Short Story: Lullaby and Parallelism with Impoverished Immigrants

SHORT STORY: LULLABY

Leslie Marmon Silko was raised on the Laguna Pueblo reservation in New Mexico, a place she came to know through stories that were told to her by her father, her aunt, and her grandmother. The storytelling tradition, much of it oral rather than written, is often a powerful element in Native American tribes, preserving certain ways of knowing and helping members recognize their connection to the tribe. But these stories are often living things, adapting and changing to reflect tribal members’ struggles to adapt to an often hostile world. They can even be a source of healing, as in the short story “Lullaby” you’re about to read here.

Silko is widely recognized as one of the finest living Native American writers, and her novel Ceremony, published in 1977, received critical acclaim. She’s also a talented poet and essayist. Above all, Leslie Marmon Silko is a storyteller in the Laguna tradition, using a kind of narrative that in many ways will be familiar to non-native readers.

There are characters and scenes and a significant event, but also notice how landscape figures into the telling of this story, and in particular what the narrator’s relationship is with the natural world. One of the motives for telling a story like this is to deal with loss by seeking recovery through balance or harmony. This may not be at all obvious when you read this story, which on the surface is an unrelentingly sad tale.

Guide for the analysis of the story Lullaby:

1. Background: Cultural and social conditions of “native Americans” in the USA. Reflection of this situation in Lullaby.
2. Characters: Ayah, Chato (behaviour, conflicts), Jimmy, Danny and Ella (as symbols in the story), the white doctors and the policeman.
3. American Indian traditions as presented in the story.
4. Themes in the story: Tradition and change. Racial and cultural oppression. Poverty and exploitation. Language barriers. Deaths and loss. Reconciliation.

5. Motif: The Blanket.
6. Significance of the song.
7. The environment in the story: place, time, atmosphere.
8. History of the American Indians in the USA: The Native Americans in the 1960’s.
9. Historical perspective, sociological perspective, psychological perspective and semiotic perspective.

10. Style
11. Narration – Narrator

Parallelism between Lullaby and the current situation impoverished immigrants are going through.

1. Background: Cultural and social conditions of impoverished immigrants in the USA and in Europe.
2. Families broken by immigration; impact of immigration policies on children and parents; the role of the police in the enforcement of immigration laws.
3. Themes: Tradition and change. Racial and cultural discrimination. Poverty and exploitation. Language barriers. Deaths and loss. Reconciliation.

4. World history of capitalist Imperialism: expropriation and plundering of raw materials and labour of the Third World, which together with the European and North American demand for cheap labour have got people to emigrate.

5. Historical perspective, sociological perspective, psychological perspective and semiotic perspective.

Read the Short Story: LULLABY 

TEACHER'S NOTES ON LULLABY

For better understanding of the story, you can read:

The Power of Ayah in Leslie Marmon Silko's "Lullaby" by Patrice Hollrah