How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph)
Quote #1
I switched to a traditional Navajo prayer.
In beauty I walk.
With beauty before me I walk.
With beauty behind me I walk.
With beauty around me I walk.
With beauty above me I walk.
With beauty below me I walk. (1.89)
Here, Chester recites a traditional Navajo prayer to help him get through his first battle in the Pacific. Hard to think we're walking in beauty when shells are exploding all around us. But hey: it's always good to look on the bright side.
Quote #2
The Navajo Right Way stressed the importance of a life in balance, a respect for all things as part of nature, even rocks and blades of grass. (5.71)
The Right Way is a motif that appears again and again in the book. How can Chester live according to the Right Way when he's surrounded by violence and bloodshed?
Quote #3
The man entered the door and moved clockwise around the dwelling, blessing each of the four directions with corn pollen. Then he stepped outside, walking clockwise from east to south, west, then north. At each compass point, he again blessed the hogan. Last, he blessed the door. (6.15)
There's a lot of detail in Chester's description of the medicine man blessing his grandmother's hogan. It's a way for Chester to dramatize the blessing ceremony for us, by using details to bring it to life.
Quote #4
The four directions were very important in Navajo belief. East […] was where life began, the sunrise. South… was where you got warmth. West […] had to do with the way you spent your day, what was ahead and behind, and also where the sun was carried away at sunset. North […] was where everything was put to rest. (6.17)
Now we know what East, West, North and South really mean. More importantly, we know why the Navajo place so much emphasis on these four directions.
Quote #5
I loved spending days with the sheep and goats, but I also looked forward to the social gatherings. There, stories I knew and loved were told for the hundredth time. (6.32)
Storytelling is a big part of Chester's Navajo life as a young boy on the Checkerboard. Chester's love of storytelling as a kid foreshadows his own storytelling as an adult and a proud Marine veteran. As a child he listens to stories, as an old man he tells his own stories.
Quote #6
The men sang traditional songs, celebrating our relationship to the four compass directions. Coolidge and I joined in on the songs we knew, but on many we just listened to the men. (7.12)
By listening to the older family men singing in the sweathouse, we see Chester and Coolidge, his brother, learning from their elders. It's a scene that shows us traditions and customs being passed down from one generation to the next.
Quote #7
As I turned back to the right, a sniper's bullet whined by my head. S***! I reached to touch the medicine bag in my pocket. It was there, safe, protecting me. (14.26)
In the midst of battle, Chester relies on the medicine bag—a traditional Navajo charm—for protection. The medicine bag represents the way Chester draws strength from the traditions and customs of his Navajo culture during the war.
Quote #8
My family agreed that if things continued as they were, the Japanese would eventually take me away. I needed a ceremony. They would put up an Enemy Way. (17.34)
Nothing better than an Enemy Way ceremony to get rid of those pesky war nightmares. This quotation suggests how Chester's Navajo culture helps him get over the trauma of the war.
Quote #9
We Navajos see ourselves as composed of two bodies, the physical and the spiritual. The two are inseparable, and life according to the Good Way requires that they be in sync, and that we be in sync with our world. (17.40)
Here, Chester explains to us the "Good Way," another pillar of Navajo belief. The Good Way, like the Right Way, emphasizes balance. This tells us just how important the idea of balance is in Navajo culture.
Quote #10
We decided on a half-Anglo, half-Native American wedding. (19.2)
Chester and Ethel reconcile their two identities—the Anglo and the Navajo—by incorporating the traditions of both into their wedding.
Quote #11
The twelve Ye'ii are powerful spirits who act as mediators between man and his creator. [They are often] portrayed as manlike figures with masks and painted chests. (19.16)
During his work at the VA Hospital, Chester paints a mural of the Ye'ii in the hospital's chapel. This is one of the many moments in the book where we see Chester expressing his respect for the traditions and beliefs of his Navajo culture.