Biographical criticism of Simon J. Ortiz

The author, Simon J. Ortiz, was born in Albuquerque, New Mexico and raised in the Acoma-speaking family. In 1969, the University of Iowa awarded him a Master of Fine Arts in Writing. His texts include, “A Good Journey,” published in 1977, where he writes expansively on the antiquity of Acoma. He uses allegory to address current social and ecological problems. “Going For the Rain” was released in 1976, and it emphasizes on the ceremonial in daily life, and its recurrent edifice. On the same note, it touches on the attitude of Ortiz to the past and present way of life of people in Acoma. Similarly, the poems of “From Sand Creek” published in 1981 recounts on Simon’s application of allegory as a patient in Colorado hospital. It also depicts Simon as an antagonist as it encompasses the details of the genocide of Arapaho that claimed many people. Equally, “After and Before the Lightning” was published in 1994 as a periodical that encompasses poems that record Simon’s vacation in Dakota. In the poems, legendary devices and diction are used to honor Simon’s fortitude towards the people of Lakota. Therefore, this paper shall touch on the various literary devices used in Ortiz’s texts so as to develop his biographical criticism.
The poems in “Going for the Rain” describe fundamental values in Ortiz’s poetry. Various themes like the gift of culture to children, the importance of language and words, respect for nature and elders, and harmony of the botanic, animals and humans have been portrayed in the poems (Baym and Levine, 823).

At the beginning of “Going for the Rain,” the author recites the creation myth of the Acoma people and goes ahead to beckon the allegorical Coyote who appears in every collection carrying out different roles. The author says “It is writhing overhead. Hear. The Bringer. The Thunderer. Sunlight falls 20through cloud curtains, a straight bright shaft.” Hence, this shows the significance his works portray to the nature that surrounds a man. Simon gets muddled in the muddled environment and claims that humanity has fallen because people have forgotten their origins. Therefore, this makes him draw a parallel between the splinter of man’s ruined spirit and the ancient carcasses of Indian lore. Hence, man can rebuild his splintered self by remembering and retelling the stories in the poems that contain fundamental elements that may enable one to understand the world.
The success of the first collection made Ortiz come up with “A good Journey” that was based on the past and present way of life of people in Acoma. The poems in the collection use allegory to depict ordinary incidents like expeditions in the major cities, the development of children, the birth of a daughter, and the cuisine of stew. In the collection, the poet says, “Later on, he studies Cape Cod for a moment, a faraway glee on his face, in his eyes. He is Gauguin, he is Coyote, he is who he is, traveling the known and unknown places, traveling, traveling.” Hence, this exemplifies the expeditions that make Coyote study and search for places in maps across the globe. Similarly, the poems exemplify Ortiz’s conviction that the experiences if Indians are common to all people. Therefore, the author believes that the events captured in the lyrics have a connection to the actual nature of all people around the globe. On the same note, “A Good Journey” depicts the author’s empathy to the entire creation of God. The collection of the poems that figure out many helpless animals that have been killed by motorists portrays his compassion to the nature that surrounds man (Ortiz, 162). Hence, this does the work of Ortiz in this collection to be deemed as a celebration of life as the poems touch on the endurance of people, culture and the scuffle to protect the land. The author’s words emphasize on the requisite of the current generation to protect the continuance and survival of the native people in the society as dominant culture closes among them.
In the collection, “From Sand Creek: Rising in This Heart Which Is Our America,” the author is depicted as an antagonist as he develops poems that touch on shattered spirits, young and old, and provision of collective awareness into the disaffection of human beings from their inherent soil. In the poem, the author says, “She caught me; Carson caught Indians, secured them with his lies. Bound them with his belief.” Therefore, this depicts the injustices that the Indians faced as their oppressors tricked them. The collection was set in Colorado hospital where Ortiz was once laid when an ailment attacked him. The poet equals the 1864 extermination of 133 Indian females and teenagers at Sand Creek with the Vietnam War and its associated massacres. Conversely, one of the poems in the collection depicts Ortiz enunciating his interminable hope for the prolific and harmonious affiliation between man and man and amid man and the land. Therefore, this creates a cumulative impression that has converted faith in the view of the rapport that exists between man and land and the rise of cohesion amid the people who have been evicted.
Ortiz published a poetry collection in 1991 on “After and Before the Lightning” that applied diction and legendary devices to depict his role as a spokesman for all Native American populaces. The crew contains journal entries in prose and poetry that were composed while Simon spent a winter in South Dakota. The content of the poem portrays that the poet understands the mystical topography and the chronological enigmas of supremacy, skirmish, manipulation, dishonesty, and endurance (Ortiz & David, 15). The secrets cycle in conquest and desert and this makes them be essential teachings to the people of the region that the poet has employed. Therefore, this has made the collection of the poems in “After and Before the Lightning” to stand for themselves and depict strength since they work in the milieu of sturdy aptitude of the season that they chronicle. Henceforth, this work of Ortiz should be considered as a supreme achievement in the current literary world, and a crucial event in the present movement of American Indian poetry. On the same note, the work works as a significant contributor to the current literary work across the globe.
In conclusion, Simon J. Ortiz exemplifies themes, legendary devices, allegory, antagonism, and qualities that are inimitable to the Native American culture and the whole humanity in America and the world. Analogous to the oral tradition of his culture, his poetry authenticates the Native American scuffle against annexation, estrangement, and subjugation as they wriggled to conserve identity in the extensive humanity (Ortiz, 40). Therefore, his work should be applauded due to the base of its foundation, convenience, and the weight it puts on the juncture between current life, custom, and antiquity. Despite that the foundation of his graft replicates private and kinfolk life; he archetypally recounts the elements to the grander societal and civil concerns. Therefore, this feature reinforces his inscription by awarding it a collective connotation in the world of literature. It can be noted that Simon J. Ortiz implants his apprehensions onto the grander body of ancient issues, ecological concerns, and current exertions towards dogmatic integrity. Hence, this implies that his individual struggles do not wholly consume the issues he covers in the different literary works.
Work Cited
Baym, Nina and Robert S Levine. The Norton Anthology Of American Literature. New York: W.W. Norton & Co., 2013. Print.
Ortiz, Simon J., and David King Dunaway. “An Interview with Simon Ortiz: July 14, 1988.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 16.4 (2004): 12-19. Web.
Ortiz, Simon J. “Finding an Indian Poet.” Studies in American Indian Literatures 18.3 (2006): 39-40. Web.
Ortiz, Simon J. “Speaking For Ourselves: Indigenous Cultural Integrity And Continuance.” English and Ethnicity (2006): 159-166. Web.