybe we discussed this once. I haven't read that collection yet, but I think I probably will in the near future. I like Ortiz, I think he captures the Native American in the modern setting really well...but he is also a bit complex in his storytelling because I think much of it relates better to the people of the culture. It's almost as if you are getting in on an inside communication between one native to another and your a little baffled by it because your not a native and can't understand what they go through and deal with on a daily basis. This makes me think that even though the white perspective is saying to the Indian culture "get over it already,we are and it was a long time ago"...the Indian perspective is still in a state of devistation and recovering, much like the African culture is still dealing with and recovering from slavery.
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