Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Lullaby”: A Pantheistic View

Abstract

This study highlights the pantheistic perspectives of the Native American society depicted in Leslie Marmon Silko’s short story “Lullaby”. The protagonist’s divine and strong attachment to the objects of the natural world emboldens her to face several dangers in her life. The dominant ways of the Western world lead the central character Ayah into complete chaos. But the superior power of nature forces her to face internal and external struggles. She never curses her fate but tries to move with the ways of the world, tells readers about her willingness to be assimilated into an alien culture and retains her faith in nature and its objects. Nature acts as a guiding light in her life. She lives her life by singing traditional songs. The ideas discussed in the study are socially significant in the current century because we can see how man tries to ignore power of nature and how his unnatural ways disrupt the balance of our natural world.