Clan Leslie

Hazel who is a sixteen year old teenager, has thyroid cancer and doesn’t really have many friends at all. Her mother makes her go to a support group with many other teenagers with illnesses. These support groups are ran by a man of the name Patrick, who is a survivor of cancer himself. Here, at these support groups Hazels begins to become friends with this boy named Augustus. Augustus is a amputee, which means he has lost one of his legs, one night after support group Augustus asked if she…

The Man to Send Rainclouds is a short story written by Leslie Marmon Silko about Native American Leon and his brother-in-law, Ken, and the events that unfold after they find their grandfather, Teofilo, dead, under a cottonwood tree. The story deals with topics concerning religion and faith, specifically the cultural divide between Father Paul (the priest at their local Roman Catholic church),and the Pueblo Native Americans. This story takes place in New Mexico, near their sheep camp. The text…

Poet Leslie Marmon Silko uses metaphors, several poetic elements, and origins from her culture to mystically express the emotional and physical beauty found only in nature. Silko writes about nature in her poems, with that she has a distinct form that one may only find by reading her poems. In her poem “Prayer to the Pacific” she writes about the ocean and her poem form kind of look like waves. Silko also uses a wide range of metaphors that have to do with nature, for example in her poem ‘In…

Ceremony Ceremony was published in 1977 by highly regarded Native American author Leslie Marmon Silko. It tells the story of a young Tayo, a World War II veteran who has had some major psychological damage from fighting in combat. Serving in the war had truly broken him. Aside from his recovery from the war, Tayo has it pretty rough. His white father and Indian mother is cause for the people of the reservation and even his own family, to hold a certain prejudice against him and his mixed…

Most traditional stories are transmitted orally from one generation to another, thus there did not exist an identifiable storytellers being the authors of those stories (actually every storyteller could be one of the authors of the traditional stories). Meanwhile, the contemporary stories always have one claimed author to them in this all-rights-reserved modern society. Compared to the modern writers, who are entirely responsible for their stories, storytellers of the traditional stories seem to…

Ceremony with a Postmodern Twist Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony provides a glimpse into the life of one half Laguna/half white man’s life and his search for identity before, during, and after World War II. Tayo, the protagonist, remembers something of life with his Laguna mother and knows nothing about his white father. He was raised by his mother’s family, attended a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school, fought in World War II as a member of the US Army, was treated for battle fatigue in a…

After reading the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, it is clear to see that she had involved a lot of elements throughout this literature. Storytelling and witchery, which are two of the most important elements in the book, have helped people bond, made them suffer from their own believes, and illustrated how modern scientific knowledge eventually takes over traditions. Storytelling is a part of the Indians’ tradition. Different stories that explained why and how things are the ways they…

Much like Tayo, I’ve also had friends through the years that have brought out some not so great parts of me. Granted, my friends (as far as I know) haven’t tortured, maimed, or killed, any men, which unfortunately, isn’t something we can say about Tayo’s friends. Like Tayo’s friends, sometimes my friends drink too much, and sometimes they do stupid stuff with their cars. But unlike Tayo’s friends, my friends who do that are good friends and good people, which is not something I’m sure that Tayo…

Alcohol, in Leslie Marmon Silko’s, Ceremony, is used as a coping mechanism for veterans, while at the same time this substance brought to them by the white men is destroying the Native American community. Alcohol was previously alien to the Native American culture, and when brought over with such an abundance, so quickly, it was hard for the Natives to pace themselves as community. Furthermore, because alcoholism hit the Natives so quick, it was not likely that there were ceremonies were made to…

A genius in the rap world, to say the least, Tupac Shakur has always been one of the most talked about artists of all times. In fact, you don’t need to be a fan of rap to feel overwhelming emotions triggered by Tupac’s songs. Born as Lesane Parish Crooks, Tupac left the world way too soon. He was shot and killed in September of 1996. There is a reason Tupac still holds a place in everyone’s heart. He was the epitome of perfection when it came to passing on a message through songs. Not only was…