Stacy Chamlee Chamlee
English 2130
Ms. Bell
December 06, 2014
From the Depths of the Soul Leslie Silko writes with such passion because much of her work comes from the very depth of her soul .She has suffered great loss from a very early age. Many people would have succumbed and become bitter or worn down. Silko is one of those amazing authors and artist who are able to share the loss and redemption of finding themselves through unique writing styles and paintings. The influences of alcoholism on a personal level, the devastation of what has become of her native lands and to the Laguna people, and the death of love ones are all reflected in her writing.
Alcoholism has always run rapid within the Indian nations. Silko’s maternal grandfather and her mother were alcoholics. In her nonfiction novel The Turquoise Ledge she writes about many family members who had problems with drinking even though alcohol was forbidden on the reservation. She says this of her mother: “My mother was a bright well-educated woman, and a great teacher, but she was also an alcoholic” (Silko Turquoise 38).She also remarks that “She didn’t drink on the job and she never missed work, but after work and on the weekends, my mother kept a coffee cup full of whiskey nearby” (Silko Turquoise 39). Teaching saved her mother because as long as she taught she was a functional alcoholic. Many of her cousins returning from the war did not fare so well. She expresses their voice and her own emotions in the first novel she wrote Ceremony, (Silko Good Novel).Alcoholism is not something the American Indians brought upon themselves. The disease invaded their sacred lands as did many other things, and in her beautiful way of spinning a story she lets the reader feel this. It is as if one is watching a spider make the most intriguing web. You must take a closer look to see the deeper meaning.
Next ,in her book Storyteller, which is a compilation of many short stories and poems, she talks about how the language of her people is lost, how children are taken away to be sent to other places to attend to schools and learn the English ways. One particular story featured in this book is “Lullaby”. This story is of loss and of grief (Jaskoski 2). When the character in the book Ayah learns to write her name from her husband this causes a chain of events that cause her to lose her two school age children. She blames him for teaching her the ways of the Whiteman. She blames him for becoming an alcoholic Silko lets you see her agony as she searches thru the town for him. Her husband was once a hard worker now because of an injury he is useless to his employer. Silko lets you feel the five stages of grief not only for the character Ayah, but also for the American age children Indian and herself.it as if denial, anger, bargaining depression and finally acceptance come to life at the end of the story (Jaskoski 3). “Ayah knew that with the wine he would sleep. He would not feel it. She tucked the blanket around him, remembering, how it was when Ella had been with her; and she felt the rush inside heart so big for her babies” (Silko Lullaby 1550). You can almost feel a gentle peace as the story is reaching a sweet sadness. It is as if Silko is bringing you a part of her very soul. She lost her Grandpa Hank when she was quite young and he was one of the very few people who spoke to her in her native tongue. Ayah sings a lullaby to Chato she didn’t remember all the words, but she knew that she had heard both her grandmother and mother sing it in times past. The earth is your mother, She holds you. The sky is your father, He protects you. Sleep, sleep. Rainbow is your sister, she loves you. The winds are your brothers, they sing to you.
Sleep,
sleep.
We are together always
We are together always
There was never a time when this was not so (Silko Lullaby 1550).

These stories, and many others written by Silko, reflect her personal life. She lost her beloved Grandpa Hank. Her Grandpa Hank was very fluent in Laguna, and he also knew an older dialect which was disappearing. She felt a loss for the language she had never learned. Her own father knew the language but rarely spoke it. Her grandmother that she lovingly called A’mooh who was a great storyteller herself quit speaking to her in Laguna when Silko started kindergarten. On the reservation once a child starts kindergarten that youngster is forbidden to speak anything but English. She talks of one of her last visits to her Aunt Sally, who was 106 at the time. Silko remembers many stories from her and recalls her Aunt talking of death. “She was talking of “going over” as a journey, a journey perhaps we can only begin to understand through an appreciation for the boundless capacity of language that, through storytelling, brings us together, despite great distances between cultures, despite great distances in time. (Silko Yellow 59) It is in the story telling the language was not forgotten.
She expresses her grief very profoundly in this Statement she makes in The Turquoise Ledge after the death of her mother: “I thought of her on the morning of September 11, 2001, as I was getting up; a few minutes later the planes hit the World Trade center. I lost my mother on July 11, and two months later, I lost my country” (Silko Turquoise 99).She was unable to write for a very long time, yet shared this grief and her vulnerability. She began to use her creative side to paint petroglyphs and pick up pieces of turquoise on her walks around her property, where she became friends with many rattlesnakes. She is Intune with nature, and the land around her. She feels very comfortable with her emotions and stories she tells about the ghost of the past. Her paintings of the petroglyphs, or “Star beings “as she calls them gave her great comfort and are real to her and her people . She drew them from memories she had as a child. I believe she drew who comfort in the memory, and a healing process began that enabled her to write again. I think who she is and what she writes and her experiences are woven into her soul.” She is true to herself, her beliefs, and her heritage, and all of what she is comes out in her unique writing style.
References

Jaskoski, Helen. “Lullaby.” Masterplots II Short Story Series, Revised Edition: 1-3
Reference Center.Web 21 Oct. 2014
Silko, Leslie. “In Search Of A Good Novel” YouTube, 26 Aug, 2008. Web 25, Oct.2014
Silko, Leslie. “Lullaby”: A Study. “The Norton Anthology of American Literature: Volume2--1865 to Present. Nina Baym and Robert S. Levine, eds. Shorter 8th ed. New York: W.W. Norton, 2013, 327—65 Print
Silko, Leslie M. The Turquoise Ledge. New York: Viking Penguin Group, 2010.Print
Silko, Leslie M. Yellow Woman and Beauty of the Spirit. New York Simon & Schuster Inc.1996 Print