The Man to Send Rain Clouds: Contemporary Stories by American Indians

Fiction | Short Story | Adult | Published in 1974

A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.

Download PDF

Summary

Story Analysis

Character Analysis

Themes

Symbols & Motifs

Literary Devices

Important Quotes

Essay Topics

Tools

Beta

Discussion Questions

Symbols & Motifs

Rain

Rain is a pervading symbol that occurs throughout the entirety of the short story. The title of the work, “The Man to Send Rain Clouds,” gestures at the importance of rain and nature to the Pueblo people. The importance of rain as a symbol in the text is made most clear when it remains at the forefront of Leon’s mind when he discovers his grandfather’s body. After painting stripes of white, green, and blue on Teofilo’s face, Leon smiles and asks him, “Send us rain clouds, Grandfather” (1). Rain must be important to the Pueblo people for numerous reasons; Father Paul himself wonders if Leon’s request for him to sprinkle holy water on Teofilo is “something they did in March to insure a good harvest” (4). This is merely a presumption on Father Paul’s part, and Silko does not go into detail about why rain is so important to the characters in the story.

Rather than emphasizing and explaining why rain clouds play such a vital role in their burial rites, Silko draws attention to Teofilo himself. Beginning and ending on how “now the old man could send them big thunder clouds for sure,” Leon articulates rain as a gift from his deceased grandfather (4). The text itself, then, suggests that rain functions as a symbol, a bridge between the living and the dead. Rain is a gift to the living given by the spirits of those who have passed on into the afterlife. Leon’s happiness at the end of the text comes from a sense of fulfillment of quenching Teofilo’s thirst and hunger in the next life, and rain symbolizes his grandfather’s repayment of the treatment he was given during his burial. Rain thus represents more than a bountiful harvest; it represents successful burial rites and the continuation of a person’s spirit from life into death.

Red Blanket

The red blanket appears at the very beginning of the short story when Ken and Leon find Teofilo’s body underneath the cottonwood tree. Ken arrives “bringing the red blanket” to wrap Grandfather’s body (1). The red blanket is described as a singular entity, unlike Silko’s description of how they covered Teofilo and the blanket “with a heavy tarp” before driving back to the pueblo (1). The difference in Silko’s diction highlights the importance of the red blanket. The red blanket symbolizes the love and respect of Teofilo’s family and community. Louise and Teresa treat the blanket with great care. Silko describes how the “red plaid shawl had been shaken and spread carefully over the bed” (2). The tender attention Louise and Teresa pay to the blanket echoes the affection with which they prepare and dress Teofilo for burial.

Despite changing his clothes, Teofilo is still eventually wrapped up and buried in the red blanket from the beginning of the text. While Father Paul readies himself to sprinkle holy water on Teofilo’s grave, he prepares “to bury a red wool blanket,” watching as the holy water “fell on the red blanket and soaked into dark icy spots” (4). Teofilo is buried in the red blanket (not a coffin), and the ease with which the holy water sinks into the fabric also displays the importance of the red blanket as a gentle arbiter, a warm casing of affection that does not keep Teofilo separate and hidden away from the earth. Instead, the red blanket represents the Pueblo tradition, of his family and community’s care for him both in life and in death.

Sunlight

Throughout the text, Silko takes great care to note the time of day for the readers. When Ken and Leon first find Teofilo’s body, he squints “up at the sun,” implying that it is morning (1). When the men meet Teresa and Louise, it is “noontime,” and Ken specifically notes the importance of completing the burial rites before darkness falls (2). He tells Louise, Teresa, and Leon, “Only the top layer of soil is frozen. I think it can be ready before dark” (2). Darkness looms before the characters of the short story, and Silko depicts their eagerness to fulfill the burial rites before night falls, as Pueblo tradition dictates. Silko describes how the sky “in the west was full of pale yellow light” as Louise goes to convince Leon to let Father Paul bless Teofilo’s grave (2). As Silko moves the reader through Leon’s preparations for Teofilo’s burial, she also moves the characters through the day, as light begins to ebb, and darkness threatens to fall.

Teofilo is finally buried in “the last sunlight” with the high blue mountains in the deep snow that reflected a faint red light from the west” of the sun set (4). Sunlight, and the sun, thus also represents Teofilo and his life. In Pueblo understandings of death, Teofilo’s life has come to an end in the same way that the sun rises and sets every day. Just as the sun will rise once again the next day, Teofilo’s existence will also continue in the afterlife, a cycle of life, death, and rebirth.