My house

I remember the way the sun shone across the polished wooden floor in the living room and the way the couch smelled like my mom. That couch was the place my parents always read our bed time stories to us. I remember the way that the house always looked like it was warm and bright inside through the picture window. And most of all I remember a light on in the kitchen, all of the time. When that light was on I knew my parents were still listening and waiting for me. The house I grew up in has forever shaped the way i am today. I always have a light on in the kitchen window. The couch I am going to read on will smell like me and my children will remember their home like I do. The house I grew up in helped to shape the view I had of growing up and life. It was not just the smell of my mom on the couch that I enjoyed, it was the idea that my mom and dad took the time to read to me on that couch. The idea that my parents were always there for me.

Great American Writers (Reader Response)

This novel was a tough novel to read. I generally enjoy picking up a good novel and reading it in one sitting, but I found myself dreading picking up this novel for fear of finding another raunchy sex scene. Contemporary art tends to include some kind of sex scene. For Leslie Silko to be considered a great American author she needs to realize that literature does not need raunchy sex scenes but wholesome literature.

Upon reading these sex scenes it did not bother me at first. I just related the novel to the romance novels I read in my spare time. There was a huge problem with this though. I was not reading Leslie Silko in my spare time. I was reading Leslie Silko to learn. I was reading Leslie Silko to prove that great American authors are not always dead white males. I read this novel because I wanted to prove that it does not take a dead white man to write a good novel but in the gross scenes of this novel I really struggled with this.

Nathaniel Hawthorne’s The Scarlet Letter, was novel was based on adultery. A woman, out of sin, conceived and was being persecuted for her sins by wearing a scarlet A. Hawthorne got his message across and even included adultery without raunchy sex scene. He included an encounter between the woman and the father of her child but there was no description of the contact between these two people. Hawthorne is considered a great writer and is included in the literary canon. Hawthorne made some very important statements in his novel and still did not include raunchy sex scenes.

Ernest Hemingway’s Farewell to Arms, visited the idea of sex but did not go into details with what happens between the two main characters. The reader knows sex is occurring between these two individuals but never has a graphic picture painted for them. Hemingway is also considered a great writer. Hemingway made the literary canon as well and did not need to include as many sex scenes.

If Leslie Silko could leave out the sex scenes and include more meaningful scenes in her novel I would be more open minded in including her in the literary canon. But frankly I do not need my children to someday read this novel in their senior English class because it is a member of the literary canon. I can not accept the fact that this is a great American work when parts of this novel, if put into picture, could be considered pornographic. Great American works should be works that could be allowed in a high school classroom. As mature adults reading this novel we can handle these scenes, but I do not think that high school students could handle the graphic content of this novel. Hemingway and Hawthorne can be read in a high school classroom, even though both novels include sexual acts. Leslie Silko could have reached me, as a reader, more by excluding these scenes. Silko is defying the idea that great writers are rich, dead white men, why can’s she defy the fact that contemporary literature must contain some type of sex.

Defying the norm

My concern is about contemporary literature. My concern, is this smutty literature really needed? Why did Silko feel the need to include the smutty scenes in this novel. I understand that all contemporary literature contain these types of stories, but are these stories needed. I do not think that Silko would have lost any part of her novel by leaving out all of the raunchy sex scenes she included. Silko defied a lot of general rules in literature by not seperating her novel into chapters and by not using strong transitions between stories. Silko wrote a great novel but why couldn't she have left out the sex scenes and defied the norm of including these scenes? It seems as though her points would have been made by not including the graphic scenes.

He will always come back home

The cattle seem to be more of a pain than they're worth. The cattle remind me a lot of Tayo. The cattle are constantly moving, constantly looking for home. Tayo is always moving and always looking for someone to trust. Tayo is always struggling with the fact that he is a "half-breed." Tayo is not full Indian because of his mother. Tayo fights with this fact throughout the novel. The cattle are "half-breeds" just like Tayo, they are part Mexican as well. In a sense I think the cattle are Tayo. The cattle are constantly moving, constantly looking for somewhere safe. Much like the cattle, as much as he strays Tayo will always come back. He may need some help finding his way home. He may need someone to lead him but he will always come back home.

What's the real problem?

So many veterans come back scared to sleep at night, scared to get out of bed, and even scared to close their eyes for fear of reliving the events they experienced at war. None of the people comforting the veterans can even imagine the fear that these men and women experienced. Auntie will never understand Tayo's fear. Robert will never understand Tayo's fear. Betonie will never understand Tayo's fear. The only person that will ever understnad Tayo's fear is Tayo. Tayo needs to buckle down and conquer the fear he has. He needs to understand that he needs to open his eyes, accept what has happened and deal with it. Tayo needs to realize he cannot hide from his problems forever and needs to figure out what has happened. I understand the hardships that he must have experienced over at Vietnam but what I don't understand is his sickness. Is his sickness related to his fear of Vietnam and what he saw? Or is his sickness related to his problem with finding home and who he really is?