The Fight Towards Completeness
“Before the presentation, when I sat across from my boss, telling him where in the script each slide cues and when I wanted to run the video segment, my boss says, what do you get yourself into every weekend?” In Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk, the first rule about fight club is that you don’t talk about fight club. The purpose of Fight club was to help this generation of men raised by women reconnect to their manhood. Even though they enjoyed being part of this club they did run it like a cult. It gave them a sense of belongingness and yet they treated it with separate identity where they did rather draw a line between who they were in real life compared to who they were in fight club, “fight club exist only in the hours between when fight club starts and when fight club ends (49).” It was a fake world they had created for themselves “who guys are in fight club is not who they are in the real world, who I am in fight club is not someone my boss knows (49). As Palahniuk described the graphics of the so called fight club, I crunched because to me it was more pain than one could have experienced but to them it was the kind of pain that healed, the pain to fight for.
The stigma attached to these men raised by women didn’t make them feel men enough and as a result, they were unable to connect with their manhood. They were often quick to point out to the fact that they lacked father figures in their lives. Members of this club had similar needs, they struggled internally with their identities of being men and therefore being part of fight club gave them a chance to come face to face with their fears and fight it off. The writer compared the feeling of satisfaction of fight club, to things like going to the gym, keeping your hair cut short and cutting your nails, in other words these were some of the things that makes one feel good about themselves. The writer valued going to fight club more than going to a crowded gym with guys trying to look like men. As he continuously struggled with his identity he wasn’t sure whether his searches for answers were self-improvement or maybe self-destruction (49). His brief encounter with his absent father didn’t offer any answers either. Whiles still confused at age 30, he had turned to his father for directions, but not knowing what his son needed, he pointed him towards getting married. To him another woman is not the answer to fill his void (51).
Fight club offered an opportunity for these men to confront their demons and also gave them a sense of accomplishment. However the discovery of the connection between finding their identities and self-destruction after Tyler asked to hit him, to them was a great way to be whole. They believed that the possibility of destroying some part of themselves may be the answer to their quest. According to Tyler he didn’t want to die without scars which symbolizes their readiness to battle their fears and what they had lost growing up. In the writer’s opinion he just didn’t want to die without few scars, “It’s nothing anymore to have a beautiful stock body (48).” As they continued to fight and suffer the bruises and scars, the writer’s sense of vainness began to diminish. For someone who is defined by the perishable things in life I could see a change of tone, “At the time, my life just seemed too complete, and maybe we have to break everything to make something better out of ourselves (52).” Even though they claim nothing personal about who they physically will fight, there is everything personal about fighting their confused and split personalities. Nonetheless in search of their identities, the inner struggles grew with them; they were torn between who they are and who they want to be. At some point they felt their lives could have been much better with their fathers involved and another point they felt they probably didn’t need them as Tyler recalls “…. Maybe we didn’t need a father to complete ourselves (54).”
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Monday, April 6, 2009
The Significance of Four Women in Tayo’s Life
In Ceremony, Silko explores the gender roles of women and among them were four women characters that played significant roles to the development and actualization of Tayo’s character. They were Tayo’s birth mother, Auntie, old Grandma, and Ts’eh (a Montano). Because Tayo is of mixed ancestry, half white and half Native American, Tayo discovers he has a “natural” cultural flaw imposed upon him at birth, which would linger and expand into adulthood. His lifelong desperation to belong in his family and his community exposed his vulnerabilities as an adult and a veteran who had returned from World War II. His mother left him when he was four years old and that began his sense of emptiness and abandonment. Due to the alcohol addiction and vicarious life-style of his mum he was left with his auntie, Josiah and Grandmother to raise him. “He didn’t remember much: only that she had come after dark and wrapped him in a man’s coat - it smelled like a man - and that there were men in the car with them . . . he clung to her because when she left him, he knew she would be gone for a long time (60). As she kissed him on the forehead and pushed him into Josiah’s arms, he cried because he knew she wasn’t coming back for him this time (61).
Auntie eventually raised Tayo and became the mother figure he lacked; however, Auntie reluctantly accepted this responsibility because she felt responsible to the community for the disgrace Tayo’s mum had brought to the family. Auntie was a devoted Christian who thrived on a narrow interpretation of the concept of martyrdom. In Auntie's understanding of martyrdom, she will gain the respect of her peers if she is seen to suffer for the sins of others. It is in this spirit that she raises Tayo, rather than out of any love for him. She was hesitant toward Tayo as he was not her real son and was also a “half-breed.” For Tayo, this only added to his feeling of displacement and the feeling of being invisible. Auntie would give her affection and attention to her natural son Rocky, and would intentionally make Tayo feel excluded. However when Josiah, old Grandma or Robert was there, she pretended to treat him the same as she treated Rocky. Since Rocky had been killed at combat and Josiah had passed, Tayo found himself in auntie’s hands again as she nurses him after he had returned home from war; he was all she had left (29), yet to Tayo she was just someone who looked after him.
Unlike Auntie, old Grandma, does accept Tayo as her own blood and wants only the best for him. For instance, when Grandma suggested, “that boy needs a medicine man. Otherwise, he will have to go away,” Auntie retaliated with “Oh, I don’t know, Mama. You know how they are. You know what people will say if we ask for a medicine man to help him. Someone will say it’s not right. They’ll say, ‘don’t do it. He’s not full blood anyway (30).” However, Grandma did not hesitate to let auntie know that regardless of what people thought of him, she loved him “he’s my grandson, If I send for old Ku’oosh, he’ll come. Let them talk if they want to (33).” In other words, Grandma was more concerned about the health and well being of her grandson rather than the gossip of the other tribesmen. The love and compassion demonstrated by old Grandma allowed Tayo to experience some feeling of belongingness, however not enough to make Tayo feel whole.
It is when Tayo meets and falls in love with Ts’eh, a mystical character that appears and disappears in various parts of the novel, that he completes his healing journey. The significance of Ts’eh to Ceremony is very powerful and vital to the recovery of Tayo. She lives up in the rim rock and is in tune with the land and her surroundings. Being torn between the white world and the Indian world and the unfortunate circumstances of his upbringing, Tayo lives feeling invisible and hollow inside. Ts’eh helps him to become in touch with his Indian side and to feel strength and power from the land. She teaches him the importance of certain plants, flowers, and ceremonies and how they are significant to Native American culture and survival (208). Thus, after falling deeply in love with her, Tayo begins to feel alive again.
Ceremony by Silko presented Tayo as he struggled to gain psychological wholeness in the face of various traumatic experiences, ranging from a troubled childhood to cultural marginalization and combat experiences during World War II. The novel unfolded as Tayo’s psychological recovery leads him to his rediscovery of Native American cultural practices.
In Ceremony, Silko explores the gender roles of women and among them were four women characters that played significant roles to the development and actualization of Tayo’s character. They were Tayo’s birth mother, Auntie, old Grandma, and Ts’eh (a Montano). Because Tayo is of mixed ancestry, half white and half Native American, Tayo discovers he has a “natural” cultural flaw imposed upon him at birth, which would linger and expand into adulthood. His lifelong desperation to belong in his family and his community exposed his vulnerabilities as an adult and a veteran who had returned from World War II. His mother left him when he was four years old and that began his sense of emptiness and abandonment. Due to the alcohol addiction and vicarious life-style of his mum he was left with his auntie, Josiah and Grandmother to raise him. “He didn’t remember much: only that she had come after dark and wrapped him in a man’s coat - it smelled like a man - and that there were men in the car with them . . . he clung to her because when she left him, he knew she would be gone for a long time (60). As she kissed him on the forehead and pushed him into Josiah’s arms, he cried because he knew she wasn’t coming back for him this time (61).
Auntie eventually raised Tayo and became the mother figure he lacked; however, Auntie reluctantly accepted this responsibility because she felt responsible to the community for the disgrace Tayo’s mum had brought to the family. Auntie was a devoted Christian who thrived on a narrow interpretation of the concept of martyrdom. In Auntie's understanding of martyrdom, she will gain the respect of her peers if she is seen to suffer for the sins of others. It is in this spirit that she raises Tayo, rather than out of any love for him. She was hesitant toward Tayo as he was not her real son and was also a “half-breed.” For Tayo, this only added to his feeling of displacement and the feeling of being invisible. Auntie would give her affection and attention to her natural son Rocky, and would intentionally make Tayo feel excluded. However when Josiah, old Grandma or Robert was there, she pretended to treat him the same as she treated Rocky. Since Rocky had been killed at combat and Josiah had passed, Tayo found himself in auntie’s hands again as she nurses him after he had returned home from war; he was all she had left (29), yet to Tayo she was just someone who looked after him.
Unlike Auntie, old Grandma, does accept Tayo as her own blood and wants only the best for him. For instance, when Grandma suggested, “that boy needs a medicine man. Otherwise, he will have to go away,” Auntie retaliated with “Oh, I don’t know, Mama. You know how they are. You know what people will say if we ask for a medicine man to help him. Someone will say it’s not right. They’ll say, ‘don’t do it. He’s not full blood anyway (30).” However, Grandma did not hesitate to let auntie know that regardless of what people thought of him, she loved him “he’s my grandson, If I send for old Ku’oosh, he’ll come. Let them talk if they want to (33).” In other words, Grandma was more concerned about the health and well being of her grandson rather than the gossip of the other tribesmen. The love and compassion demonstrated by old Grandma allowed Tayo to experience some feeling of belongingness, however not enough to make Tayo feel whole.
It is when Tayo meets and falls in love with Ts’eh, a mystical character that appears and disappears in various parts of the novel, that he completes his healing journey. The significance of Ts’eh to Ceremony is very powerful and vital to the recovery of Tayo. She lives up in the rim rock and is in tune with the land and her surroundings. Being torn between the white world and the Indian world and the unfortunate circumstances of his upbringing, Tayo lives feeling invisible and hollow inside. Ts’eh helps him to become in touch with his Indian side and to feel strength and power from the land. She teaches him the importance of certain plants, flowers, and ceremonies and how they are significant to Native American culture and survival (208). Thus, after falling deeply in love with her, Tayo begins to feel alive again.
Ceremony by Silko presented Tayo as he struggled to gain psychological wholeness in the face of various traumatic experiences, ranging from a troubled childhood to cultural marginalization and combat experiences during World War II. The novel unfolded as Tayo’s psychological recovery leads him to his rediscovery of Native American cultural practices.
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