Week 2 Analysis "Coyote Cooks His Daughter"
Tone : The tone of “Coyote Cooks His Daughter” happened to have a kid-like playful tone in the beginning but then a dark scary tone in the end. What I mean by this is in the beginning of the story there's a coyote and his daughter and the coyote is hungry so he goes out hunting and he takes his daughter with him. So you kind of get this feel of a father daughter relationship. This is what I mean by the playful loving kind of tone. If you also look in each stanza there's a repeated word that puts emphasis on what is happening. For example it says “his tail when switch-switch-switch gallop-gallop-gallop he went he kept coming along running and his daughter kept coming slowly behind him”(52). So here you can hear and see the playful tone that's being given out between the father and the daughter. It kind of makes you think that his daughter is learning from him in things that he does. However towards the ending of the story after he knocks his daughter out and cooks her, her ghost comes back around and starts to say “Pine tree,stick, pine tree, grass stick jingle-ingle-ingle”(54). In which this tone darkens the story. It's kind of scary because do you have a ghost around trying to communicate what had happened to her which will make the story go from happy and cheerful to dark and demented kind of tone.
Theme: The theme of a story I would have to say is “Trust” and “never knowing what the future holds”. I say trust is a theme of the story because a daughter trust her parents father and mother. She would never think that her parents would hurt her in any kind of way because those are the people who have your back and has the most love for you. So without a doubt it never consciously came in her mind that her dad would actually cook her. I also say that “never knowing the what the future holds” is a theme because like I said with the trust who would have thought her own dad would have kill her just because he was hungry. So the story kind of puts off a trust no one vibe even the ones you think love you and care for you the most because even those people could turn their backs on you in an instant.
Context: The context of this story historically would be very questionable because there is nowhere in history where a father would kill his own daughter because he was hungry and try to eat her. Unless in some type of religion they allowed that which I've never heard of any. I think a lot of this has come from the thought of not eating your own time because I will be considered cannibalism. The element I chose influences and informs the author's work more because in the story like this there are many different elements that you can use but the tone of it is what really grabbed the reader and makes the reader want to read more. It has that foreshadowing type theme and tone. So it kind of keeps you on edge while you're reading but also intrigued.
Citations: Cupeno "Coyote Cooks His Daughter" Pg(52)(54)
Great job discussing the literary device (tone) and the themes you see. I don't know that you can really discuss context so much in this story -- it's a creation story, and as such, was told orally for generations before it was written down, so there's no way of knowing the contextual background of when it was originally created.
ReplyDeleteHi Alesha! I really enjoyed reading your analysis of this story. I did not care for the story and it was a reading that I had a hard time analyzing. Reading this I can imagine the playfulness and then the setting turning dark. I also like the theme you chose, trust, and the saying, never knowing the what the future holds." This is defiantly true for this story. Great job.
ReplyDeleteHi Alesha, it was interesting reading your writing on "Coyote, Kills His Daughter," especially since I haven't had a chance to complete it. The title alone gives away a major event that will happen in this story. It is crazy that a father would eat his own daughter. You made a good point on that in the beginning of this story the setting is being developed by the daughter and her father going out hunting together and on how this shows a father daughter relationship. It is sad how the story started off cheerful and then ended sad. Thanks for sharing this story.
ReplyDeleteHey, Alesha!
ReplyDeleteWhen I was deciding which text to analyse, I read this one but I didn't understand anything. In fact, I found it weird and disgusting. I gave up and didn't even go looking deeply.
However, I'm so glad for having read your analysis. It was amazing and intense. You talked about the tone in a critical thinking way and it amazed me.
Btw, your analysis reminded me my Engl-230 class because my professor wants something similar every week. Please teach me your secret haha
Thank you for sharing your analysis!
Hi Alesha! I agree with you that one of the themes of this story is trust and how we do not know what the future holds. I also think that one of the themes the story has is that actions have consequences and that no matter how you hide it, it will catch up to you. This is seen when the coyote goes home with his daughter and begins to prepare her and not telling his wife and when the ghost comes back and sings how her father struck her the wife burns the house down. This action goes to show that there are consequence to every action and whether it is good or bad depends on the action itself. The only question that comes to mind is how the coyote felt because although in the story it explains that his tail did not wage anymore we do not fully understand the depth of his remorse or what he feels by breaking the trust of his daughter.
ReplyDelete