Week Feb. 17th Reflection

This week we met a man from the Navy SEALS, Clay. He told us stories, his feelings, and answered most of our questions.
Something that really struck me about Clay is how happy of a guy he seemed to be. He'd be making jokes in front of a bunch of high school students. When asked a serious question about his experiences in his work, his world seemed to freeze and his face would go blank. He would get very serious and remember the things he had to go through to complete his job. It was tough to imagine what it was like being able to relive those moments just by thinking about them. He can remember having to shoot a 12 year old, against all his morals, for the protection of his men and the civilians in the Cafe. He compared the taste of blood in his mouth to being able to remember the taste of your first birthday cake. He can recall many people yelling at him because he is a "ruthless killer", but he says he would die any day for them. This shows his dedication to this country and his belief that it truly is the best country in the world. He also told us that he did his job so none of us would have to which is incredibly inspiring. Some would call him a hero but he doesn't agree with the term because what he does is job.

The one story he told about the 12 year old girl and his seriousness as he told it made me realize how traumatizing that situation really was to him. It really was devastating to him because he had to shoot a girl who thought the best thing she could do was blow herself up because someone either tortured her or brain washed her. It gut wrenching how real the world is sometimes. He told that if he could redo the entire thing, he would have ran across the road and blown himself up. This interested me because he would have died with her instead of just her dying. I don't really understand his reasoning for this but I'm sure he has a good one. He says that he still sees her eyes staring at him every night before he goes to sleep and maybe this haunting image is why he wants a do-over on the whole thing. This just shows that even the world's top warriors can be traumatized and scarred for life.

Week of Feb. 10 Reflection

This week we reflected on pages 1-80 and also read pages 105-118 of Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. Themes throughout the book were revealed and many important quotes were pointed out. During the class discussions I noticed that ignorance and denial seemed to be a trend in Native American life. All of the Native Americans in the bar are a great example. They use alcohol and having sex with blond women to ignore the truth about their lives and how they will never be more than what they are right now, "Native Americans", meaning that they will just be discriminated against and live in a cycle of poverty and alcohol until their lives come to the end. They also blame the whites for change not only in their land but in their racial purity too. However, they don't realize how much they are changing inside of themselves too in their values, culture, and morals.

On pages 105-118, Tayo goes to the medicine man to prepare for a ceremony. he very observant medicine man learns about Tayo's struggles. The medicin man talks about how everyone is angry that the white men have took their land. "...Tayo, we have done as much fighting as we can with the destroyers and theives: as much as we could do and possibly survive" (Silko 118). This relates to how Tayo has fought this struggle with in him for so long that he is about to lose himself and that he needs to stop the internal battle if he wants to live on with his life.

(I know it's a Spider-man photo but I thought it fit the subject well)

Week Of Feb. 3 Reflection

This week we read pages 40-105 in the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. In these pages, it became obvious how relevant racism was in the life of Tayo and other Native Americans. The author also reveals how the characters hide their sorrow from the war and the truth behind all of their lives.

The reader doesn't get to realize the full extent of the racism in this novel until they reach these pages. Before the Native Americans began wearing a military uniform, people never cared about them. "White women never looked at me until I put on that uniform..." (Silko, 37). All that the white women really were attracted to was the status of the military uniform which reveals that the white women would otherwise avoid the Native Americans because they were "inferior". Emo is shown as a dominant Native American who thrives off killing enemies. "...Some men got sick when they smelled the blood. But he was the best; he was one of them. The best. United States Army" (Silko, 57). This part of the book breaks the stereotype for Native Americans that states that they are all peaceful and respect their enemies as opposed to men in white warfare who kill their enemy without even knowing them or acknowledging them.

The Vietnam War made some of the Native Americans feel like heroes, but when they came back from the war, they realized that they were not heroes, but still the same discriminated Native Americans from before. The men block out the truth by drinking and having sex with white women. Tayo creates a satirical story to encompass the truth of why they are acting this way, "They went off to the war...Bars served them booze, old white ladies on the street smiled at them. At Indians, remember that, because that's all they were. Indians...These Indians got treated the same as anyone...They were America the Beautiful too, this was the land of the free just like the teachers said in school. They had a uniform and they didn't look different no more" (Silko, 38). The other Native Americans already knew all of this but they just wanted to shove away the truth because all it brought was pain and sorrow to them.

Reflection 4

This week the class watched Reel Injun which revealed many things I didn't know about how Native Americans live and are affected by the media.

Many of today's Native Americans live on reservations. These are some of the most poor places in America and the people live in less than good conditions. Many of the reservation cars only run in reverse because the Natives probably can't afford to fix it. It has been tough for the Natives to retain their culture as they have been pushed in to confined living spaces. The only thing that has kept them going through all the hardship is comedy. Learning to laugh at what is happening around them has helped to lighten the burdens and sorrows that they carry with them.

America's view of Native Americans has been skewed by the media, especially the cinema. Native Americans are made out to be savages and people with low intelligence and primitive cultures. For example, in Looney Toons, Bugs Bunny is killing Native Americans casually and they are trying to shoot him with arrows. Another example is John Ford's movies which portrayed Native Americans as nothing but dirty people and that the only good "Indian" was a dead one. In one scene an injured Native American is found beneath a rock and Ford shoots him multiple times in the head. It is surprising how prominent stereotypes were against Native Americans were and how easily manipulated Americans views of them were.