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Fences Against Freedom by Leslie Marmon Silko

            Racism tends to be an extremely sensitive topic of discussion. Some people believe racism is fully alive to this day. Silko beautifully expresses her thoughts and experiences. Silko has personally been dealt the hand of racism, up close and personal, and is fully aware of the disturbing devils that lurk within. Silko vividly paints her experiences for the reader. Silko believes the government is the original keep of racism: frequently being stopped at the boarder for bearing colored skin, or being shooed out a tourists photograph, Silko has experienced the deserving reality know as racism. .
             Often when one bears white flesh and born into a white family, racism has never been experienced first hand. Racism is well and thriving today. "He was told by a school guidance counselor that Indians weren't able to design automobiles: they taught him to be a store clerk." (pg. 326, 12) Racism is introduced to children earlier and earlier. The school guidance counselor basically informs the Indian boy that due to his race, he isn't good enough. He isn't smart enough, that he isn't worthy of such a status. Regardless of skin color or race, any human being is fully capable of doing whatever he or she wants to do. .
             Racism is being exposed to children at an early age. This often changes the future adult that child will grow into. There will always be that part of human race who chose to soberly downgrade those of race. The human race has the honor to choose the fate of the future. The future can either be bright, or weighed with hateful slang and offensive gestures. The future lies within our hands. Now all the human race has to do is chose the correct path of righteousness to make the future a promising racist free world. The future actually lies within the children's young palms. Children learn from what they are taught. At such a young age, children are oblivious to racism. Children are only introduced to racism by the adult figure.


Essays Related to Fences Against Freedom by Leslie Marmon Silko

1. Individuality and Community in Literature

 The role of the individual and their relationship with the community is an important thematic issue that is observed in the works of Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony and Barbara Kingsolver's Animal Dreams. ... Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony uses the protagonist Tayo to tell his story, but the narrative is disturbed by analepsis memories, initially when he is still "sick;" the narrative is also disrupted by Silko's use of myth, both traditional Native American myths and contemporary interpretations of the myth form. ... Silko allows two women, who are minor female characte...

  • Word Count: 1765
  • Approx Pages: 7
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

2. Giving Words Life

Leslie Marmon Silko is a Laguna Pueblo Indian who has written many stories of how Indian life and the lives of "white" people have interconnected. ... In the second story, "Storyteller", Leslie Silko writes about a girl whose parents were poisoned by a storeowner in their village. ... Further evidence that Leslie Silko uses structural devices to bring life to her words is in an interview conducted by Kim Barnes. ... In her writing Leslie Marmon Silko wants the reader to feel as though they are actually being told the story and not just reading it. ... Leslie Marmon Silko has achieved this ...

  • Word Count: 881
  • Approx Pages: 4
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

3. Contact zones

There are many instances Leslie Marmon Silko writes about, in her book storyteller, where Indian and White people meet. ... In Silko's story, storyteller, the contact zone is at a general store. The contact zone in the Silko's story Lullaby was a little different because they came to the house and that is where they interacted. ...

  • Word Count: 427
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

4. "The Man To Send Rain Clouds"

Initial Response To"The Man To Send Rain Clouds" In the short story "The Man To Send Rain Clouds" written by Leslie Marmon Silko, it explains what happens when a family member passes while he is taking care of the sheep. ... Though the story "Man To Send Rain Clouds" by Leslie Marmon Silko was confusing I found it to be more understandable as I read it more....

  • Word Count: 640
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

5. Indian Removal

When a Native American and a white man were in same room, the white man looked at the stranger with noticeable fear in his eyes (Leslie Marmon Silko, pg. 100). ... When the child is dead, at least mother is calm knowing that the soul of her child is with her (Leslie Marmon Silko, pg.98). ...

  • Word Count: 652
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

6. Connections Between Humans And Nature

Connection between humans and nature Leslie Marmon Silko authored the book "Landscape, History, and the Pueblo Imagination"; it focuses the way the Pueblo people look at the world. Silko refers to the way humans and nature is tied together in her writing. ... Schweninger depicts how Native American writing, such as Silko's, relates to the human and non-human world. ... Silko states, "Nothing is overlooked or taken for granted. ... Silko's point that "The ancient Pueblo vision of the world was inclusive...

  • Word Count: 606
  • Approx Pages: 2
  • Grade Level: High School

7. The Complexity of Identity in the Twentieth Century

The costs of total war, mobilization, and the end to modernity ultimately led to drastic shifts in the perceptions of identity across the globe, which led to decolonization and the birth to new nations, and whether or not the assimilation and abandonment of old traditional ways of life, as is the case presented by Leslie Marmon Silko in the novel Ceremony. ... In a post-World War II America, things seemed to be as they were before the war, for Native Americans, as described by Silko in the novel Ceremony. ... After the war, in Ceremony, Silko introduced the character, Helen Jean, who depict...

  • Word Count: 1178
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Grade Level: Undergraduate

8. Indians

It is revealed in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony that Native American culture suffered greatly during and after WWII, and continually suffers with the destruction of reservations. ... Silko explains, colonization hurts the colonizers as well as the ones being colonized. ... They felt that Christianity poisoned (Silko, 150). ... Through white contact and rights taken away from Indians, they continue to strive for economic stability, religious freedom, and basic human rights. ... America is suppose to be a "free" country, yet Indians only experienced this freedom before the white ...

  • Word Count: 1268
  • Approx Pages: 5
  • Has Bibliography
  • Grade Level: High School

9. Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko writes of a torn character, Tayo, in her book Ceremony. ... Silko utilizes two vehicles to express the duality within Tayo. ... Silko writes the prose in third person past tense so the reader never gets a clear sense as to where the events are taking place in relation to the timeline of the story. ... This book is indeed a ceremony in itself; Silko may have written it to find her own personal identity. Silko is of mixed ancestry herself and probably identifies with Tayo; he may be a symbol of her own struggle to find a balance between the old and the new ways. ...

  • Word Count: 699
  • Approx Pages: 3
  • Grade Level: High School

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