Hello everyone...i just finished reading to page 166. i found this passage to be very interesting and somewhat deep. In the reading assignment a lot happens in the book. Betonie the medicine man performs a ceremony where Tayo has to go through hoop like things while they chant and then they cut the top of his head open but just a little. i believe this might be the scalp ceremony again? does anyone know if it is called the scalp ceremony because they cut the top of your head open a little? After the ceremony Tayo fells a lot better and thinks it is starting to work. Betonie is a interesting character. He seems very wise, a quote i found very deep was "This has been going on for a long long time now. It's up to you. Don't let them stop you. Don't let them fininsh off this world"(152). I think that Betonie saying it is all up to Tayo know to stay healthy and not to give up on his culture. and to follow your traditions even though some people may think it is just plane none sense.
We were just introduced to Betonie not long ago and not a new character appears. Helen Jean is an Indian woman who want other people to support her. Helen seems to be very opposite the Betonie who is kind and giving and want to help people. Helen just want to take money (gold digger) and thinks she is superior to anyone else around her. i think i like her less then Aunty :O.
So far this book seems to be blaming the white people for the problems that they face. i actually think it is not intierlly the white peoples fault and they are just trying to find someone to blame.
"She had come for his ceremonies, for the chants and the stories they grew from. 'This is the only was,' she told him. 'It cannot be done alone. We must have power from everywhere. Even the power we can get from the whites" (150). i like this quote because for once the are not bashing the white people and it inciuates that we need to work together for it to get done more powerfully.
"White people selling Indians junk cars and trucks reminded Tayo of the Army Captain in the 1860s who made a gift of wool blankets to the Apaches: the entire stack of blankets was infected with smallpox" (Page 158). I find it sad that when Tayo see's white people selling broken trucks to Indians it reminds him that white people are the ones who infected Indians with disease.
It is sad that white people are viewed so poorly in this book but maybe as the book goes on Tayo will forgive the white people as he has forgiven the Japanese. :D
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Natalie,
ReplyDeletethanks for your post. Do the white people of this time deserve Tayo's forgiveness? What is sad about Tayo's view of whites and their actions towards the Indians? It's sad that Tayo feels that way?
Thoughts anyone?
Ms Champagne
(by the way...this is probably the umpteenth time I have mentioned that I is capital when referring to yourself)
Ya i know I is capital but the computer i am useing does not automaticlly do that and i am sooo use to it so ya
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