How we cite our quotes: (Poem.Paragraph)
Quote #1
He could feel it inside his skull—the tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more. (IV.2)
Tayo suffers from what doctors today call post-traumatic stress disorder, but Silko makes a point of avoiding the use of a western medical label for Tayo's disease. Instead she uses a metaphor for the confusion going on in Tayo's brain: his thoughts are like a bundle of tangled threads that get even more tangled when he tries to pull them apart.
Quote #2
"He cries all the time. Sometimes he vomits when he cries."
"Why does he cry, Tayo?"
"He cries because they are dead and everything is dying."
(V.9-11)
In the hospital, Tayo speaks about himself in the third person. It's like he's trying to distance himself even further from the pain that he's feeling. Or maybe just trying out what it's like to narrate your own life.