Analysis Of Storyteller By Leslie Marmon Silko

Leslie Marmon Silko, a Laguna writer, uses Storyteller as a way to express and bridge the gap between oral tradition and writing. Silko connects the past with the present and details the unique way Native Americans have experienced the world. Through these stories, we see the Native American struggle to maintain identity and independence as white culture infiltrates society and attempts to destroy tribal identity. It becomes clear that the Laguna people reject the danger of uniformity and thus use stories to maintain legacy, seek out identity, and as a powerful weapon against assimilation and colonialism. Silko uses literature to express numerous Laguna Pueblo narratives in order to preserve the Laguna legacy for generations. By physically

Through the continuation of these stories, culture is maintained and will only be destroyed when the story dies. In “Storyteller”, the idea of assimilation is expressed in the merging of the sky and ice. The first story acts as a harbinger of forced assimilation into white culture as Silko explains, “it wasn’t a good sign for the sky to be indistinguishable from the river ice, frozen solid and white against the earth” (Silko 17). The overwhelming white image of this scene is a warning sign to Laguna people that soon their life will be changed by the gussucks. Silko continues this imagery and details that they have been “swallowed by the freezing white” (Silko 28). The Laguna community is losing their traditions, language, lifestyle, land, and ultimately culture. The characteristics that used to define them are being repealed and replaced by the lifestyle of the white people. In “Tony’s Story”, Leon, a Laguna, returns from the army, in which is he was forced to assimilate. Upon his arrival, his community recognizes he has changed and is more similar to a white man. Leon also considers himself as having more rights now and has a chip on his shoulder. When the white cop attempts to harass Leon a second time, Leon explains to Tony that, “ we are just as good as them”(Silko 118). This comment scares Tony as he believes Leon has fallen victim to the white people. Leon now represents the intertwining and clash of culture and is thought of a stuck in purgatory; caught somewhere in the middle between Laguna and white culture. Both of these stories are told as cautionary tales about the misappropriation of white