Bird Summary Application

David Lyon
Eng 254
Professor Rouzie
April 23, 2009
Summary and Application: Bird Essay
Summary: In her essay Bird explores the nature of the American Indian, and the struggle to find identity in a post-colonial America. She applies post-colonial theory to the canonical American Indian text Ceremony. One of the main themes of this essay is language, she relates her own personal experience with the power of language to the character Tayo from Ceremony. Bird also discusses how hegemony becomes internalized in the minds and culture of American Indians. She notices that it is not only the white man who makes American Indians feel a sense of otherness and exclusion, but that also the American Indian culture itself perpetuates these ideas.
Bird also deals with the issue of perspective, she argues that Silko’s novel challenges Western paradigms by offering a narrative from the perspective of the “other.” Therefore, this novel is in contrast to other texts about American Indians, in that it does not rely on a European point of view, but rather gives us an insightful view from the perspective of the colonized. Bird also argues that the novel is “de-centered” once again this novel reflects the American Indian culture itself. This is a culture on the periphery of society, a marginalized culture. Therefore the novel itself seems peripheral and alien to a European mind.
Bird notices how this novel departs from the normal western models of writing, particularly in how it deals with time. Bird argues that Silko is trying to express a sense of “connectedness” throughout the novel. This influences nearly every aspect of the book. Time is not linear in this novel, Silko seems to be interested in blurring binaries between whites and American Indians, and in doing so, facilitate cultural healing. Bird also states that the hegemony of white culture infects the minds of the marginalized so that Tayo and other characters judge their identity by their own racial appearance. Bird argues that Silko was trying to illustrate the fact that change is internal, and that external characteristics have little bearing on this process.