Second Post

Silko's short story, Storyteller, has been, for me at least, the most interesting work we've read so far this quarter. I know we are supposed to write about all the works we've read; but, honestly, I feel I have the most to say about Silko, so I'm just going to focus on the one. Silko's experimentation with time and space makes the piece a difficult read at first but once you realize that the story actually ends where it begins, you see a theme start to emerge. Towards the beginning of the story, the young girl is concerned that the sky and earth are starting to merge. The narrator tells us the young girl, "told herself it wasn't a good sign for the sky to be indistinguishable from the river ice, frozen solid and white against the earth. The tundra rose up but all the boundaries between the river and hills and sky were lost in the density of the pale ice" (18). Shortly after this, the girl observes yellow "wadding" in the window and asks the jailer what it is. When the jailer replies that it is meant to keep out the cold, the girl only laughs. This emphasizes the tundra's infinite power (or at least the fact that it has a power that cannot be matched by man). The "Gussucks'" attempts to confine it are futile.
The theme of boundaries is recurrent throughout the piece. Later on, in the story within the story of the bear and hunter, the roles of predator and prey are reversed at times and eventually become "indistinguishable" from each other. The fact that the old man is continuously telling the story, with or without an audience, also stands out as it emphasizes that the hunt never ends and is in fact, life itself. This breakdown of clear cut roles again makes a comment on the Gussucks, who continually attempt to organize the wilderness and make it more manageable. It is clear, however, that this organization is impossible, as the narrator observes, "They were always confident. The first year they waited for the ice to break up on the river, and they brought their big yellow machines up on river barges. They planned to drill their test holes during the summer to avoid the freezing. But the imprints and graves of their machines were still there, [...] where the summer mud had swallowed them before they ever left sight of the river" (23). I guess what distinguishes this piece from the rest of the works we've read for this quarter is how nature is portrayed. To be honest, I get a little tired of people going on and on about how beautiful nature is and what a tragedy it is that this valley was flooded where some guy really liked fishing and hiking. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate nature and think it's definitely worth preserving but really all I wanted to say to that guy McKibben is get over it, you're going to have to deal with the boaters and skiers. With Silko, I find it interesting that she chooses to emphasize that nature cannot be conquered, that it is far more powerful than anything we ever could be and that demands respect. I think it's important that we are reminded of our own insignificance every once in a while; it keeps us in check, at least a little.