Leslie Marmon Silko’s identity comes out into her fictional main character: Tayo. In fact, the realness of Tayo comes out in every character, even Auntie. The palpable feeling no doubt comes from Silko. As a white, Mexican, Laguna Pueblo Indian, there is little doubt in my, or any one’s mind that in some way Tayo is based off herself. Strangely, Tayo is not only a real, flushed out character; he works as a symbol of the clashing of the increasing cross-sections of white and Indian society. Tayo is real and the pain of his mental health is sincere and it affected me emotionally. Silko’s identity as someone who either has mental health or has a family member with mental health also shows through her writing. Additionally, more so than breaking the norms of American non-fiction with a real multi-racial indigenous …show more content…
I really would have preferred to talk more in class about Silko’s nonlinear story telling style, and we might have more in class, but at this point I do not remember. Silko’s style is similar to N. Scott Momaday’s The Way to Rainy Mountain. It is non-normative and it connects the past, the present and the specific indigenous group’s, in this case the Laguna Pueblo Indians, traditional stories/history together into on story that would be incomplete if each part was not added and very structured and European if told in standard linear thought. Inclusion of the