Response to "Language and Literature from a Pueblo Indian Perspective"

Overall, I think this essay was very insightful and interesting. It gives a different perspective to language, the way the Pueblos see it. The most interesting quote that stuck out to me was "a great deal of the story is believed to be inside the listener, and the storyteller's role is to draw the story out of the listeners" (127). This view on communicating stories and information is different from anything I've ever thought of, the fact that the story is actually in the listener. This perspective suggests more of a sharing experience and bond between the speaker and the listener. It also suggests that the listener has a large capacity for stories and information and the speaker just has to bring that out of the listener and show that the story exists. This view along with the many other beliefs of language and stories of the Pueblo people has shown me a greater depth of language, a different understanding of language. After reading this, it has definitely given me an appreciation for a different side of language that I would have never known before.