Content Prediction
Reading the title at the first time makes me
confused. Who can talk to the dead? What does it mean by talking to the dead?
It definitely connects to someone’s life before their death. It may tell us
about a culture or something that can be explained using logical science
because we can see that the story is taken place in Hawaii, a place that has spiritual
and traditional cultures.
On the title page, the author also writes the
summary, so we can see that the story is about the relationship of an old
spiritual woman and her young apprentice, Yuri. They are isolated from modern
society, so they work together to maintain ancient Hawaiian traditions. Yuri
learns from Aunty Talking to the Dead how to be independent.
The content is about two Hawaiians who want to keep
their ancient tradition. It may be a nice story to read.
Commented Sentences
“Mama, wake up!”
Clinton hollered, like he’d wanted to all along. “The old spirits have had it.
We’re part of progress now, and the world is going to roll right over us and keep
on rolling, unless we get out there and grab our share.”
There is a point of view contradiction in this
paragraph. We can see that Clinton wants to make his Mama sure that they must
leave ancient traditional like Mama and Yuri do. Mama thinks that she must
maintain her tradition from her previous generations. On the contrary, Clinton
wants to bring modernism in the village. He graduated from mortician school. He
opens the Paradise Mortuary and brings scientific spirit of free enterprise.
I nodded. This
is the long-awaited moment. My moment.
This was it: My
moment had arrived.
Those sentences show Yuri’s willingness
to be someone like Aunty. She waits for her “moment,”
which comes when she feels a directive from her recently deceased mentor, Aunty
Talking to the Dead. The story’s title,
by excluding Aunty, suggests that
Yuri is assuming Aunty’s role and is now the one to communicate with the
dead. Yuri thinks that becoming a shaman
can require a calling followed by a lengthy apprenticeship.
Yuri’s Character Sketch
Yuri
Shimabukuro is not a good-looking woman. It is stated on the first page in
paragraph 3 when she was in her wedding. “It’s bad enough she has the face
of a horse,” I heard one of them complain. She is also
tall, proven in the same paragraph, sentence before it. At the time, I
didn’t have many prospects—more schooling didn’t interest me, and my mother’s
attempts at marrying me off inevitably failed when I stood to shake hands with
a prospective bridegroom and ended up towering a foot above him. The next
paragraph implies that she is big, or fat maybe. Because her mother dressed her
in navy blue, on the theory that dark colors make everything look smaller. So, in
appearance, Yuri is a big, tall, and plain spinster.
And
about personality, we think that Yuri is unusual, smart, strong, tough, coward
at first, but then she became a brave woman who has self confidence and
integrity.
Questions and Answer
a.
Q: Why did
Yuri think of quitting everyday for the first year?
A: Because there were many things to learn. She was also
the constant subject of ridicule from her community, who considered both Aunty
and her anachronistic. At one point, her
mother prepared a large dinner, her method of persuasion, to convince the Yuri
to quit.
b. Q: Why did Yuri decide to go back to
Aunty?
A: Because she
remembered things about being in her mother’s house, her failed marriage, the
navy blue, and the humiliating weekly tea ceremony’s lessons at the Buddhist
temple. She thought that she had to stay right where she was. Yuri persevered for over twenty-five years for her “moment”.
c. Q: What do you think about Aunty
Talking to the Dead and Clinton’s relationship as a mother and son?
A: They actually have
difference opinion and view about how to bury somebody who has passed away. Clinton
wants to make it modern because they are in progress, but Aunty wants to
maintain the old tradition. Clinton
tries to talk Aunty into retirement so as not to be embarrassed by her in his
run for a village council position. Aunty seems almost oblivious to the outside
world and its supposed logic and technological progress. She seems self-contained, in possession of a
deeper, more mystical, and more spiritual.
They still do
what they usually do. When Aunty died, Clinton still wants to take care of her.
d. Q: What is the theme of the story?
A: A prevailing theme
here is the conflict between the ``wholeness'' of traditional lifestyle and
so-called progress.
e. Q: Is there any humorous things in
the story? Mention it if yes.
A: Yes, there are humorous things; the
appearance of the very tall Yuri next to the short Aunty, the elaborate dinners
Yuri’s mother served as persuasion tactic, and the death of a woman from
choking on a bone left in salmon mousse.
The Missing Information
I don’t find the reason why Yuri decided to
apprentice herself to Aunty Talking to the Dead after her failed marriage. Previously,
her mother attempted to marry her daughter but it failed because someone
complained that she had a face like a horse.
After Clinton talked to Aunty that she should leave
her old tradition, Aunty began to sing. Firstly she sang quietly, and then
louder. Watanabe doesn’t tell us why.
Letter to a Friend
Dear
Jody,
How’s life? I heard you need a reference
about Hawaiian culture and tradition, right? A few days ago, our friend, Emma
gave me a short story. The title is Talking to the Dead. Emma told me that it
was about two Hawaiian women that wanted to maintain their old tradition of
funeral ceremony.
Actually, this story also tells about a
shaman’s moderation, in this case is Yuri. They perform many functions: including
healing, leading sacrificial rituals, preserving tradition through storytelling
and song, clairvoyance, guiding souls, and various spiritual rituals. As in
Yuri’s case, becoming a shaman can require a calling followed by a lengthy
apprenticeship.
It is an interesting story because we can
find that there are people who still want to keep their tradition when the era
is in progress now. It is good to read when we want to see spiritual things
that live in certain area.
I will send you the story if you interest in
it. I’ll be happy to receive your reply letter. J
Your
friend, Nury
Talking
to the Dead as
a Film
It will be a great film because it is taken in
Hawaii, one of beautiful places in the world. I will adopt the whole text. It
has a mystique side also.
The Ending
Now, in the dark, the old woman is singing.
I have washed her with my own hands and worked the
salt into the hollows of her body. I have dressed her in white and laid her in
flowers.
Aunty, here are the beads you like you like to wear.
Your favorite cakes. A quilt to keep away the chill. Here is noni for the heart and awa for every kind of grief.
Down the road a dog howls, and the sound of
hammering echoes the still air. “Looks like a burying tomorrow,” the sleepers
murmur, turning in their warm beds.
I bind the sandals to her feet and put the torch to
the pyre.
The sky turns to light. The smoke climbs. Her ashes
scatter, filling the wind.
From here I can see Clinton runs, comes to me. “Stop
it!” The wind is blowing softly, sweeping my hair. “I don’t wanna see my
mother’s body is buried by you. I can handle it by myself.”
“Can't you see? This is her last wish. I can hear
her singing.”
The day is getting dark. Clinton feels suddenly
frightened. His wistful eyes look at her mother. Then, a minute later, he
begins to hear a voice, quietly, but very sure. Clinton knows that it’s his
mother’s voice. The crows fly shorter, flapping their black wings strongly.
Clinton kneels when he hears the voice is getting louder and louder. Yuri
smiles and the sun is sinking slowly, bringing a dark.
Recommendation
For someone who has never been to
Hawaii, this story provides an insider's look of the people's lives. I like
most stories, though I wish that they could get into more depth of their
characters' psyche. It is a collection of short stories following different
people in a community, which
connect enough to give a picture of the community from different points of
view.
It is good because you can learn
about a difference point of view between mother and her son that should make
them tight.
Cultural Aspects
a. Some
Hawaiians have a job as a kahuna who prepares
bodies for burial.
b. People
are so democratic because in a family, the parents will let their children
choose their own job. It can be seen from Aunty’s family. She let Clinton, her
son, to have a modern mortuary, compared with the fact that she has a
traditional mortuary. It’s like Yuri’s family. She, when she was young, she
didn’t have many prospect to continue her school. At the first time, her Mama
didn’t permit her to apprentice herself to Aunty, but then she was permitted.
c. Hawaii
is an archipelago, so it consists of many small islands. People who live near
the beach usually collect salt.
d. People
at that time still use herbs for traditional medicine such as a’ali and awa.
e. They
believe that a death caused by awkward causes can't be handled by ordinary
people. A death that looks like a tough case will need some real expertise. In
their belief, the spirit will require some talking to.
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