Guruza

Reply by ramster6 114 days ago

LINKS:

http://www.123helpme.com/preview.asp?id=86074
http://www.ereader.com/servlet/mw?t=book&bi=7808&si=59
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2002/11/24/092228.php

A short guide - http://www.bookrags.com/shortguide-skinwalkers/

Characters

Although Joe Leaphorn dominates three earlier novels — TheBlessing Way (1970), Dance Hall of the Dead (1973), and Listening Woman (1977) — Hillerman adds still more depth to his characterization of Leaphorn in Skinwalkers. Described in detail is Leaphorn's corkboard-mounted office map of "Indian Country" with his written annotations and the colored pins with which he marks crime locations. A symbol of Leaphorn's legendary eccentricity and rationalism, the map proves invaluable when it reveals connections between three seemingly unrelated killings.

Jim Chee also appears in his own set of early Hillerman novels. A police officer whose interest in his heritage is so strong that he is learning to perform a complicated Navajo ceremonial sing, Chee ironically is mistaken for a skinwalker and nearly.....

Social Concerns

In Skinwalkers, Hillerman highlights the clash between Navajo beliefs and white skepticism, a conflict caused by the intrusion of the modern world into traditional native American culture. At issue is the Navajo belief in the skinwalker, a witch who possesses the power to fly, to run faster than the wind, and to become a dog or a wolf.

Joe Leaphorn and Jim Chee, both Navajos, educated in state universities in the white man's world, and both policemen, embody the collision between old tribal beliefs and modern-day skepticism as they investigate a series of killings seemingly perpetrated by a skinwalker. Leaphorn represents logical thinking, rational questioning, and a healthy doubt about the existence of skinwalkers. Chee is more involved with.....

Techniques

As in his earlier novels, Hillerman interweaves the beliefs and customs of the Navajo throughout the plot of Skinwalkers, creating a tapestry of culture that forms the backdrop to the often violent and puzzling incidents that demand the investigative talents of Leaphorn and Chee. Incorporated into the narrative are clan tales, genealogies, local folklore, even words and phrases in the Navajo tongue — all elements that lend authenticity to the novel and depth to the characters.

Hillerman also uses interior monologue — in this novel to characterize a desperate mother whose baby is dying from a congenital defect and to.....

Key Questions

Hillerman's novels about Chee and Leaphorn are fun to discuss, as well as to read. Mystery fans love the interaction of the main characters with the sometimes conflicting cultures of the Navajo and America-at-large. Skinwalkers offers ample material for stimulating discussions of cultural beliefs at variance with one another, for instance the Navajo supernatural beliefs that differ from those of Leaphorn and other police investigators. By placing Chee and Leaphorn in the same novel, Hillerman emphasizes the differing approaches to living represented by Chee's immersion in the Navajo culture and Leaphorn's rationalistic views. The characterizations are fun, the conflicts are interesting, and the mystery is engrossing, making Skinwalkers ideal for group.....

Literary Precedents

Like much of Hillerman's work, Skinwalkers owes something to the mystery subgenre, the police procedural novel. Leaphorn and Chee are law enforcement professionals dedicated to discovering the truth as they work within the restricting rules and procedures of a frustrating bureaucracy. Leaphorn is a descendant of a long line of fictional policemen whose careful methodology and incisive thinking are distinct assets in the crime-solving game. He belongs with other famous police officers characterized in fiction — Tibbett,.....

Related Titles

Previous Hillerman novels featured either Lt. Joe Leaphorn or Officer Jim Chee, but in Skinwalkers the two policemen are brought together to work on a peculiar group of murders that point to the involvement of Navajo witchcraft.

Hillerman pairs Leaphorn's legendary reluctance to give credence to things occult with Chee's strong affinity for Navajo tradition and ceremony, thus creating an investigative team that combines the best of two cultures.

Throughout the novel, Jim Chee is forced to examine his feelings about Mary Landon, the blond, blue-eyed schoolteacher with whom he has been emotionally involved but who has returned to her native Wisconsin. Their relationship, which flourished in the earlier.....

Copyright Information

Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults

Editor - Kirk H. Beetz, Ph.D.

Library of Congress
Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Beacham's Guide to Literature for Young Adults
Includes bibliographical references.
Summary: A multi-volume compilation of analytical essays on and study activities for fiction, nonfiction, and biographies written for young adults.
Includes a short biography for the author of each analyzed work.
1. Young adults—Books and reading. 2.Young adult literature—History and criticism. 3. Young adult literature—Bio-bibliography. 4. Biography—Bio-bibliography.
[1. Literature—History and criticism. 2. Literature—Bio-bibliography]
I. Beetz, Kirk H., 1952
Z1037.A1G85 1994 028.1'62 94-18048ISBN 0-933833-32-6

Copyright ©, 1994, by Walton Beacham. All rights to this book are reserved. No part of this work may be used or reproduced in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or in any information or storage and retrieval system, without written permission from the copyright owner, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information, write the publisher, Beacham Publishing, Inc., 2100 "S" Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20008.

Printed in the United States of America First Printing, November 1994