Navajo Artists: Empowering Cultural Interpretation Through Art - Essay Sample

Introduction

The main idea of the author in this text is the inspiration that the Navajo artists possess so that they can gain an interpretation of their cultures. Various literary elements are used in this work where foreshadowing is used to show how stoic tribalism images that were seen in the past that negatively affected the art history that was realized in the near past are being replaced by realness.

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In the future to come, there is much potential where expressions of beauty, power, and mysteries are going to be used to create a culture that is expected to dominate several years from now. Foreshadowing is also brought out where the artists will be expected to have extensive knowledge of their past even as they are optimistic about their future. The author also uses conflict where a collision of cultures is happening in the Navajo world, and it may affect the artists due to the effect it has on many of them. However, they have high hopes that they will not become casualties of this collision.

The author uses a setting of storytelling and creativity, where he explains how they spent their winter nights during their young ages around their fathers getting stories of the past which were passed from one generation to another. The theme of change is brought out in these stories where the home of a changing woman is shown in the ancient stories with the hero and the savior of the world coming alive to save them. The Navajo artists adopt a culture of expressing their feelings and thoughts using art which is a more straightforward way to show their opinions in such a way that they preserve this culture and pass it on to the future generations. This is an excellent change from the past method of telling stories, and the benefits of the use of art are visible in many forms where art strengthens the power of the culture.

Use of characterization is visible in these works where the author explains the characters of the first woman and the first man who created a new life in the fourth world. Other characters used in these works are the "slayer of enemies" who is the hero of the fourth world and the fathers of such saviors who get in the hearth fire to fight monster gods to save the Navajo culture from such threats.

Similes are also used by the author to explain the concept of Navajo culture where he compares anticipation with grass found in the path of an approaching thunderstorm. The grass is less likely to survive such storms, but still, it anticipates that the storm will pass without destroying it. This anticipation of the grass is similar to the new excitement and energy that the author has in expecting that use of art to display their culture will create new dawn that will change the way that different people from other cultures view this culture. The inspiration that the grass has to surpass the oncoming storm is the same as the freshness that the author has when the spirit line of the art is drawn to develop the culture being explained.

Conclusion

My point of view of these works is that they are successful in showing how the author draws his inspiration from the beauty and strength that is drawn from the power of the sources he uses. The author also manages to talk about the things he and the people of the Navajo culture are willing to do so that they can reshape their culture which is passed from one generation to another mostly through art.