Short Summary - Lullaby - Laguna Pueblo

Lullaby - Languna Pueblo

[alert-success] Lullaby

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[alert-primary] Short Summary [/alert-primary]

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   Lullaby follows Ayah, an elderly Navajo woman, through one evening. She and her husband Chato live in New Mexico in Cebolleta, where they receive their welfare payment monthly. Chato usually buys beer; the story begins at a bar. 

    While waiting for Chato along a creek, Ayah sees snow fall “in thick tufts like new wool—washed before the weaver spins it” She is wrapped in an Army blanket from her late son Jimmie and remembers weaving blankets with her grandmother and mother. Ayah's mother attended Jimmie's birth at a traditional Navajo hogan. 

    Ayah recalls the day a U.S. Army representative came to her home to tell her about Jimmie's death. Chato had to translate because Ayah doesn't understand English. Ayah never believed Jimmie's death, yet she misses him. 

    She laments that Jimmie was not there when white doctors told her that Ella and Danny needed tuberculosis treatment. Ayah signed the doctors' papers since she didn't comprehend them and wanted them to leave. Ayah fled into the hills with her children when she knew the men wanted them, but the doctors and police returned the next day and compelled her to surrender Ella and Danny. This reflects Ayah's losses when her infant children died prematurely. 

    After Chato taught her to sign her name in English, Ayah blamed him for the death of the children and refused to sleep with him for years. She returned when he was fired by his employer, a white rancher, for being too old: That had satisfied her To see how the white man rewarded Chato's years of service. 

    In the present, Ayah searches Azzie's Bar for Chato. The men in the pub look at her suspiciously, reminding her of the lady who twice brought Danny and Ella home for visits. The woman was plainly uncomfortable, and Ella had forgotten her mother and looked at her frightened by the second visit.

    Danny recalled Ayah but had forgotten Navajo. The wife left with the children, indicating they would not return. After failing to find Chato in the bar, Ayah searches outside. Leaving Cebolleta and returning to their hogan with a few sheep and a drying garden excites her. As she approaches Chato, who has dementia, he stares at her like he doesn't remember her. 

    Ayah tells Chato to hide behind a boulder and wrapped him in her blanket while a storm approaches. Ayah feels calm as she looks up at the starry sky after the storm and sings a a traditional lullaby to her husband Chato.  

Theme: 

    Recollection of memories : "Lullaby" is a narrative that primarily focuses on the past, and Silko emphasizes the importance of memory from the beginning of the short story: 

"Ayah had aged to an old woman, and her life had transformed into recollections". 

    This phrase evokes a sense of melancholy: Ayah's existence is characterized by a collection of recollections, stemming from the scarcity of her own experiences and the profound loss of significant aspects that previously imbued her life with purpose, such as her offspring and the aspiration for her cultural heritage to endure through her progeny. 

    Conversely, Ayah's recollections are exceptionally vivid, to the extent that they form a distinct "life" in their own right, frequently overshadowing the actuality of her surroundings. As an illustration, Ayah reflects upon the manner in which her mother's weaving and her buckskin shoes serve as protective measures against cold and damp conditions. She observes that Jimmy's blanket appears to possess a heightened warmth, as if it has undergone a metamorphosis like to the blankets crafted by Ayah's mother.  

    The role of memory has considerable importance within Navajo culture. For the Navajo, whose history has historically been passed down by oral tradition, memory is not a passive process. It involves the individual actively reconstructing past and passing it on to future generations.     

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