The Sense of Identity - Essay Example

The multicultural Effect The old woman would always ask the youngest child in the room to go open the door. "Go open the door so our esteemed ancestors may bring the precious gift f their stories." Two points seem clear: the spirits would be present, and the stories were valuable because they taught us how we were the people we believed we were. The myth, the web f memories and ideas that create an identity, is a part f oneself. This sense f identity was intimately linked with the surrounding terrain, to the landscape that has often played a significant role in a story or in the outcome f a conflict. (Silko 1996, 43) These words f Leslie Marmon Silko describe aptly what this ReVision issue is about: storytelling. Indigenous conversations. Recovering indigenous conversations. Remembering stories. Putting them back together. Cherishing the fragments we find. Exchanging stories. Finding ways to bring the immediacy and presence f the stories told in front f a group f people onto paper and between journal covers. Sharing stories between groups f people, Sami siidat, German Sippen--communities (some f these groupings are now called cultures, or societies, or nations, or tribes). The primary focus f the contributions is not agreement or disagreement with Eurocentered views on narrative knowing. Instead the articles, taken together, walk their own path, affirming an ancient way f being present to knowing. That is all. This issue is an invitation to remember that practice and to participate in it--today--with all that that might mean in our contemporary situation. Within the Eurocentered context, the concern would be with the defense, explication, placement, or support f narrative knowing within the edifice that Eurocentered thinking tries to maintain, even as it crumbles and disintegrates at the external and internal margins. Much f what has been written about narrative knowing presents such amendments, usually framed as advances. Progress f thinking. A contribution on the evolutionary trajectory. This is the stage set by Eurocentered thinking for the justification and defense f narrative knowing. That stage matters not in an indigenous or a remembered indigenous context. The stakes are much higher. There are many more criteria. They are in the landscape. In the ancestry. In history. In what is commonly called myth. In gossip. In the narrative plot provided by the stars. In the remembrance f the pain f what people have done to each other and are doing to each other. Individuals all. In the rejoicing about the beautiful things people have done. Because these kinds f criteria elude Eurocentered thinking to a large extent, they cannot--and should not--be justified in that context. Pressures for such justification arise from the need to the maintain the social construction f whiteness. Though it may seem extraordinary to the Eurocentered mind, in the indigenous context, one fact stands out as a simple truth that native people live by: "Whether we know the stories or not, the stories know about us" (Silko 1996, 150). We may not remember our ancestry or honor it, but the ancestors remember us. There is hope in this. Storytelling is allowing completeness in a nutshell: hologrammatically. Here we don't find philosophy apart from the cycles f the seasons--yet we find science. Here we don't find agriculture separate from the local narratives--yet we find astronomy and agroastronomy. Here we don't find navigation apart from star and weather lore--yet we find nautical science. In the narrative universe f these worlds, story is not an individualistic or existential project. It is the survival f the self woven inside, outside, and in between through precise presence. There is no possibility f standing apart or objectifying or dissociating. What an advance to remember such practices. The current issue started out with a different design in mind: I was in the process f inviting several authors and informing them to assume the importance and validity f narrative knowing (so as to present affirmative examples from a broad range f research applications, instead f philosophical arguments). As I was reflecting on the importance f narrative knowing in the context f native peoples, authors and texts began to show up in a fashion that can most accurately be described as the voices f the ancestors rising. Once I started listening to those voices, I jettisoned the original design and welcomed the writings that allowed for the demonstration f indigenous thinking--an immanent conversation in the presence f spirits, ancestors, land, people, history, and seasons--nothing transcendental here to the native mind. The articles in this issue f ReVision represent narrative explorations f culture, roots, and ancestry in the framework f indigenous discourse--whether as ongoing practice, as recovered practice, or from the standpoint f indigenous living or Eurocentered living. Throughout my reading f Edwidge Danticat's Krik Krak, I fell in love with every story and the meaning behind each. Reading this novel for my Caribbean class, it was assumed that the stories would help teach me more about the islands and their culture. Reading about each point f view f the woman and child within the stories, I captured the image f the poverty and dictatorship as it actually exists in Haiti. In order for a reader to learn and better understand the tragic life f living in the Caribbean, the author surely either experienced a life on the islands, or was extensive with her research f the topic itself. Therefore, there is no doubt in my mind that a story must be told if the author has a clear and precise understanding f the time period in which their novel took place. For Edwidge Danticat, story telling was always a very significant part f her life. It was the way in which all Haitian women remember the history f their ancestors. "You thought that if you didn't tell the stories, the sky would fall on your head." (233) By sharing the mythological stories f the lives f past relatives, Haitian women continue to pass on the remembrance f past mothers, grandmothers, great-grandmothers etc. The famous title f Edwidge Danticat's novel, Krik Krak, describes the way in which Haitian women share their legendary stories with one another. By asking Krik and answering Krak!, the women f Haiti are able to express the stories f their past, and pass these stories on to one another. This way, they will always remember their ancestors. I feel, by having knowledge f her own ancestors, Danticat had a much easier time publishing her novel. Through her writing, she was able to express the hardships and poor treatment f the Haitian women that she heard stories about throughout her lifetime. Being a female herself, Edwidge Danticat's novel more accurately portrays the treatment f women in the Caribbean islands. I feel that because the author has experienced the life f a woman, and has experience f life in Haiti, she can portray these two images easily and very effectively. An example f the hardship and malicious treatment f women is on page 39 when a young girl describes the lives f women in prison, "Her face was swollen to three times the size that it had been. She had to drag herself across the clay floor on her belly when I saw her in the prison cell. I was there watching when they shaved her head for the first time. At first I thought they were doing it so that the open gashes on her scalp could heal. Later, when I saw all the other women in the yard, I realized that they wanted to make them look like crows, like men." This powerful and horrific quote illustrated very graphic and unpleasant pictures in my mind. It gave me a new and shocking understanding f the harsh behavior towards Haitian women. Being a Haitian female herself, Danticat strived to accurately portray this intolerable cruelty. One f the main themes f her novel is to emphasize the role f women in the Caribbean. It is apparent that Danticat uses imagery to enhance the understanding f cruel and immoral treatment f all women. For this, I conclude that having an understanding f the culture or time period she is writing about is apparent in order to write a resourceful novel. Histories were what actually happened, known or eventually discovered, and then written down. But it is impossible to keep track f everything and as a result, there are always more events far beyond one's imagination. But when people who witnessed and experienced history share their story with others, the myth continues to stay alive. Living in the Caribbean herself, Edwidge Danticat expresses the hardship f the people to others through fictional stories. I feel in order to pass on the desperation f her people, she wrote it down on paper and shared history with her readers. Therefore, in order for a book to be considered a good piece f literature, I feel the author must have experience or knowledge about the topic and time period from which he or she is writing about. Works Cited Silko, Leslie Marmon. Yellow Woman and a Beauty f the Spirit. New York: Touchstone Book. 1986. Danticat, Edwidge. Krik Krak! New York: Vintage Books. 1996. Read More