Call & Response

The Call: Shot Through the Heart — Jessica

I was checking on the call for the day as I was driving to pick up my 2nd oldest son who had spent the night at a friend’s house. As soon as I saw the call, I heard the lyrics to the song on the radio. “Shot through the heart and your to blame…you give love a bad NAME.”

Well, there you go, I thought. The call is done! Too bad that was such an awful song because I’ve been singing it in my head ALL DAY LONG! Heeellpp meeee!!!!

Response: House Made of Dawn — Cheryl

From a paper I wrote for a graduate course on Contemporary Native American Literature:

Naming is very important for American Indians, as it brings objects and beings into existence. Naming tells one’s story; it locates, in all of creation, one’s being. New aspects of one’s self are discovered through talk of one’s past.

In House Made of Dawn, Abel’s biggest problem is his inability to speak. Because he cannot tell his story, give himself a name, he cannot locate himself in the universe. Abel’s inability to speak to Francisco upon his return from the war is the first indication of what Abel must do in order to come to terms with himself and the world around him. He cannot articulate his emotions, his thoughts, his fears. “He had always been afraid. Forever at the margin of his mind there was something to be afraid of, something to fear. He did not know what it was, but it was always there, real, imminent, unimaginable” (Momaday, 116). Until Abel can put his fears into words, he will be incapable of dealing with them, and until he is capable of dealing with them, he will find no peace and no harmony with the universe; he will be unable to go home.