Lullaby

Blankets are the most prominent motif in “Lullaby,” and they are important in several ways. For one, they are closely associated with the theme of motherhood; mothers use blankets to swaddle their children and keep them warm, and the image of someone wrapped within or covered by a blanket can evoke the image of a woman’s pregnant body. In this passage, for instance, the act of covering Chato with a blanket flows directly into Ayah’s recollection of carrying Ella: “She tucked the blanket around him, remembering how it was when Ella had been with her" (51).

Blankets are for Ayah a symbol of Navajo cultural identity and memory that is preserved across successive generations of women; early in the story, Ayah recalls learning to comb wool from her grandmother and watching as her grandmother and mother spun, dyed, and wove the yarn. Like the traditional lullaby Ayah sings, the blanket motif frames the preservation of Navajo tradition as a form of maternal care, reinforcing for the reader the fact that Navajo culture is matrilineal.

The blanket that plays the most significant role in the story is neither Navajo in origin nor made by Ayah’s mother and grandmother; rather, it is the U.