Dreams Lost

Dreams Lost

Lynd Ward’s novel Vertigo artistically provides a new perspective on The Great Depression. Ward personalizes the great depression by presenting the lost dreams of The Girl and The Boy, while revealing the slow destruction of An Elderly Man’s company and himself. While all three are deal with these losses in different ways, they all struggle to find happiness.

The characters had dreams, and in the prelude, which took place in1929 the images recount the history of America flourishing and growing. Light, specifically stars are used to represent a bright future and hope. Specifically in the image with the ship, it is going towards the star using it as a guide for the future. In addition the image involving the fortuneteller, and the two to follow revealing that The Girl and The Boy have bright futures of becoming a violinist and builder. The images show this through the use of light and stars in surrounding the crystal ball. However the bright future of America and for these characters that is portrayed in 1929 quickly changes in the following three parts of the novel.

         In part one which is all about, The Girl, the reader sees her on the right path attending university and practicing her violin. However this soon changes when she walks in on her father attempting suicide. Her dream is forgotten about and the bright future ahead of her fades in the image where she is kneeling next to her father’s bed. The light from the lamp is seen in the far distance, with no star to be found. The majority of her body is dark, showing that her dreams are not the focus in her life anymore.

In addition the last image, the only image in the year 1935, she is standing in line, and happens to be the last person in line. There is no sign of her violin, she is completely dark, and although we cannot see her face her body language does not reveal happiness. The reader never sees The Girl succeed.

Part three is focuses on the daily struggles The Boy faces. With dreams of becoming a builder and one day marrying The Girl, he sets out to find work. The very last time a star is seen is in the image when he first leaves. He quickly comes upon obstacles and his hard work to find a job leads him empty handed. This is seen in the image with his face in his hands sitting on the sidewalk. The light again is far away, and only in the background with the star absent. The last image of his story shows him and The Girl. Unlike when the novel began, here they look helpless and fearful unsure of what their future holds. The widening of his eyes and her face buried in his chest reveal the lost hope of that their dreams will come true and happiness is far away.

In addition the reader meets a wealthy company owner who makes decisions leading to many of his workers loosing their jobs, along with the destruction of his company and the destruction of himself. The very first image introducing the Elderly Man shows him looking away from his enterprise looking towards the future and where he came from. However this changes through a series of images of him on the phone, seeing him become more aged and distressed. The light and brightness of the initial image introducing him disappears through this distress that takes over him.

Vertigo presents the progression of dreams and a bright future to loosing all hope in America during The Great Depression. Ward proves that not only one kind of people were affected but all of America was affected during this dark time in American history.

Vertigo

Through Vertigo’s unorthodox visual narrative consisting completely of woodblock prints, one is immersed in a series of shifting snapshots of American life from roughly 1929-1935.  The novel is separated into three divergent, but interwoven stories focusing around The Girl, The Boy and The Elderly Gentlemen provides three unique lens in which to view the social atmosphere and events leading up to and immediately following the Great Depression.  Ward makes use of certain symbolic elements through the three stories, in order to clarify cryptic elements and hidden details and tie together meaning stemming from the earlier segments. The Girl, The Boy and the Elderly Gentlemen are all explored through various sections of time at an intimate level to provide depth on how their desires and insecurities shift throughout the depression.  In this sense, the character’s lives can be viewed as tools to illustrate social and economic injustice in the American system of life.

The Girl begins to form a pretense about positive directions of the lives of both the boy and girl.  Starting with the introduction from presumably a school official, an empowering high school graduation speech unfolds, including various images depicting early America’s optimistic nature and industrial grit.  The speech boils down the essence of the American dream by recounting the struggles and achievements of the pioneers, and their shaping of America into the illustrious nation it has become.  

The continuation of America’s roaring 20’s mentality is eluded to when the girl and boy visit the amusement park following their high school graduation.  Both the girl and boy visit a fortune-tellers booth and were captivated by the physics’ crystal ball.  The crystal ball revealed to them idealized versions of the future, showing the girl in a violin performance with adoring fans, and the boy on a building site.  The depiction of the crystal ball filled a majority of the woodblock, which appeared to frame the image, setting the tone for a story within the original narrative in which the characters gain some level of self-realization.  Within the crystal ball image, the symbol of the star reappears from when it was previously seen during the graduation speech, as the driving force to Columbus’s ship, again playing upon the “American Dream-esque” nature of their supposed destinies.  The characters have been ingrained with a headstrong view of America’s future, one that totes the prowess of capitalism and industrialism as unable to fail.

These idealized futures are not recognized, as the appearance of a storm at the park, ultimately the shifting tides of the Great Depression, brings in an era adversely affects both the lives of the girl and boy, as well as all others around them.  The social change brought in by the depression broke all preconceptions about the direction America was heading from the standpoint of the 1920’s.  

Vertigo: America's Lost Future

Lynd Ward’s Vertigo is a graphic novel that weaves a complex story focusing on three main characters and their independent yet related struggles during America’s darkest economic time, the Great Depression. Ward makes use of dark yet descriptive imagery to tell an intricate tale of love, loss, and struggle that delivers powerful messages on humanity and the American dream.  The illustrator provides an introduction to the story through a speech on the brief history of America in the 1929 section of the novel. This brief, picture history illustrates America’s lost future.

The speech emphasizes the hard work, struggle, and progress that occurred from America’s beginnings to more current times. The brief history itself stresses hard work, specifically that of the individual in nearly every image. From the man plowing the field to the construction of the railroads, to the ascendance of skyscrapers, each picture shows a man hard at work, building. They are building towards a bright future. Notice the image after the skyscraper scene. It is a man standing on a hill overlooking a successful society with the sun illuminating everything. It is the future that would have been.

A major symbol prevalent in the 1929 section is the star. A star (or stars) appears in a large number of scenes. It first appears when the father and daughter leave their house (after retrieving his hat). It symbolizes the bright future, the right path, and stability. Its appearance in front of the ship, during the couple’s walk, their future-telling scene, and finally the stars extinguishment during the storm (a symbolic gesture towards the bleak future) all support the stars being a symbol of the future and stability.

Another major symbol of subtle importance, related to the history scenes, is the carnival and roller coaster. As mentioned previously, a storm rains on the splendor of the couple’s night, symbolizing the downfall of their future. However, the couple’s relationship is emphasized around the carnival.  They are shown dancing in front of the roller coaster, and the man proposes at the carnival. Thus, the carnival and roller coaster begin as a symbol of happiness and hope for the future, and end, in the last scene of novel, as a symbol of the trial and tribulations encountered by the man and woman, and the spoiling of the bright future.

The brief history at the beginning of Lynd Ward’s Vertigo symbolizes the lost future of America. The imagery contained in the speech itself, the use of stars, and the preceding images of the roller coaster and carnival all support this assertion. The novel depicts the Great Depression’s vast affect on America’s future, a future that while once bright, is reduced to a shadow of its former self.

Storyteller- The Bear and the Spirits

Native American cultures of past generations considered animals to be of the utmost importance, just as they do today. They had, however, a certain amount of respect that was shown through their fear of the unknown; they felt that the meaning and the spirit behind the animal, as opposed to just its physical being, was something that should be reflected upon.

In the passage on page 74 of Storyteller, narrator Leslie Marmon Silko tells us of the time when she borrowed a gun, specifically a Winchester .30-30, from a man named George Pearl when she was just a young teenager. While she was hunting, she became separated from her uncle and her cousin at a location called Mt. Taylor. She came across a giant brown bear, bigger than any she had ever seen, though she knew that something felt awry. After debating shooting it, she decided that her gun was too small, and that she was not certain if it was real or even alive, and so she walked away.

The picture following this story, an image of “The Buffalo Dancers”, is explained at the bottom of the page as commemorating “…the transformation of the Buffalo Spirit Being into human form and the alliance that existed between the humans and buffalo.”  (Storyteller, P 75)This does not explicitly say anything about the bear, but looking at the image, we can assume that the dance was very spiritual and coordinated. The three individuals are in the same positions and dressed similarly, which might signify that they are being photographed mid-dance. The tribe, then, must have respected the spirits of animals. This could explain why Leslie did not shoot the bear; since she was confused as to why it would be there, it could have been thought that to shoot might represent a bad omen.

The next passage, cryptic as it may have been, serves to prove this theory. On page 76, she states that, two years later, her Uncle found a giant mule deer. On her way to help him transport it after it was shot, she went by way of the “south slope,” and although it is not explicitly stated, it is implied in the context of the last passage that she had been here before; it can be assumed that this is where she saw the bear.

She states that she walked past this place deliberately. In the image, you can see that the men are dancing in a “deliberate” way, which explains why she would walk as such at a place where she had run into an odd, or sacred, happening.  A wind- something that could denote mystery or the spirit of an animal- moves through the area, and she flees. Her respect for the bear, and its spirit, trumps her curiosity.

The last line on page 76 reads “Sleeping, not dead, I decided.” If this is looked at merely within the scope of this section, it does not seem to make sense. When viewed through the perspective of both the text and image of the two previous pages, however, it provides closure to the arc. In her mind, the bear had been a spirit, and because she had not disturbed it, the wind was viewed as an acknowledgement of her being there, though she knew that it was best that she should go.

Where the stories represent mystery, the picture of the Buffalo Dancers explains why this is felt. Leslie’s connection with the spirit of the bear stems from her tribe’s traditions, as shown in the photo. Though animals were used for food, there was an explicit balance implied between the hunter and the hunted; the picture helps us to make sense of the author’s stories.

The Importance of Storytelling

Prompt #2

Storyteller is a book of short stories recounting author Silko’s personal experiences intertwined with Native American legends. Accompanying these short stories are photographs that serve to enrich their meaning. A number of portraits of elderly Native Americans in traditional clothing resonate with viewers as they hint at a vast cultural tradition. Distinguished among these photographs are two simple pictures, photographs 2 and 3, which  feature Silko with older relatives. These two photos appear to be innocent personal reflections, rather than expansions of the story they bookend. However, it is these two photographs that clarify the purpose behind Silko’s retelling of a woman’s vengeance and the Native American legend that foreshadowed it. Silko surrounds “Storyteller” with two portraits of herself and older relatives in order to emphasize the value of oral storytelling as insight into human nature and its relevance to present day.

The story these pictures expand upon is the account of an Inuit woman.  Determined to get revenge on the man who killed her parents, the woman lures her target out onto unstable ice. She takes advantage of his emotions to push him into a state of unpreparedness. The storeman is overcome with lust, frustration, and a sense of entitlement to her body and fails to realize that he is without the necessary protection to be out in the cold. He allows his feelings to win over common sense. This narrative is interspersed with an older tale of a man’s attempt to hunt a polar bear. The fluid intertwining of these two plots reveals how much they parallel each other.

The hunter, nervous and intent on not being found by the bear, forgets that his foremost enemy is the bitter cold. In surrendering his warm hat in an attempt to confuse the animal, he also surrenders his buffer to the weather. Sitting still in the freezing temperatures further establishes his fate, and he falls victim to the cold. He and the storeman share the same fate, as their emotions solidify the victories of the bear and vengeful woman.

These parallel accounts reveal the accuracy with which legends can predict human behavior. The woman in the story even acknowledges that the polar bear tale she had heard so often mirrors her revenge plan. The ability of these stories to shed light on human nature is what makes them most valuable. Much like the woman from the story, Silko understands that these legends are relevant to present day. Her inclusion of the two tales in the book shows that she finds Native American legends to be applicable to all people at any point in history. This belief in their importance implies that she believes traditional storytelling should continue.

She communicates this belief by placing portrait 2 a few pages before “Storyteller.” This photograph shows an elderly woman smiling down on a small girl. The presence of two different generations in the photo mirrors the method of storytelling, in that it is passed down to younger generations. The women’s attention to the little girl also holds a deeper meaning. She is investing time, energy, and knowledge into this child, much in the same way younger generations are infused with the collective memory that their elders bestow in legends.

Immediately following “Storyteller” is Portrait 3, a photograph of two girls and an elderly woman reading together.   While similar to the previous picture, this image also shows another aspect of oral culture. All three people in the photo are completely immersed in the pamphlet they are exploring, but cannot possibly be interpreting the material in the exact same way. The same feature exists in storytelling. Not everyone who hears the same story comes away with the same insight. The large variety of perspectives on these stories is what makes up a culture’s collective memory. In Silko’s case, this memory is the result of thousands of years. The traditional storytelling she grew up with was gathered over time to reflect human nature and provides valuable insight into people’s behavior. As reflected in Portrait 3, the beauty of storytelling is that both young and old can, and should, take part in it in order to continue the legacy of a culture.

“Storyteller” and these two portraits are used to communicate the importance of oral storytelling in maintaining an extensive collective memory that provides insight into human nature. By using both photographs and a story to illustrate the value of this tradition, Silko reveals the logic behind her desire to continue her oral tradition. She does not view the legends of her ancestors as simple stories that can be disregarded and forgotten. Instead she sees them as a powerful tool in understanding both herself and the people around her.

Vertigo - Life in America During the Great Depression

             In the beginning of Vertigo, there is a brief history of the United States that shows a vast amount of progress and positive changes occurring. The meaning of this brief history of America presented in ‘1929’ is to show how far the country had come and how much was accomplished in the time before everything changed during the depression.  There are sharp differences between the ‘1929’ chapter and the chapters that follow, but at the end of the ‘1929’ chapter there is warnings of unfortunate events to come.  When the chapter is coming to an end there is a rainstorm that ruins the carnival for many people.  This foreshadowing tells a little about the pain and suffering that is in the chapters ahead for the three main characters, the boy, the girl, and the gentleman.

             Throughout the chapter with the brief history there are many images of men working, building great skyscrapers, constructing railroads, and exploring new areas. The many pictures of the great work showed strong, very fit men doing the work; whereas, many of the men in the later chapters were shown to be small, thin figures.  The differences between the men used, showed a strong correlation between the health of the country and the health of the workingman.

            The man telling the brief history at the graduation ceremony spoke of all the good that can come when you work hard and dedicate yourself to a higher purpose.  Like the transformation of the workingman doing masonry at first and then the skyscrapers being erected by the end of the history, with a similar looking workingman.  This was intended to inspire the young audience to go out into the world and work hard so one day they could be part of a better country than the one they are walking into. The inspiration is quickly turned into desperation, which is highlighted when the boy steals from the man who wrecked his car over a cliff. This shows a drastic change in the once innocent boy that has been turned into a desperate man by the hard and unforgiving world he found shortly after his graduation. His desperation leads him planning to mug a man in an alley, and eventually selling his blood to the old gentleman when he has no other options.

            At a further look, the man telling the history also talks about fighting that took place, and immediately after the war picture there is a page with men traveling out west, and exploring new lands. This shows that even if there is war and fighting there can be a positive outcome. Later in the book there is also more fighting and war with the workers and the National Guard with an outcome that is not as prosperous as in the brief history.  When the old gentleman ordered the National Guard in, there is intense fighting between them and the rioters, except these pictures of the fighting are more graphic and are shown to be more harmful than the ones shown in the history. 

Furthermore, the old man’s health is suffering greatly after the riots because of the business problems he may be having or the remorse he has for calling in the National Guard.  Regardless of the reason, this is a far different picture after the prosperity shown after the fighting in the brief history.  Since the author is an advocate of unions, I think he showed this to say there is sometimes a good reason to use force and other times it is not beneficial to anyone involved. He also wanted to portray the old gentleman as a person who does not care much about people and only about his business earning money, regardless of what he has to do.

In conclusion, the brief history is a summary of the ups and downs that a society will face throughout time.  There sometimes needs be periods of war, despair, and instability before true progress can be made. In the end the author never reaches the part of progress for the boy, girl, and the old gentleman, possibly because he did not want to give his audience false hope.  He may not have known what would be next for the country and he was simply telling the story as he saw it. There was little hope for the characters, as there may have been little hope in the country during that time.

Vertigo - The Shadow of the American Dream

The question of the meaning of America has been asked many times throughout history and many different perspectives have led to that question having different answers, depending on either the author who wrote the answer or the time at which the answer was given.  In Lynd Ward’s Vertigo, the answer is given with the backdrop of the Great Depression.  The world has a dark tint to it now for those who live in it and values have been turned upside down.  Many who had strong beliefs and hope before the Depression now are cynical and no longer believe in a bright future.  In Vertigo’s 1929 section, there is evidence of this cynicism and gloomy viewpoint in the images that Ward selected.  These images serve as quick flashpoints in American history, but teaching the history is not their main point.  They are trying to show how America began as such a promise and then degraded in to the twilight that is the U.S. in 1929.  What was supposed to be a bright future for the citizens who came here became a twisted shade of a dream in which workers were exploited by industry.

                The first image in the sequence is of a ship, possibly meant to be the Mayflower, heading into the distance towards a skyline that is illuminated by a bright star.  This ship could be meant to symbolize the making of our country and future.  There are two key points in this image to be interpreted along with the ship itself, and the first of which is the lighting.  The single large star in sky represents the bright future that America could have in a new world, and the ship follows it towards certain prosperity.  Also on the stern of the ship the single lantern has its own aura of light which shines as the hope of the passengers for what is to come when they land at their new home.  The second point to consider is the fact that the ship is sailing away from view into the background, and after seeing the other pictures in the section it becomes apparent that this directionality is a foreshadowing.  The bright promise that the ship held is sailing away just as America will eventually turn away from its path and move towards the darkness that it is in 1929.  The capability for the country to be what it was meant to be was there at the beginning but it was swept into the new age and corrupted so that it no longer inspired such confidence in the citizenry as it did before. 

                The foreshadowing is downplayed in the next few images in which the typical American spirit is shown by expected representations.  A pilgrim doing honest work, farming his land with a musket in his hand, ready to defend what was his against an encroaching Indian.  Buildings rise to mark our progress and show how far we are coming.  The images of the Revolution and wagons going west bring up the themes of American bravery and adventurism.  But with the picture of the railroad expanding we see why the foreshadowing was there.  A cursory glance shows expansion being driven by American brawn and with the strength of the man swinging the hammer nothing can stand in the way.  But what the image really shows is industry and profit riding on the backs railroad workers who are not valued as citizens but just as labor to fuel the machine owned by the rich men who pull the strings.  During the 19^th century when the trans-continental railroads were being built, it was incredibly dangerous and men were often pushed beyond their limit by the bosses who were only interested in making money.  This frame points to that motive that is soon to be normal in our country.  The next picture shows how that has become a reality.  A laborer is bent under the strain of his work while tall metal structures rise above him and smokestacks release black smoke into an already blackened sky.  The workers are realizing that the promise of America has been taken from them by the corporate owners and Wall Street men.  The final image in this short history pocket book is that of a businessman doing exactly what the book is commenting on.  He stands tall, inviting everyone to see the glistening gem of a city that has risen out of nothing while the sun shines down.  Unfortunately the sun is shining through a small hole in the cloud of pollution created by the smokestacks in the background, and the man stands there simply because honest workers were exploited just so he could take credit for it all.

                Several images in the Elderly Gentleman section correlate to the reality that this “pocket book” attempts to mask over.  In the January section, one of the businessmen holds up a graph showing their profits are down.  Many people are going to lose their jobs and the country is going to suffer, but all they care about is the fact that they won’t make as much money as they did before.  This is part of the darkness that has grabbed America in 1929, where the employers no longer care about the employed, just that they can provide those employers with profit.  Later in the June and July sections there are riots by the workers, demanding recognition for what they do.  They are rebelling against the façade that the pocket book represents, rebelling against the idea that a future is being molded by the hard working American, because the history is not saying that the hard working American is being crushed down under the heel of big business and industry.  In the image where the crowd has the poster, “Don’t Scab: Fight for a Decent Living,” the people are trying to get what they deserve and armed guardsmen put them down at the point of a bayonet.  In this image the contrast in size between the crowd’s poster and the eagle at the top of the gate represents how overpowering the corporation is.  The eagle is reminiscent of the Iron Eagle in Germany, and during the 1930’s the German government was ruthless in coercing the population into agreement with their views.  Similarly, the corporation in this Vertigo image doesn’t care about how the workers feel, they are powerless to do anything about it.

                This pocket book in Vertigo, while it is very brief, tells us something about an important viewpoint of 1929 and the years that followed.  That bright future that was so ingrained into the American dream had been darkened and changed into something that no longer gave hope to the common people, especially when they needed it the most during the Great Depression.  The wealthy businessman at the top of the pyramid smiling down and proclaiming that the country was a beacon to the world was just a bad joke to those below.

Vertigo and the American Dream

The United States was founded on the ideals of opportunity, equality, and progress. The progression from settlement to revolution to expansion in America presents a powerful picture of America in 1929. The history of America presented to us here is shown to create a romantic and promising environment that contrasts with the rest of the story, as the American dream and its promise of opportunity crumbles in the wake of the great depression. The ideas of dreams verses reality and outward appearance verses internal turmoil are woven into the stories of the girl, the boy, and the elderly gentlemen as they navigate the depression and the failing American dream.

A ship sailing towards a star on the horizon, patriots fighting for freedom, the building of railroads, towns and cities. These images all represent parts of the American dream. The history of America is about building up, expanding westward, and living in a reality where a group of patriots can defeat the most powerful empire in the world. From the perspective of Lynd Ward’s characters, they can go nowhere but up. The snapshots of American history that Lynd Ward presents are not only to show us the environment of prosperity in the 20s, but the mentality of the characters that live there. As the boy and girl have their fortunes told, they see their dreams coming true in the crystal ball. The hope they have for the future is shown as magical, far removed from the reality they will have to face. By showing us their view of the world and the country they live in, we are able to better see the emotion and turmoil they face when the 30s hit. We are able to see that the depression was not only a difficult time, but was a complete surprise. The ideals of the American dream were a reality to them, and they truly believed all they wanted was attainable.

                The story of the boy and the girl represents the idea of dreams verses reality that is introduced with the short but powerful history of the United States. Nothing shows this contrast more than their trip to the carnival together. The happiness and dreamlike quality to their excursion as they ride the rides, dance, and fall in love shows their innocence just before the novel dives deep into the depression a few images later. The trip is cut short by a rainstorm and a vivid image of lightning cutting across the sky. The final image of the 1929 section and their trip to the carnival shows the boy and girl under cover from the rain as everyone scrambles to escape. The metaphor presented in this image gives a preview of the next section, as everyone will try to escape or hide from the struggles of poverty. The real contrast with the carnival scene, however, is the final image of the novel: the boy scrapes together money to take his fiancée back to the carnival, but the stark contrast in the mood shows the change the depression has brought down upon the couple. The American dream is dead, and the couple rides a roller coaster together, holding onto each other. The emotion in the boy’s face shows only fear as he seems to look back on their time together and realize that while their dreams once seemed not only attainable but inevitable, only uncertainty remains.

          While the history of America was representative of the disillusionment of the American dream, it also played into the theme of appearance verses reality. The success and progress of the United States was reaching its tipping point as the thirties approached, despite the fact that the roaring twenties kept up all appearances. This idea is best embodied by the elderly gentleman, who runs a cutthroat business as he cuts pay, leaves many jobless, and crosses ethical lines to control his employees and the union they form. His success in business, however, starkly contrasts with the reality of his physical health. Over the year during which his part of the story takes place, the man inches closer and closer to his death. He relies completely on his caretaker, and despite his outward appearances as a power-hungry CEO, he is a lonely man, weakening as the year goes on and as his company struggles in the depression. The contrast can be seen most clearly if we look at the images in the months of July and August. In July, the old man fights the union: he calls in the government, setting off a violent series of images as the union clashes with armed guards. The power position this old man holds is clearly demonstrated, in a very vivid way. August, however, sets a completely different tone. In every image we see how weak this man has become. He falls and cannot rise without help. He is bedridden. The final image of the month features an hourglass, as if counting down to his death.

The American dream is presented to the reader in a series of images showing the United States’ proud and patriotic history. Over the course of the story, we see that this dream serves as a foil for the depression. The progress of the United States is brought to a halt, and the characters’ hopeful dreams for the future are left behind as they try to hold their lives together and remain as they once were.

Storyteller - Interpretations of Family

The book Storyteller has pictures spread throughout the book.  These pictures are used to help describe the main point of the story.  Silko primarily uses pictures of people from the text or examples of landscape.  One of the pictures I focused on was a picture of her Grandma A’mooh.  The picture is placed six lines into the passage on page 31.  Silko begins the story describing how she called her grandma the wrong name for many years.  She called her Grandma A’mooh due to hearing her say a Laguna expression of endearment.  The mix up occurred when her grandma was caring for her as a child.

                I decided to analyze the picture during the reading.  The picture shows her two sisters and grandma reading a book.  There is a sense of love and compassion between them.  The grandma has a motherly feel with her wearing an apron and the kids hovering over her.  The relationship between them looks close as if she was a second mother.  The kids have a look of innocence.  One of them has their underwear pulled up higher than her pants.  It is fitting that the word used as her name means endearment.  The grandma and the child depend on each other to get through the day.

The story goes on the say that the kids eventually took care of her grandma.  A part of her story includes helping her grandma clean yucca roots, carry buckets of coal, and helped keep the fire burning.  In addition, they were afraid of her falling and hurting herself.  It is hard to say how far apart in time the picture is to the text.  The story says most of the help was when she was in her eighties.  The pictures shows her around that time.  Her overall appearance looks very old and frail.  Silko probably chose that picture because it is how she remembers Grandma A’mooh.  It is also unclear on if the author is of similar age as her sisters.  There is only mentioning of going to school and growing up beside her house.

Silko did this same technique on a short passage about Grampa Hank on page 185.  The story is about how Grampa Hank had a passion for engineering and automobiles.  He wanted to design cars, but he was told Indians weren’t supposed pursue that profession.  He listened to his teachers and became a store clerk.  The story is followed by a picture of Grampa Hank standing by a 1933 Auburn.  The car is not the 1957 Thunderbird from the story.  However, the picture follows the theme of his love for cars.

The image also shows some of the character’s personality.  From the story, it seems like he was an honest and hard worker.  Hank saved up for years until he was able to buy his dream car.  Silko chose a picture of him dressed in nice clothes.  It portrays him being an average and clean cut man.  The style of his dress is probably similar to a store clerk of that time.  I read the story once without looking at the picture and there wasn’t as much depth.  When the picture was added, details were more apparent and easier to visualize.  There isn’t very much going on in the picture, but small details can be selected from it.  The picture also acts as an introduction for other stories of Hank further on in the book.

Overall, I feel that the pictures added meaning to the story.  Authors can describe people clearly, but having the picture really adds another perspective.  Silko was strategic with the choice of pictures.  The time period and aspect that was trying to be portrayed was taken into account.  Analyzing the picture shows that it encompasses more than what is first perceived.  Connections between the picture and text seem to increase the more they are examined.  Something as small as the clothing they are wearing can help describe the person or story.  A person wearing an apron seems normal, but adding it into a story with them cooking makes the connection.  Then further parts of the story describing them grinding the red chili makes it come to life.    The placement of the photo is also another key point.  Not only does it break the text up physically, but shows the picture at the right time.  It creates a flow that helps move the reader along.  Silko did this well throughout the book and made it an enjoyable read.