Lullaby

“Lullaby” is largely made up of the flashbacks of an elderly Navajo woman named Ayah, and nearly all of them center on some loss that Ayah continues to carry with her in the present. As an old woman now, Ayah’s “life ha[s] become memories,” and these recollections are triggered by actions as simple as wrapping herself in her son Jimmie’s old army blanket. Although she initially tries not to think of Jimmie…

Examples of maternal bonds and female community in Ayah’s culture bookend “Lullaby,” and the loss of such community has profoundly affected Ayah’s life. Early on, Ayah fondly recalls the way her mother and grandmother taught her to weave warm blankets. In another flashback, Ayah’s mother is the first person she goes to for help when giving birth, and her mother in turn “went to call the old woman to help them.” Based on…

In “Lullaby,” Ayah, the Navajo protagonist, faces discrimination and oppression at the hands of white people in power. In flashbacks, she and her husband, Chato, live in a shack “where the rancher let the Indians live,” implying that their presence is tolerated as opposed to welcomed. A white officer delivers the news that Ayah’s son, Jimmie, has died fighting in a war started by other white men, but that they have no…

Language, and the lack of it, play a pivotal role in “Lullaby.” On numerous occasions, Ayah’s inability to speak English hinders her participation in the world and ends up exacerbating her pain. She receives the news of her son’s death filtered through her husband, unable to understand what the government official is saying. Knowing only how to write her own name, Ayah signs papers she cannot read and, in a tragic turn of events, ends…