The Storyteller Conflict

In the short stories “The Storyteller” by Saki and “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko, conflict drives theme. In “The Storyteller”, the aunt, a fatuous woman and inept storyteller, clashes with the bachelor, an intelligent, creative storyteller whose stories contrast those typical of his era. The conflict between the aunt and the bachelor appears after the aunt’s futile attempt to entertain the three children traveling with her with a moralistic story. Following her failure, the bachelor informs that aunt that “[She doesn’t] seem to be a success as a storyteller” an accusation the aunt resents, prompting her to suggest that the bachelor attempt to tell the children a story (Saki 207). Through their disagreement about the

As in “The Storyteller”, conflict between Christian and Laguna culture in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” drives theme. When Leon and Ken encounter Father Paul following the retrieval of Teofilo’s body, they refrain from telling Father Paul of Teofilo’s death in order to avoid direct conflict. By refusing to instigate a direct conflict, Leon and Ken convey the passive cultural clash that underlies the entire story, despite a lack of outward conflict. Similar to Saki’s use of conflict in “The Storyteller”, Silko uses conflict to highlight her theme that even when cultures conflict one another, they deserve to be respected. Additionally, Silko, like Saki, uses conflict to present her message, as when during Teofilo’s burial, Father Paul looks out at the Laguna people and sees only “a pile of jackets, gloves, and scarves in the yellow, dry tumbleweeds that grew in the graveyard” (Silko 158). Just as the bachelor in Saki’s “The Storyteller” neither trusts nor understands the aunt’s motives, Father Paul distrusts and is confused by the Laguna people; hence, he can only see them as their clothing, illustrating the conflict between his culture and the Laguna culture. Despite his lack of understanding of the Laguna culture and the conflict between the Laguna and Christian cultures, Father Paul attends Teofilo’s burial in an attempt to better understand the Laguna people, painting a picture of cultural conflict that leads to a desire to accept and understand another culture, driving Silko’s theme. Thus, Saki’s “The Storyteller” and similarly, Leslie Marmon Silko’s “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” use conflict between opposing ideas, one of storytelling and one of culture, to drive their