Whatever You Want

 

Like I mentioned in last week's post, I'm kind of a sucker for mythology. House Made of Dawn is full of some goodies, too. So, as you can imagine, that is what I will be posting about this week. The myth on which I will be focusing can be found on page 85. It's short and difficult to paraphrase, so I'll just insert it below:

 

Long ago there were bad times. The Kiowas were hungry and there was no food. There was a man who heard his children cry for hunger, and he began to search for food. On the fourth day he came to a great canyon. Suddenly there was thunder and lightning. A Voice spoke to him and said, "Why are you following me? What do you want?" The man was afraid. The thing standing before him had the feet of a deer, and its body was covered in feathers. The man answered that the Kiowas were hungry. "Take me with you," the Voice said, "and I will give you whatever you want." From that day Tai-me has belonged to the Kiowas (85).

 

After reading this myth, I immediately thought of one of Frida Kahlo's paintings entitled The Wounded Deer. The phrase that stands out the most to me and applies the most to this painting is bolded above. The arrows in this painting represent the Voice satisfying the hunger of the Kiowas. No matter how many times it is hunted, it keeps surviving because its sole purpose is to nourish the people.