Patty L. Harjo

I like the few poems Voices of the Rainbow selected from Patty, probably because they're short and aren't typed all over the place. She wrote one called Death, which, to me, describes someone dying in a room as Death watches them. The poem didn't require a lot of insight and seemed to be strait forward. Patty's poems all seemed pretty forward and went on to describe her titles in a short concise manner.

The Coyote

The Coyote is a poem written by Carter Revard and it's the first poem from Voices of the Rainbow that I actually like. I liked the description surroundings and I felt like I was there with the Coyote pup. I don't know if there is any hidden meaning in the poem but it seems like a strait forward short story about a coyote pup and how he sees things through a storm.

Poetry

Voices of the rainbow has been a really tough read for me. I don't understand a whole lot of what's going on. Poetry or any kind of in depth reading has always been a weak spot for me. Some of the poems have weird line breaks or are tabbed in a couple times which makes reading a little more trouble.

Starting The Lone Ranger and Tonto

I picked up the 20th anniversary edition of this book and it had a really nice prologue where Sherman Alexie describes how his stories reflect his life and how he started as a writer. It gave me a little history behind the story that I think will help with my understanding of the chapters.

The first chapter centers on a young boy living on a reservation trying to go to sleep while there's a party going on upstairs. Alexie equates the party to a hurricane and severe weather. He goes on, through the thoughts of the character, to explain how life has it highs and lows and it's bad weather and good weather. He equates the bad parts of his life with storms and rain.

I like the style of writing right away and am looking forward to reading more.

Waterlily Ceremonies

Ceremonies also seem to play a large part in the Dakota peoples lives. Waterlily has a ceremony dedicated to her by Rainbow which helps elevate her standing in the tribe and Rainbow gets acknowledged as well. Again, social standing in the book is a huge part of this book and factors into the thoughts of everyone in the tribe. The Buffalo Ceremony was a huge event for the both of them in regards to their community.

My wife is really into social standing and following family practices and I am not. It's hard for me to understand why social standing and family is such a big role in peoples lives because I don't place much thought on what other people think or say about me and would rather do things myself. Natasha, my wife, does worry about those things and likes big social circles and worries about what other people say or think about her. This book, Waterlily, is a little hard for me to understand at the moment.

Water Lily

I think it's interesting how the structure of the family is so different than what I'm used to. In the book family members are called by their title like Uncle, Aunt, Brother, and Sister, where I call my siblings and family by name with the exception of Mom, Dad, and grandparents. So far the book keeps going back to the structure of their family and everyone's different role in the family circle. Family plays a huge part in the social circle and that was evidenced by when Blue Bird and her grandmother got separated from their tribe and were welcomed by another tribe where they were welcomed but didn't exactly fit in. When they eventually made it back to their tribe the atmosphere of the book changed. Blue Bird was by herself for the birth of her firest born and she was surrounded by family with the birth of her second. Dakota society ,especially in this book, rely heavily on family and the support that is given.

The Way to Rainy Mountain continued

What appear to be Momaday's purposes for writing Rainy Mountain?

I think Momaday's purpose for writing Rainy Mountain is to show that sometimes myths and legends have more depth to them than what people give them credit for. The way Momaday tells a myth and then backs the myth with a little bit of history along with some personal experience lets me know that, hey, myths come from somewhere and have a purpose. They teach lessons and have a little bit of historical truth to them.

How would you describe Momaday's concepts of history and mythand their interrelationship?

Like I stated above, I believe that myths and history go hand in hand. Myths give a little look into the background of the past and they try to explain events that couldn't be reasonably explained at the time. You can learn from history and you can learn from myths.