Ceremony post

Author- Leslie Marmon Silko (she is half whit, half Laguna)

Setting- The Laguna Pueblo Reservation after world war two

Characters:

·         Tayo

o   Half white half Laguna. He has grown up as an outcast in the reservation because he isn’t fully pueblo. He grew up with his uncle, aunt, cousin, and grandmother. His cousin has just recently passed away in WWII, Tayo, a witness to this death has terrible grief sickness. After he returns, he finds out that his uncle has perished while he was away. The story is about Tayo trying to complete a ceremony to fix what the witches have done.

·         Auntie

o   Tayo’s aunt. She isn’t traditionally Laguna, and follows many whit culture traditions. She doesn’t really like Tayo because he is half white, and she wants that for her own son. After Rocky dies, her relationship with Tayo gets even worse.

·         Josiah

o   Tayo’s uncle. Although he believes in Laguna tradition, he is still open to new ideas and change. Tayo sees him as a father figure.

·         Rocky

o   Tayo’s cousin. He dies in the war and gives Tayo “ghost sickness” He didn’t like the Pueblo culture before he died because he felt like it was holding him back.

·         Grandma

o   Tayo’s grandmother. She follows Pueblo culture strictly, and is the person that suggests that Tayo see a medicine man when he falls ill.

·         Betonie

o   He combines white culture and Pueblo culture in his medicine rituals. (Hes a medicine man, if you didn’t catch that.) He tells Tayo about his role in the ceremony. He isn’t widely liked in the Laguna society, but he helps Tayo to fit in after the ceremony is completed.

·         Emo

o   Fought in WWII, he is a witch, full of evil. He tries to interfere with Tayo’s ceremony by calling in the outside white people to get him and take him away for being crazy.

·         Ts’eh

o   An incarnation of A’moo’ooh. She is holds a strong relationship with Tayo and helps to guide him through his ceremony. She lived with the hunter before meeting Tayo.

·         The hunter

o   An incarnation of the animal spirit. He helps guide Tayo back to the spotted cattle.

·         Harley

o   Tayo’s long time friend. He is killed by Emo when he sides with Tayo and goes against Emo

·         Leroy

o   Another long term friend of Tayo’s. He helps Emo in his evil doing.

·         Pinky

o   Tayo’s friend, also killed by Emo

·         Old Ku’oosh

o   The first medicine man to try and help Tayo. He misdiagnoses him, but ultimately helps lead Tayo to meet Betonie.

Plot

Tayo has just recently returned from WWII. HE is constantly ill, and seeks the help of a medicine man after his grandmother suggests on to him. HE thinks that he is the reason his people are suffering from drought and plague, and he no longer feels any connections with his childhood friends. HE starts to get angered by his friends that want to escape into the white culture. So much so, that he ends up stabbing Emo in the stomach, and unleashing all of his false stories (that’s why he’s always so gosh darn pukey.)

Anyway, he checks out the medicine man business. He first goes to one who performs a ceremony to cure souls that have killed. Because he never killed anyone, the ceremony did not help him. He seeks the help of Betonie, who mixes white culture and Pueblo tradition. Tayo is told that he must return the hybrid cattle that Josiah bought(he’s told this by Night Swan).

Tayo looks for the cattle. He eventually finds them after having sex with Ts’eh. HE also sees the spirit of the mountain Lion that helps to guide him to take the cattle. Tayo is caught by white men, and he is almost punished, but they see the tracks that the mountain lion left, and decide to follow those instead. He runs into a hunter that helps him to find the spotted cattle. Ts’eh and the hunter keep the cattle for Tayo until he returns.

HE stays with Ts’eh for a while until he finds out that Emo has been spreading rumors that he is crazy and unstable. HE learns that white men are coming to take him away to a mental health facility. Tayo flees and runs into Leroy and Harley. He realizes that his friends are working with Emo, so he hides at the witches’ emergence point.

Emo kills Harley, but Tayo can’t react because if he does, the ceremony will not be complete. After he finishes the ceremony, Tayo returns to find that the drought is over, and the Laguna people have stopped being destructive.

Theme

Silko’s Ceremony shows that personal and natural balance can only be achieved by balancing personal traditions and new ideas, and commends people who are open to new traditions and cultures.

Motifs

·         Hybridity

·         Good light v. bad light

·         Colors

·         Direction/ color

·         Destruction

·         Nature/animals

·         Unnatural v. natural

·         Stories

·         Balance

·         Tradition/ change

·         Bellies/ vomit/ stories

·         Cyclicality

POV

The point of view changes. IT goes from first person to third. At these times its almost like the reader is in a dream, and helps to emphasize Tayo’s actions.

Imagery

Focused mainly on nature, and the evil that is ravaging it. The color yellow and blue are repeated frequently. Natural yellow light and destructive white light is also compared. Harsh imagery is also used to show Emo and the other witches in a bad light.

Symbols

The spotted cattle: They are a tough hybrid of the Mexican cattle and another type of weathered cattle. This is used to show the greatness of hybridity. They are also spotted, which is pretty cool. The spots are meant to be like the stars in the sky. In the old stories, the sun father must bring the stars back. Thus, Tayo being the sun father, must bring the spotted cattle back.

Beer: A specifically white thing. In the beginning, all of the Indian boys are sitting around and reminiscing about white culture and how they want to be a part of it. They all are drinking beer. Later, when Tayo is in the car with Harley and Leroy, they are both drinking beer. This is seen as negative and therefore shows that alcohol (specifically beer) is one of the evils of white culture.

Quotes

“’death isn’t much’…’sometimes they just don’t make it’” (229) This is showing the traditional Laguna view of death. Once people die, it is very strange that someone cry over them. This also helps to show Ts’eh helping Tayo to be more of a part of the Laguna culture. We see that he struggled with this point in the beginning when he cried about Rocky and Josiah.

“It seems like I already heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different.” (260) This is kind of the point where the reader goes “ahhh” because they realize that this is just another way of telling the old stories. Tayo is the sun father, emo is the gambler, old Grandmother is thought woman, etc.