Character Analysis: The Man To Send Rain Clouds

Love and Death 07/05/2012

In Native­American cultures, death is seen as a passing from the physical life to the spiritual life. By requesting Teofilo to send rain, this spiritual aspect of death is demonstrated in “The Man to Send Rain Clouds“, by Leslie Marmon Silko, along with cultural traditions such as face painting. Both of these actions are inspired by the Native­American culture which the main characters in the story, namely Leon and Ken are desperately trying to keep alive. In:
“The Man to Send Rain Clouds“, Silko illustrates the coalescence of cultural and religious differences between the Roman Catholic and the Native­American traditions and the adaptation to the dominant culture to keep these traditions alive. Using the efforts to conceal a
loved one’s death (at least until the burial of Teofilo) displayed by the above mentioned main characters of the story, Silko portrays the importance that Natives attribute to their traditions concerning death and how they can be lenient toward some of the Roman Catholic traditions.
At the beginning of the story, Ken and Leon, the main characters in the story, find
Teofilo, their grandfather, dead under a cottonwood tree for a day or more. Before wrapping him in a red blanket, “across the brown wrinkled forehead, he drew a streak of white (paint) and along the high cheekbones he drew a strip of blue paint [...] Then Leon painted with yellow under the old man’s broad nose, and finally, when he had painted green across the chin he smiled”(Silko p.1050). This illustrates the tenacity for their Native culture’s traditions and the precise locations of the streaks of paint on the face display the deep symbolism of that culture. On their way back home with Teofilo`s dead body, they ran into Father Paul, the local priest, (“Did you find Teofilo?“ he asked loudly. Leon stopped the truck. “Good morning
Father, we were just out to the sheep camp. Everything is O.K now.” “Thank God for that,
Teofilo is a very old man, you really shouldn’t allow him to stay at the sheep camp alone.”
“No, he won’t do that anymore now” ) (Silko p.1050) This is a significant passage in the story because Leon clearly did not want Father Paul to know anything about Teofilo’s death out of fear that he will be prevented to perform a traditional Native­American burial by the Catholic
church.
Silko portrays ,in this passage and in others, the clash of two different cultures, namely Native and Roman catholic, and how Leon and ken are very tenacious of their own. It is also relevant that Leon called the priest Father which shows the mutual respect that they both have for each other even with their cultural and religious beliefs. Teofilo’s family were brought up in and taught to practice Native­American culture and part of their beliefs is that since Teofilo’s spirit has exited his body, he would be able to send rain. This later leads to a combination of Catholic and Native traditions in regards to funerals.
After having dug a hole for Teofilo’s burial, Leon was requested by Louise to seek

Father Paul. She said “I had been thinking about [...] the priest sprinkling holy water for grandpa so he won’t be thirsty.” and Leon replied “I’ll see if he’s there.”(Silko 1051). This is a significant dialogue because it illustrates the unification of the main characters’ Native traditions, and Father Paul’s Roman Catholic traditions. However, the purpose of
the sprinkling of holy water is entirely different for the Natives in this situation because Louise claims that it is to quench Teofilo’s thirst, as opposed to having him baptized. This excerpt from the story also shows Leon’s development or leniency toward accepting catholic rituals (in this particular case, for death) to be performed on Teofilo as opposed to having a fully Native funeral. After having convinced the priest to sprinkle holy water on Teofilo’s body, both Leon and Father Paul returned to the graveyard as the sun was setting: “He (the priest) followed
Leon out of the door and across the dim churchyard to the adobe steps in front of the church
[...] when they started down the hill to the graveyard, only half the sun was visible above the mesa.”(Silko 1052). This quote denotes once again the coalescence of the two cultures, namely Native­American and Roman Catholic, because Teofilo’s funeral is being held in a graveyard behind a church. After Teofilo’s burial, “He (Leon) felt good because it was finished, and he was happy about the sprinkling of the holy water; now the old man could send them big thunderclouds for sure” (Silko 1053). using this passage in the end of the story, Silko portrays Leon’s tenacity in his culture despite having Teofilo’s body buried behind a church and sprinkled with holy water by Father Paul because the purpose of these actions are different ,in his perspective, from that of the Priest.
In Leon’s view, it does not matter where
Teofilo is buried and it is not mandatory to have him buried in a graveyard, as for the holy water, the protagonist considers it as water for Teofilo so that he does not get thirsty. Leon’s
Native tradition may have been slightly modified due to the unification of Catholic and Native cultures but that did not change his beliefs.
“The man to send rain clouds” is about the Unification of two cultures and the acceptance and leniency to change. In combining both of these requirements, the protagonist is able to cope with change (to a certain extent), and follow his culture’s teachings to the fullest. The changes being: The burial in a church graveyard and the baptism at the funeral.
The fact that the main character did not want what is considered to be a proper Christian burial, shows the limitations that Leon has about leniency toward Roman Catholic traditions and tenacity toward Native­American culture. The key for this system to work is the balance of the two cultures which was portrayed from the beginning of the story to the
end.

Words: 1006
Work Cited: Oltman, Christina. “The Man to Send Rain Clouds” by Leslie Marmon Silko.
Publisher: VIKING. NY 1974 (1974)