Ever since I was little I never gave much thought to the idea of
different cultures believing different things. As a young child I
believed that everyone was the same and their beliefs were the same as
mine. As I grew older I started to understand that there are different
ways of thinking and believing, but never really understood the concept of
culture. This class has given me a great idea of the way culture shapes
our lives. There are many vast differences in culture.
When signing up for this class, I have to admit I was a little
worried. I am a civil engineering major, and it is kind of an unwritten
rule that engineers aren't very good at reading literature. Hopefully I
proved that not all engineers are math geeks who can't read books!!! As a
result I was a little uneasy about how I would handle this course. I am
very glad I did take this course as I learned many things about the Native
American culture and about literature in general. I believe that in the
future I will be much more open-minded about others beliefs and rituals.
Also, because these books were so interesting to me I am now interested in
reading more books of the same type.
After reading the pages in _Storyteller_, I have an idea about
what Leslie Silko was trying to accomplish with her writing. The Native
American culture thrives on storytelling, without books such as these,
there is a threat of the culture diminishing. She wants to do all she can
to keep her culture alive by telling these stories over and over again.
The more people who hear the stories, the more alive Native American
culture becomes. When recommending this book to a friend I think it is
important to make sure the friend is willing to open their mind to the
stories of the Native American culture, otherwise the stories are just
wasted on empty ears.
Now, to talk about Robert Big Elk's presentation. I have many
mixed feelings about his talk. It was very considerate of him to take
time out from his life to talk to our class. I did learn a lot of
unsettling information from Robert's talk. He went through some really
troublesome times that I wish no one would have had to go through. But
for some reason it felt to me as though he still has not forgiven the
white people. I may have just been imagining it, but it seemed as though
he would look directly at one of us when talking about getting beat in
Missionary school. I think it is a very terrible thing that he had to go
through and I wish that I could change the past, but everyone knows it is
impossible to change the past, you must only make the future better. One
question I wish that he would've answered is how does he think he would
have been different if he would not have been taken away to Missionary
school. I wish Robert Big Elk well in the rest of his life, as he has
endured much so far.
I have really enjoyed this class. Hopefully I will see you in the
future in another class.
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