Alexie
· How can a speaker of the poem be asked to forgive if there has been no apology?
o There was an official apology to Native American signed by President Obama in 2009
o The poem was written before this time
o Yes, forgiveness is done by you. It isn’t related to them.
o Writer seems to think that people feel he is obliged to forgive them for their wrongdoings
o Maybe it is that “I could possibly forgive you for this but then you did this”. Why should they forgive the oppressors if they are always wronged
o Sounds sarcastic, like he will only forgive them if the world ends
o Not only is he reminded of things done in the past but also dealing with current wrongdoings
o If they restored the earth maybe he could forgive them
o “If you have lost everything why would you give the one thing that you have left?”
· The salmon in the poem is important because the dam blocks salmon from reaching the reservation
o The Native Americans use salmon to make a living
o Salmon go upstream to reproduce but the dam stops them
o Salmon is a part of their culture because it has been important to them for hundreds of years
o Dam represents Americans and salmon represents Native Americans
· How is this a dystopian poem?
o To the Native Americans their world had been destroyed
o Success of America relies on the destruction of the Native American world
o Native American dystopia is the American utopia
Silko
· Thoughts on the “rocks with veins of green and yellow and black”
o Symbolizes nuclear weapons, tested near Pueblo Indian Reservations
o Materials for the nukes were also taken from this area
o Sets a dystopian tone; 1976, people worried about Cold War
· Usually the takeover of America says that the white people are the root of the evil, but this poem says that Native American witches caused the white people to come
o The Euro-Americans became puppets
· Historical writings don’t start until Europeans came to America so it makes it seem like nothing happened in America before that point
· The witched assume that anything they do can be taken back, but the witch who tells the story says that it can’t be taken back
o Even if they could stop the Europeans some other group of people would come eventually
o Says that it was set in motion by all of their witchery
o All the rest of the witches are doing things, but this one tells a story
· Witches could be the human fascination with darkness and destruction. We want to see it but we don’t want it to happen to us.
· Tone is dark and cynical
· Word choice defines the tone, switches midway through when the story starts
o Opens with baseball tournament, ends with death and torture
o Reads more like a narration, not something formal
o Reads like a horror story, starts nice and ends terribly
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