post 22
May 3, 2011 by jessicafisher255
Tayo is ashamed of his heritage. He tries to hide the fact that he is Native American while he is in the army. When Tayo goes to a bar and tells the girls that he is an Italian soldier, and he gives the name of a soldier in his unit. “I sat close to the blonde I used Mattuci’s name that night-this Wop in our unit…’well I scored all right.’ ‘Which one, which one?’ ‘Not one,’ I said ‘Both of them!’ ‘Well, I’ll be goddammed!’ he said ‘all in the same bed?’ ‘Yes, sir, this In’di’n was grabbin’ white pussy all night!’”(Silko 54) Although Tayo is treated different because he is a Marine, he is still consciousness about his Native American heritage. He feels that he has to lie and say he is Italian to the women at the bar. Tayo has been outcast because of his heritage his whole life, so it is understandable that he is so uncomfortable with himself that he prefers to pass as someone one else. He doesn’t mind when Mattuci is getting a reputation. In this case, Mattuci’s reputation is something the soldiers would be proud of, but Tayo doesn’t need the recognition. He is just happy to be included. Tayo is happy to be getting “positive” female attention because he was abandoned by his mother and treated coldly by his aunt.
We see again the attention Tayo gets once he joins the army. White women never looked at me until I put on that uniform, and then by God I was a U.S. Marine and they came crowding around. All during the war they’d say to me ‘Hey, soldier, you sure are handsome. All that black thick hair’…they never asked me if I was Indian; sold me as much beer as I cold drink. I was a big spender then. Had my military pay(37).
It is strange to think that both these voices belong to Tayo. In the second, we see how happy he is to be hanging in the bars and getting attention from the ladies. He even states that his Indian heritage is never brought up. But, in the first passage, Tayo lies about his last name, and masks his heritage from the two women in the bar. Tayo knows that he has all the moves, he knows to “smile at both of them…but I gave my ‘special look’ to the blonde”(53), and he then buys the ladies another drink, yet he is still insecure about his Indian background so much that he lies and says that he is Italian. This is another countless example of Tayo not owning his identity and being ashamed of his heritages, both white and Native American. The focus on this story is Tayo trying to come to terms with his heritage and accept who he is under any environment or circumstance.
