I encountered Ceremony in a Native American Lit class. The beauty of the narrative of a Native American caught between two worlds, searching for identity, resonated with me and I spent quite a few weeks buried in research about this character for a research project.
I read Heart of Redness (play on Heart of Darkness) for a South African Lit class. I was intrigued by the intertextuality of Mda's writing in conversation with other texts and as a means of suggestion for the future of South African development. As I read, I was impressed with an understanding of the power of literature to evoke change.
I encountered Whitman and his famous "Leaves of Grass" for a Whitman class. His ability to engage with and describe the human psyche was incredible and my eyes were opened to the power of a writer to describe people, as they are, as they think.
Imagining a Future
My literacy narrative tells the story then, of my growth as a reader from one who enjoyed the nature of reading as an escape to one who enjoys reading as a way to reach out to the world around me. In his essay All Writing is Autobiography, author Donald Murray explains that not only is the writing process autobiographical, but so too is the reading process. This has certainly been my experience. Murray says “the terrible, wonderful power of reading: [is that] the texts we create in our own minds while we read—or just after we read—become part of the life we believe we lived. Another thesis: all reading is autobiographical” (Wardle and Downs 65.) As I have experienced literature, the beauty of this has been the integration of characters and character’s perceptions and experiences into my own life and perceptions. There is no piece of literature I have encounter which does not somehow become part of my consciousness. To read is to walk through someone’s mind, to hear their words expressed in the truest fashion which they possess and so to read is to become the individual in some way. In the same manner, the process of reading and forming concepts and images within my own mind indicates that to engage a work of literature is to create a work of literature. I cannot simply read about Leslie Silko's Ceremony (see left) without also engaging the text by imagining what it must feel like to be a young Native American. I imagine the warm sun of New Mexico on my face. I must feel my heart breaking with my confusion and loss. I must feel hope and despair rising up together in my heart as I remember with horror the things that I have seen, and yet hope that there will be more to my life than the sum of my experiences so far.
As I have done this, as I have lived within the text, I will find all in an instant, that I have become part of the story as both a writer and a character. The reading and writing process are inseparable and the student who is given the tools to realize this is given the ability to experience the beauty of literature. Beware though, for this experience will create a hunger not easily satisfied. A desire will be awakened to reach an ever heightened level of skill and ability, where “as readers...approach a text they vary the nature of their stance or collaboration with their author...and, in conjunction with this collaboration, immerse themselves in a variety of roles… a reader can adopt a stance toward the writer which is sympathetic, critical, or passive. And, within the context of these collaborations, he can immerse himself in the text as an observer or eyewitness, participant, or character” (Tierney and Pierson as qtd in Wardle and Downs 180.) The best experiences of a reader are those in which the reader finds him or herself as a member of the text,—inseparable from the book and the writer,—moving in harmony with the thoughts and words of the writer and characters.
My literacy experience has been a journey to reach an increasing ability to read like this. I began as a small child, enjoying time on the couch with my mom. I quickly transitioned into a desire to engage with characters of spirit and wit. From there I found escape from difficult circumstances, or even just my perceived boringness of life. Finally, I discovered a way to gain access to worlds previously unattainable where my wisdom and knowledge of those around me could increase exponentially with each text I engaged. Literacy for me is a constant journey through the new and unseen. Terrifying, electrifying, new, and bold, it is a continuous high which yields enormous benefits with each new exploit I undertake.
As I have done this, as I have lived within the text, I will find all in an instant, that I have become part of the story as both a writer and a character. The reading and writing process are inseparable and the student who is given the tools to realize this is given the ability to experience the beauty of literature. Beware though, for this experience will create a hunger not easily satisfied. A desire will be awakened to reach an ever heightened level of skill and ability, where “as readers...approach a text they vary the nature of their stance or collaboration with their author...and, in conjunction with this collaboration, immerse themselves in a variety of roles… a reader can adopt a stance toward the writer which is sympathetic, critical, or passive. And, within the context of these collaborations, he can immerse himself in the text as an observer or eyewitness, participant, or character” (Tierney and Pierson as qtd in Wardle and Downs 180.) The best experiences of a reader are those in which the reader finds him or herself as a member of the text,—inseparable from the book and the writer,—moving in harmony with the thoughts and words of the writer and characters.
My literacy experience has been a journey to reach an increasing ability to read like this. I began as a small child, enjoying time on the couch with my mom. I quickly transitioned into a desire to engage with characters of spirit and wit. From there I found escape from difficult circumstances, or even just my perceived boringness of life. Finally, I discovered a way to gain access to worlds previously unattainable where my wisdom and knowledge of those around me could increase exponentially with each text I engaged. Literacy for me is a constant journey through the new and unseen. Terrifying, electrifying, new, and bold, it is a continuous high which yields enormous benefits with each new exploit I undertake.
