Reflection 19

In this section of the reading, Tayo is with Betonie and is receiving much help in his healing process. He talks to Betonie, as well as Descheeny, Betonie's grandfather, to get help for his PTSD. There are many poems throughout this section that help tell stories. It was discussed in the beginning that storytelling helps heal people and that is a major theme throughout this novel. It begins with a story about how Shush, Betonie's servant, got his name. There is a note added into the writing in between poems. The title of it is "Note on bear people and witches." It talks about what a witch is versus a bear person and I am confused about what relevance that has to the novel. It is randomly placed in between sections and nothing has appeared like this before. Plus, I haven't read about witches at all, and all of the sudden it is a major portion when I read about Tayo's healing. Then, a poem about how witches created the white people and the destruction the white people would cause.

Tayo meets Descheeny, Betonie's grandfather, and they begin the ceremony to heal Tayo. Throughout the ceremony, Betonie keeps repeating "en-e-e-ya-a-a-a-a!" and I think it has an important meaning. I searched in Google the word and I looked for a meaning, however, nothing came up. I am not sure what the word means, but I think it is important and has relevance to Tayo's healing and the ceremony. When I looked closer, that was actually only the first verse of the poem. Later, Betonie repeats "eh-hey-yea-ah-na!" which is different than the other chant. I looked up the meaning of this chant and couldn't find anything either. I will keep it underlined in case I get the chance to ask in class. Later in the ceremony, Betonie cuts Tayo across the head by surprise and when Tayo is waking up later the wound isn't swollen. I am not sure if the wound is completely healed or it just doesn't hurt anymore. If it's healed it just shows a time change, at the same time, if it doesn't hurt that could represent time change as well. Descheeny tells Tayo a story, as part of his healing, about men that were riding horses and a girl fell out of a tree so they captured her. I am confused about why the girl might have been in the tree, maybe she was spying on them, and that's why they took her captive. But they were going to kill her, however Descheeny said they shouldn't. I also noticed that at one point Descheeny stated that he had multiple wives and I was thinking this might be part of the native culture, to have multiple wives. Later, it is clarified that he has specifically three wives. There is more information given about Descheeny and how he is mixed races like Tayo. Descheeny's mom was supposed to be killed because she slept with someone of a different race, but instead she ran away and took Descheeny with her. Finally, Tayo shows great signs of healing in the end of this section. In the end there are many times where he says he feels healing and the evil leaving his body.