My personal reaction to this novel was that it provided a strong sense of the problems Native peoples faced in the 1950's. The novel did not shy away from accusations that the white population was at fault for letting the flu epidemic take so many lives, or that white people as a whole lived with something missing. Maracle certainly took a more emotional approach to the problems the Native community faces than King had. The most intriguing part of the novel for me was Stacey's recognition of the lives of animals in contrast to how white people viewed them. Her interest in the lives of fish who were dedicated to surviving, as well as the life of the raven showed that she was truly in tune with the natural world. If I were to ask Maracle a question it would be: "How autobiographical is the character of Stacey, and what are your feelings about the treatment of Native people in society today?"

Ravensong was, for me, a slow read. While parts of the story really flew by and I was engrossed in the narrative, I found myself having to concentrate all my energy on moving my eyes over the words in other places. It's not that I think Maracle is a poor writer, but that the efficiency of this particular story could have been better. But maybe that was her point - or maybe that is something I am learning about Native writing: the method of story telling is not the same as the Western canon; the oral tradition calls for more meandering while the writer feels her way through the story. We certainly see that in some of the stories told by the characters.

I am intrigued by many aspects of this novel, including the power struggles that occur between whites and Natives. Stacey gains power over her principal through "her absolute belief that she had the right to disobey a direct command from him," but whites seem to have enormous power over Natives, largely in the form of access to knowledge, as seen in their ability to so simply treat the 'flu while Natives die in droves (69). This refusal of cooperation, symbolized in the division created by the bridge, is ironic when we consider the great emphasis on community that the Natives hold in such high esteem. And it is problematic in reaching any sort of reconciliation. There is a hypocrasy to Stacey and her people; while being devastated by the racism exhibited toward them, Stacey makes some broad generalizations about whites and her mother seems to hate them all (she's white and so she doesn't count). The book seems to suggest to me that separate is better, that perhaps living apart is the only solution. Indeed, Stacey decides the fate of Steve's entire life as he walks back across the bridge. He's only 17 (or so)! Is this the best we can do?

This leads to the question that I would ask of the author. Where does Stacey get us? Is she a paradigm for a solution or is there something she can be doing better?

My reaction to Ravensong was not what I expected it to be. I found myself becoming extremely attached to Stacey and her sense of identity. I felt confused when she tried to grasp the painful idea of suicide. I felt lost and betrayed when she found out about her father. I felt as though I knew Stacey and I could almost feel what she was feeling. I'll admit that sometimes her random thoughts threw me off track and occasionally lost my interest but once the momentum picked up again I was right back to being her companion.
What intrigued me the most about Ravensong was the reality of death among Natives. The difference between them and the whites was frustrating and devastating. The detail put into the loss of life was difficult for me to get through at times. This was not because it simply made me "feel bad" and I couldn't get a handle on the reality of it. Actually it was more the opposite. Maybe the detail of pain just hit too close to home but this really hooked me from the beginning as something I could relate to... which is why I probably felt a connection with Stacey.
I suppose my question to Lee Maracle would be more personal. Who does Stacey represent in her life?

I really enjoyed this novel. I feel that it provided an excellent background and perspective to the experience of Natives on the west coast of North America as well as a captivating and constantly moving storyline. I enjoyed the writing style in that the story never seemed to build up to one particular moment or event but it seemed as if instead there were many mini-climaxes. It intrigued me how the author managed to make the relationship between Stacey's village and the white town seem like the only places going through this and yet representing all Native-White town experiences at the same time. My one question however, if we could ask Lee Maracle, would be in regards to the sister Celia and her very intermittent presence in the story and in the family it seems.

I didn’t enjoy “Ravensong” as much as the first book we read, “The truth about stories”. I found the first couple of chapters to be long and hard to get though, but as I kept reading, the novel got more interesting. The most interesting part was in the very end of the book, when Stacey left to go to the university. I wasn’t sure if she was actually going to go, because of all the talk about women staying with their communities and keeping the tradition alive. This just shows how much the epidemic changed their lives. I found it hard to believe that the white people were not worried and care free about the flu epidemic. I was a little confused about what Stacey thought about the epidemic and about why the white doctors wouldn’t cross over to help them when they got sick. If Stacey’s cousin had not gotten divorced and lost her Indian status in her community, do you think that Stacey would have married Steve knowing what we know about how she feel about him?

Ravensong by Lee Maracle presented some serious issues facing the Indian communities of Vancouver. I think as readers most of us could not relate to the widespread flu epidemic, and very few of us have ever seen a neighbor's house burn down. Sadly, this was probably reality for many aboriginals, and I assume many of these catastrophe's occurred in Maracle's own community.
I thought it was interesting that the novel focused on Momma's sexual identity. In non-native literature, the daughter or protagonist is the "sexual being" , but in Ravensong, it is the mother who is sexually aware or active. I thought this was interesting, and something that we as non-native readers might find uncomfortable or unusual. I want to know if it is common for a native mother not to tell her daughter of her childhood or her past because it seemed that Stacey knew very little about her mother's past.

I had another thought after class today. Paul was talking about the tension between Stacey and Steve and the difficulty of bridging the gap between Native and white culture. Stacey allows this dialogue to begin, but at the same time, she adamently tells Steve that he needs to experience the culture to understand and to connect. The problem is that the experience is not possible if Stacey turns him away; there is nothing he can do to achieve what she is asking for. Stacey's actions serve only to maintain a closed circle of community. I guess what I am saying is that I want to revise my earlier thoughts: it's not so much that the book itself suggests a solution in separation, but that the characters on both sides are unwilling or unable to move beyond their prejudices.

After finishing Ravensong, I tried to discern what Stacey actually represents within the novel. The conclusion that I came to was that Stacy is actually the interstice between the first nations culture and the white culture. Even though Stacy rejects Steve she still participated in white culture by attending their schools and learning their language. Stacey, at times, seems as though she is the bridge between the two cultures. More specifically, I use the term interstice because I feel at times she is caught between the cultures and she does not have a fluid identity that allows her to transition from one to the other seamlessly. At times, she is even treated differently by her culture because of her education. Overall, I would have to agree with Seth's last posting where he states "characters on both sides are unwilling or unable to move beyond their prejudices" because of what Maracle writes in her epilogue. With that in mind I would like to ask Lee Maracle the following question: Does the deeper meaning in this novel point toward a closed circle of community, or does it simply point to people of both cultures unwilling to corroborate, and what was the message she was trying to get across?

I found Maracle's, Ravensong to be really interesting, because it definitely opened my eyes more to what Natives in Canada (and I'm sure the same issues arise in the US) face in this modern day. I thought the change from King's novel to this novel was a good change in a way because King's novel was more lighthearted and filled with some jokes, where as Maracle's novel definitely stirs up some topics continuously throughout that are probably hard to talk about but that need to be addressed. The manipulation of some Natives, like Benny, to become a naturalized canadian, without knowing what he was doing, giving up his right to be a Native, is just one smaller point that Maracle makes but seems to be prevalent in the way Canada treated natives who couldn't speak french. Another big point made in the book was about how whites and natives need to eventually come together because the natives definitely have things that the white people could use in knowing and applying to their lives. I thought it was interesting how Stacey had a decision to make and as much as she disliked parts of the her family lived and that they were naive to the world around them, she still found more serious flaws in that of white life. She understood that experience was better than knowledge. She had the experience and I think with the knowledge that she wanted to obtain from UBC she thought she could do and become anything. She had the tools she needed but the world wasn't ready for her yet. I found the ending to be sad because the dreams that Stacey had were kind of dismissed yet there was still hope for her children to fulfill her dreams and the dreams of Raven.

The one thing that was brought up in class that I would probably ask of Maracle is; what exactly was Celia's purpose in the book?

As I said in class earlier this week, I was a little confused with the pace of the book. When getting started, I thought the author was relatively mundane as everything seemed to move in slow motion and without passion or emotion. We are simply exposed to the inner workings of Stacey's mind which are narrative rather than deeply thought-provoking or intriguing. We do see, however, moments in which Maracle beautifully describes physical elements of nature, such as sunsets or the way the light shines through a window. This helps me to believe that the mundanity of Stacey's thoughts and reactions are entirely purposeful and I wonder what the function of this is.

When reading the book, it felt very straightforward and I didnt' ponder much over deeper meanings and intentions, etc. In class however, certain discussions would raise several questions in which we would digress. It was only then that I truly saw the depth of this book, despite its slow pace and seemingly simple nature. The epilogue of this book also seemed to stand alone and I couldn't figure out how to interpret it on a deeper level. Once we went over the major chapters of the book, however, the epilogue suddenly gained a little weight as well, as you realize the importance and significance of the vicious cycle that Stacey had gone through.

If I could ask Maracle anything about RAVENSONG, I would ask her how much of the story is her, the author, and how much is another, fictional narrator. In other words, how much of the narrator represents Maracle's thoughts and views on the charactors and situations in her fictional book?

I found Maracle’s Ravensong insightful. Maracle’s way of juxtaposing images and ideas of white town with Stacey’s town not only highlighted the difficulties associated with trying to understand another group’s culture, but also did an excellent job of really putting the tragedies of the First Nations people into perspective. I thought she did this particularly well during the scene where Stacey points out that Polly’s predicament (about her parents’ divorce) does not even compare to the death that her tribe has experienced. In addition, Maracle’s winding style bought with it an expectation to pay attention that I thought was great. I especially liked how Stacey seemed to provide an example for the reader to follow. For instance, she was always aware of how the air in the room changed and how people’s faces looked in certain instances.
Maracle’s insistence that feminism and the environment are connected was really intriguing. We see this connection in the novel with Celia’s ability to understand the earth and the women’s knowledge of roots. As she says in one of the articles, “Feminism begins with considering the earth our Mother. All violence against earth is violence to us.” While I feel like I’ve made this connection before, I have never seen it as strongly portrayed as I did here. The other idea that I found really intriguing was her point about how we are concerned about global issues but not the issues in our own nations. This stance really hits home for me and I completely agree with her.
While Maracle explores race, gender and sex, I do not see much of an interest in class, an issue that I feel causes and perpetuates the very types of oppression that she focuses on. However, she does make references in her novel about the evils of capitalism (such as when the white doctor views patients as commodities). I am wondering: How does Maracle see class functioning in her novels and society?

I thought Ravensong was a slow read at many points. While reading, I kept comparing the main character, Stacy with the author. After the discussion in class I am convinced that the author was putting a lot of her persona opinions into Stacy's thoughts and reactions. At points I believe that Stacy was bitter towards the White Town and felt that her Native American village was found lacking.

I know that Lee Maracle wrote this novel as a way for others to read about the hardships of her village. Even though it is obvious that she takes a vested interest in these issues, but her book still lacks that personal touch. The reason I thought the book was slow at points because it felt impersonal.

What intrigued me most about Ravensong? I thought the comparison between the two "worlds" was very interesting. How the two societies were viewed in the girls of a teenage girl: it was a different perspective then I have ever read before.

If I could ask the author one question, I would ask her which character is she most mirrored in? I think Stacy but I would be curious to know if my thoughts are correct.

The difference the white and native cultures view death was particularly interesting. In white culture death of a young person or infant is considered particularly tragic. However, in Native culture everyone is valued for their contribution and connection to the village and the deaths of elders is also tragic. I found her use of language intriguing. As immediately as the first paragraph, Maracle uses inticate images and metaphors, "The song echoed the rolling motion of earth's centre, filtering itself through the last layer to reach outward to earth's shoreline above the deep." (9) Her beautiful language kept me interested in the novel. Although the plot was slow at times, the language and characters kept me engaged.

I am confused why Maracle included the suicide of a white girl, Polly, in the novel. We hear a lot about the high suicide rates among natives. If I could ask Lee Maracle about the novel, I would ask her why she included Polly's suicide.

I really enjoyed reading Ravensong and it reminded me a lot of Monkey Beach. The way that the story focused on Stacey and how she is able to hear Raven reminded me of how Lisa Marie was able to see ghosts and interpret their meanings. I thought it was a little confused with the way the narration went. I noticed that it was hard for me to differentiate between where the narrator started talked or where Stacey started talking.

If I could ask Lee Maracle something about the book I would ask she based any of her writing from personal experience. Another reason this book reminded me of Monkey Beach was because of how the books made me feel as if the main character was synonymous with the writer of the book.

My first reaction to this book was, to be honest, bored and confused. It took me a few chapters to get into a groove of reading and realize that Native American writing is very different from North American or European writing that I am more accustomed to reading. After I got past this confusion, I started to like the book more and the creative descriptions that flowed throughout the book. This was the most interesting part to me; the different writing style that the author used.

If I could ask Lee Maracle one thing, I would ask her why she chose to write from the perspective of a teenage girl as opposed to perhaps a leader from White Town or the Native American community.

I must admit that I didn't like this book as much as I enjoyed "The Truth About Stories". It didn't reel me in or speak to me as strongly. I think it was a much subtler book. It didn't make any grand statements or have any dramatic scenes. The narrative was thorough and steady, but it didn't build in the way I'm used to as a western reader. I think this is confusing because so often we use the plot in a story to figure out what the story is really about, and so often in western literature the plot consists of character introduction, conflict, and resolution. But that wasn't the focus of this book- which is perhaps the point. The conflicts aren't overcome; they're still happening.

The thing I liked most about this book were the characters. I really got to love Stacey and Momma, and felt for Steve and Carol. One thing though- what was with Celia? I felt as if her role in the story wasn't developed. That's what I would ask Lee Maracle, what does Celia represent in this book?

I really liked reading Lee Maracle's Ravensong. It was much different than King's truth about stories and I found that diversity to be nice. The book Intrigued me and made me realize the problems that the Native Americans face in our modern day. I have never really heard of these problems or seen an example because it seems as if all the problems faced by the people in this culture just get swept under the rug. I would have never thought the flu would be such a big deal. To me the flu is something you get over in a few days not life threating

If I could ask Lee one question I would be which character in Ravensong is most like herself and which one was influenced by the others in her life

I thought that this novel depicted the hard ache growing up on a reserve with access to the surrounding world, while wanting to have the best of both in your life. She grew up going to school on the outside and saw the good that was there and wanted to bring it back but when she tried later in life the Government stopped her... saying this i liked the truth about the novel there wasn't a true happy ending. it was real life scenario, minus the talking forest life. All in all it was a great novel that showed the trials of living on a reserve in close to present time America. what intrigued me about the novel was the Raven and the way that he knew what had to be done but wasn't about to help and just watched from a far, knowing that it could take generations for things to work. if i could as her one question it would be is this based real life happenings of herself or is it purely fictional?

Lee Maracle's Ravensong was both distirbing and enlightening to me. She describes attitudes that reveal the mentality of the native peoples. She focuses on outsiders discomfort that lead to a dismissal of Indigenous literature. An interesting quotei found was as follow: "When you read Ravensong and find yourself discomfited, caught in the complex web of pictures from which there does not seem to be any immediate extrication, you have an opportunity to track your discomfort, source its origin, look at the complicity of your history in the maintenance of classical colonization of First nation's people in this country. If you waste the opportunity by blaming me for your discomfort you will miss the opportunity for growth, for transformation, for rising to the challenge, for the heroic feeling of having truly studied and discovered history from a very passionate and lofty height". This quote speaks a lot to the fact that she is not afriad of what her stories mean or make people feel. She wants to make the reader think about their life position. She wants the reader to really see what the characters do. Although she is somewhat reserved with her feelings, I think her quote explains well that she wants the reader to have their own feelings about the story. I wish she would have added more of the actual feelings the characters experienced while going through traumatic and devestating events. Howeer I see the value in leaving that out. If i could ask her a question it would be "How did you feel writing this and revisiting the pain it caused while you were going through it?"

After having read most of the other comments, I would have to agree with Emily and her comparison of this to Monkey Beach. In that story there is a character Ma-ma-oo, who is the narrator's grandmother and she tried to pass along her culture and native teachings to the younger generations that haven't already been affected by the rez schools. I found Ella's character to be similar to Ma-ma-oo (although I'm not sure if we ever learned of her familial connection to the tribe, not that it really matters) in that she is kind of the 'keeper' of the old traditions of her people and she teaches Stacey and the other children about parts of their culture that older generations have forgotten about. Ella is almost like a bridge in that she can keep her culture from being lost through the children.

Another observation I made was that of the women's role in both the White Town and also the Reserve. In White Town women were clearly considered to be less of a person than the men. This is obvious when Stacey was at dinner with the Snowden's and Mrs. S. brings up the flu and Mr. S. brushes it off completely, and then their son says essentially the exact same thing and it turns into an entire conversation. However, I was surprised that on the Reservation the woman's role was still very clearly defined, and the two sexes were definitely not considered equal; women on the reservation were still expected to procreate and do little else (other than housework). Even Stacey's aunt Kate says to her on p.58 that she should forget about all this schooling as she is getting to an age where she should be having children.

With all that said, I am still left with two lingering questions for Lee Maracle. One is knowing that once a woman chooses to marry a white man she must leave the reserve, what were the rules in regards to German Judy and Rena's relationship? I know that homosexuality wasn't nearly as accepted in the 50's, but given that the Natives saw marriage not so much as a legal binding as simply a relationship, wouldn't Judy and Rena be considered a married couple, and if so how could Judy be living on the Reserve in the first place and how could Rena have not been forced to leave?

My second question is what role does Raven play in Native cultures? Obviously, he is kind of an all-seeing eye watching over the Reserve, but multiple times the women say that someone has either too MUCH or too LITTLE Raven in them, and I was just wondering if the Raven is a universally-recognized symbol in Native cultures, or if it's specific to Stacey's tribe.

The thing that struck me most about Raven song was the way the Maracle was able to show the juxtaposition of the two cultures and getting me to care about it. Being that she used Stacey as a go between, bringing to life the hardships and problems Native people face when dealing with white culture; I thought the portrait of her as a character was amazing. I think when reading we all try and find characters that we can connect to and Stacey is really easy to relate with. The questions she asks about life, the mental dialogue that goes on within her and how important her life becomes to the reader are really good ways getting the reader interested in the lives and history of Native peoples. My one question would be, how does getting the reader involved with narrative allow for social devolvement afterward?

What intrigued me most about this book was how Stacey's individual struggle served as a metaphor for the broader conflict between Native and White culture, despite the fact that within her own community Stacey is a bit of an outlier. The sickness, which according to Raven were intended to jolt the community into action and awareness, was not only devastating to Stacey on an emotional level, but it also threatened to jeopardize her desire to take advantage of white culture. Furthermore, despite her geuine and in obtrusive interest in academia, she is never accepted within white culture. This prompted me to wonder whether Raven (and the social commentary she represents) has taken into account the white side of the equation in cultural fusion among whites and natives. This book is from the Native perspective, and although this cultural fusion is a pervasive theme in the book, the representations of whites in this book are not forgiving enough to inspire hope by the end of the novel. I wonder if this effect was intentional, or if it is an accidental confound to the message.

I again enjoyed this weeks reading very much. Ravensong, was an interesting book to read. I know that in class we discussed the pascing of the book. However, I enjoyed the pascing. It reminded me of Native American culture, it is calm, serene, and that is what I got from the book. The one question I would ask the author would be if the book was semi autobiographical, because a lot of the stories and opinions seem very true.

To be frank, I didn't really enjoy this book. I liked the subject matter well enough, but the writing style really bothered me. Maracle sort of played into the whole "noble savage" idea in my opinion (talking ravens and cedars, painful culinary root), which irritated me. I don't believe that a person of Native ancestry has any greater claim than anyone else to some sort of mystical "connection to the land," which seemed to be the implication.

That said, I really liked the dialogue between Stacy and white town -- at times it was a little forced, but when she and Steve were talking about the flu epidemic, it was definitely worth reading. I loved reading Stacy's thoughts about women's role in white culture, and about the reasons behind Polly's suicide. It was interesting to see the way German Judy was neither here nor there for Stacy, and then how just by understanding the problem of Catholic divorce, she became white -- she "didn't count."

Stacy's mother's anger when she went berry-picking with the lesbians was too funny -- a serious moment, but I laughed anyway.

To be completely honest, this novel made me embarrassed to be a part of the "white culture". Stacey's thoughts about white family value systems and the white view of humanity were pretty harsh realizations. This novel made me think about how I think, act, and relate to others and the environment around me. I was impressed by Maracle's ability to bring up such controversy in a relatively innocent way, through the eyes of a seventeen year old girl.

I truly enjoyed Ravensong. Even though I found it to be slow at parts, I found it refreshingly different from the more sarcastic lighthearted writing of Thomas King. Lee Maracle's book illustrates what life was like for native peoples in the 1950's, something that I know little about and something that many of the books we have read haven't described. Her character, Stacey, was incredibly strong and her story was poignant. She describes Stacey as yet another native character caught between "worlds." Her description of the white world and culture was very difficult to read because Stacey's thoughts on white culture were very honest and translated into a very harsh view of white culture. The novel fits very well into this Native story canon that we have been reading. Like many of the characters, Stacey finds herself caught between two vastly different worlds, that of the native culture and the white culture. These cultures are expertly compared in this novel and their incredible differences are illustrated in an exceedingly poignant way by Maracle. I would have a lot of questions for Lee Maracle: how much of this story is about the fictional Stacey and how much of the story is about you? Why did you think that a teenage girl would be the best narrator for such a difficult novel as this one? And so many other questions, but I guess the most important question is what do you think about lifestyle, culture, and situation of native peoples nowadays?

Although this book took some getting into, I really enjoyed it. It was full of twists and turns. This was due in my opinion to Stacey always thinking about the whys in life. Stacey living a life between both the Whites and the Indians was very interesting because she was the only one to be schooled in white town. This presents her with a problem of how to feel about not only the whites, but her own people. The part that I was intrigued most about was the lack of help when epidemics hit. An epidemic on these reservations spread like wild fire and they did not have the medicine to fix it. I was also intrigued about Stacey’s mother. She always was intrigued to learn about the people of white town, but never said anything. It is not until Stacey starts reading and speaking to her that she can justify how she feels about the whites. If there was one question I would ask the author it would be how much of the novel is true?

I really liked Ravensong. I really enjoyed how different the writing was in this book from some of the others we have read in class. Stacey, however, struggled between white society and her Native culture like many of the other characters we have read about. One interesting aspect of the book I liked was how it was set in the 1950's and it was during a different era from the other books we have read. Also, something I really liked how this book was all the questions that came from Stacey and her wonders about her world. It added a new level of honesty and true character to her. If I had one question for Lee Maracle, it would be, what would you define to be the thing that brings white culure and Native people together or connects them?

What I liked most about this novel was the metaphor about the bridge between White town and the native village. I also liked the main character's naivety and continual imperfections and flaws in how she sees and understands the world around her. She really grows as the novel progresses and it makes the story a lot stronger. The other thing that I really liked about this story was the attention that it paid to things like weeds that normally one might find insignificant but this story makes it of significance by way of metaphor.

If I was to ask the other of this book one question, it would be why she didn't further develop the character of Celia. While I felt like the book went into a lot of detail about the main character and her mother's relationship, you really didn't see a lot of Celia and I felt like she could have had a more important role in the main characters life than she was depicted as having.