Leslie Marmon Silko's Novel "Ceremony"

Paper Summary:

This essay is an in-depth look at Native American writer Leslie Marmon Silko's novel "Ceremony", analyzing how the central character Tayo heals his psychological disorder by returning to his Indian roots and seeking the help of a medicine man.

From the Paper:

""Ceremony" opens with a dream that the main character and World War II veteran, Tayo, is having concerning a plethora of thoughts and emotions concerning different cultures he has been exposed to throughout his life. The dream involves voices from many different races, the races that Tayo has positively or negatively dealt with in his life. The voices include Spanish (a man singing a familiar love song), Japanese (angry voices of soldiers), and Laguna (the voice of his Uncle Josiah bringing him fever medicine). The mixture of these races in Tayo's mind made him mad even in his sleep. The dream represents a lifetime struggle Tayo has had with the negativity of differentiating cultures. He started life as a mixed blood child, never as well accepted as his brother Rocky and never happy with his placement. His negative experience in the war increased reasoning for Tayo to despise the whites that had taken culture from his ancestors. He was able to get along with fellow soldiers during the war, it was afterward that he realized the anti-Indian attitude expressed in his habitat. In his only exhibit of disgust towards whites after the war Tayo states that "The war was over, the uniform was gone. All of a sudden that man at the store waits on you last, makes you wait until all the white people bought what they wanted. And the white lady at the bus depot, she's real careful not to touch your hand when she counts out your change. You watch it slide across the counter and you know" You know!" (Silko 42). Not only does Tayo have to deal with his knowledge of the reality of his situation as an Indian, he has no one on the reservation to completely relate to, as he has the additional problem of being mixed blood. His conflict with this is seen when his fellow veteran and peer, Emo, angrily labels him as a "half-breed.""

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