Storytelling By Silko Essays - Laguna Pueblo, Leslie Marmon Silko

Storytelling By Silko Leslie Marmon Silko is a Laguna Pueblo Indian who has written many novels and poems in her lifetime. One of these poems, "Storytelling," is very interesting to me. This poem excites me because it tells of the impact that storytelling has on people in Laguna culture. I will analyze and explore many parts of this poem. One of these subjects is theme. The theme of "Storytelling" is actually the art of storytelling. Another aspect of the poem I will look at is tension. There is a specific tension between the husband and the wife in this poem. Next, I will explore how imagery helped Silko strengthen her writing. Then, I will look at how the form of "Storytelling" is different from that of other poems. Finally, I will compare "Storytelling" to another poem, written by Luci Tapahonso entitled, "Blue Horses Rush In." All these aspects put together will enable me to do a complete textual analysis of "Storytelling." Larson 2 To start, I will begin with the theme of "Storytelling." The theme of the poem is the art of storytelling, hence the name. At the end of the poem the author says, "My husband left after he heard the story and moved back in with his mother. It was my fault and I don't blame him either"(Silko 424). As the reader, you think that the woman is feeling bad about lying to her husband and she doesn't blame him for leaving her because she has sinned. Then the next line reads, "I could have told the story better than I did"(Silko 424). This surprises the reader because the ending's not expected. This shows that the woman isn't really feeling bad about what she did, or what happened; she only wishes that she could have told a better story so her husband would stay with her. These quotes prove the theme of the poem; that storytelling is very important in the Laguna culture. It is what the people pride themselves on and the woman in the poem could have done a better job. Earlier on in the poem the husband says, "You better have a damn good story"(Silko 423). It is almost as if the husband is expecting a better story than what he receives, so not satisfied with the lines his wife feeds him, he leaves. From these lines it is obvious that the stories told, and how the people tell them is the theme of the poem "Storytelling". This is not only a theme in the poem, but I Larson 3 believe that it also represents a very prominent theme in the Laguna culture. Other themes in the poem are adultery and lying, but these also portray the main tensions in the poem in addition to themes. The tension is between the husband and the wife. A mysterious being shows up and kidnaps the wife. When she returns she tries to tell her husband what happened in terms that he would understand. The husband, now very upset, believes that his wife committed adultery. The tension starts when the husband says, "You better have a damn good story about where you have been for the past ten months and how you explain these twin baby boys"(Silko 423). You can tell from this quote that the husband is not happy and wants an explanation; and it better be a good one. The wife retaliates by saying, "No! That gossip isn't true"(Silko 423). The wife feels that she needs to defend herself against the false accusations that her husband made. The rest of the poem the wife tells her story in order to try to persuade her husband of the truth. She wants to resolve the tension. Her attempts to persuade her husband are unsuccessful. So the tension is never really resolved because the husband leaves. Therefore, there is probably still tension surrounding the subject. Larson 4 There are many images in "Storytelling" that help set the scene and develop a mood. A couple images that help to set the scene are, "...the sun came over the long red mesa"(Silko 422) and, "She looked into the shallow clear water"(Silko 423). This gives an image of how mystical and magical the scene was when the "Buffalo Man" came to get the woman in the story. This image gives the reader the impression that this is a mysterious event. The images are also calm and soothing which relay those feelings over to the reader. This way the reader can understand what the woman in the poem is feeling at

Expanding Circle - Definition and Examples

Expanding Circle s The expanding circle is made up of countries in which English has no special administrative status but is recognized as a lingua franca and is widely studied as a foreign language. Countries in the expanding circle include China, Denmark, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea, and Sweden, among many others. According to linguist Diane Davies, recent research suggests that some countries in the Expanding Circle have . . . begun to develop distinctive ways of using English, with the result that the language has an increasingly important functional range in these countries and is also a marker of identity in some contexts (Varieties of Modern English: An Introduction, Routledge, 2013). The expanding circle is one of the three concentric circles of World English described by linguist Braj Kachru in Standards, Codification and Sociolinguistic Realism: The English Language in the Outer Circle (1985). The labels inner, outer, and expanding circles represent the type of spread, the patterns of acquisition, and the functional allocation of the English language in diverse cultural contexts. Although these labels are imprecise and in some ways misleading, many scholars would agree with Paul Bruthiaux that they offer a useful  shorthand  for classifying contexts of English world-wide   (Squaring the Circles in the International Journal of Applied Linguistics,  2003). Examples and Observations The spread of English in the Expanding Circle is largely a result of foreign language learning within the country. As in the Outer Circle, the range of proficiency in the language among the population is broad, with some having native-like fluency and others having only minimal familiarity with English. However, in the Expanding Circle, unlike the Outer Circle, there is no local model of English since the language does not have official status and, in Kachrus (1992) terms, has not become institutionalized with locally developed standards of use.(Sandra Lee McKay, Teaching English as an International Language: Rethinking Goals and Approaches. Oxford University Press, 2002)Expanding Circle English and Lingua Franca English- Despite the all-pervasive use of English throughout what many like to term the international community and despite countless anecdotes about emerging varieties such as Euro-English, professional linguists have so far shown only limited interest in describing lingua franca English as a legitimate language variety. The received wisdom seems to be that only when English is a majority first language or an official additional language does it warrant description. . . . Expanding Circle English is not deemed worthy of such attention: users of English who have learned the language as a foreign language are expected to conform to Inner Circle norms, even if using English constitutes an important part of their lived experience and personal identity. No right to rotten English for them, then. Quite the contrary: for Expanding Circle consumption, the main effort remains, as it has always been, to describe English as it is used among the British and American native speakers and then to distribute (Widdowson 1997: 139) the resulting descriptions to those who speak English in nonnative contexts around the world.(Barbara Seidlhofer and Jennifer Jenkins, English as a Lingua Franca and the Politics of Property. The Politics of English as a World Language, ed. by Christian Mair. Rodopi, 2003)- I argue . . . that a lingua franca model is the most sensible model in those common and varied contexts where the learners major reason for [studying] English is to communicate with other non-native speakers. . . . [U]ntil we are able to provide teachers and learners with adequate descriptions of lingua franca models, teachers and learners will have to continue to rely on either native-speaker or nativized models. We have seen how a native-speaker model, while appropriate for a minority of teachers and learners, is inappropriate for the majority for a range of linguistic, cultural and political reasons. A nativized model may be appropriate in Outer and in certain Expanding Circle countries, but this model also carries the disadvantage of cultural inappropriacy when learners require English as a lingua franca to communicate with other non-native speakers.(Andy Kirkpatrick, Which Model of English: Native-Speaker, Nativized, or Lingua Franca? English i n the World: Global Rules, Global Roles, ed. by Rani Rubdy and Mario Saraceni. Continuum, 2006) Also Known As: extending circle