Leslie Marmon Silko is a Laguna Pueblo Indian woman, and an American novelist. One interesting fact I learned about her was that she admits that she prefers to write about male protagonists in her novels because, according to her, whenever she writes about females, she always projects herself into the character, which she feels hinders her storytelling. I thought this was interesting because we talked a lot of the western masculine “hero” during class, and here is a woman who is not only a role model for Native Americans who finally have someone uplifting their voices, but also a role model by being a woman author. Her explanation is extremely interesting considering the fact that she was raised with a culture that is different from ours. Whereas we are living in a patriarchal society, Silko grew up in a matriarchy. She describes it this way: “in a matriarchy the young man symbolizes purity and virginity–and also the intellectual, the sterile, and the orderly. The female principle was the chaotic, the creative, the fertile, the powerful.” She also says, “In the Pueblo, women crack dirty jokes to men who aren’t their husbands or close relatives. There’s a lot of banter, and a real feeling of equality and strength within the community. There weren’t places where a little girl was told, “Oh, you can’t go there!,” or things of which a little boy was told, “Oh, you shouldn’t do that!” I wasn’t told that because I was a little girl, I had to dress or act a certain way. So for a long time, although I didn’t think I was really a boy, I kind of… didn’t learn not to identify with men.” All of the books we’ve read this summer had male protagonists, and I think it is interesting to note that 2 out of 3 of the authors have been female, and they were feminists, and Silko’s perspective can help shape our own outlook on these novels and their heroes. We, as a class, have come to the conclusion that Mary Shelley’s depiction of Victor was not as the traditional protagonist, and Le Guin wrote Don Davidson to bash the masculine hero trope, and so Silko’s views on the binary between men and women can help our own understanding of our prejudices and biases, as well as help deepen our comprehension of the novels we’ve read this month.

I got my information from a transcript of Florence Boos’ “An interview with Leslie Marmon Silko.” from 1997.

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