The Man to Send Rain Clouds: Contemporary Stories by American Indians

Leslie Marmon Silko’s short story depicts Indigenous traditions and death rites of the Laguna Pueblo people, allowing the reader insight into how Leon and his family reconcile the apparent contradictions between past and present, Pueblo custom and Christian faith. The tone of the text and the narrator’s perspective keeps the reader a respectful distance from the events of the story itself. The third-person omniscient narrator remains separate from the story, remarking and providing details of a scene from a slightly detached perspective. Though it occasionally remarks on Leon’s mood, the narrator does not provide detailed descriptions of his thoughts. At the end of the story, for example, the narrator describes how Leon “felt good because it was finished, and he was happy about the sprinkling of the holy water” (4). Through this small description, the reader understands Leon’s general feelings towards the events of the story. Silko’s narrator describes the interior worlds of the characters in shallow detail, resisting a detailed psychological portrait.

Unable to gain insight into Leon and the other characters’ internal thoughts, the reader examines their words and actions in close detail. In this regard, the short story functions as a window to understanding Pueblo traditions, typically impenetrable to outsiders. Silko’s respectful distance between the reader and the written world of the Pueblo people in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” can also be seen in her use of untranslated words. Though these terms are few in the short text, Silko’s decision not to translate words like “arroyo” and “pueblo” likely forces some readers to acknowledge their outsider status. Readers who are familiar with the terms are granted greater access to the text, while those who are not are compelled to look up the terms or linger in their unknowing. Through this, Silko denies easy, translated entrance into Pueblo life, and refuses to overexplain certain aspects of the Indigenous experience.