Analysis Of Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

The concepts of change and identity are problematic for the characters within Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Tayo’s hybridity represents all that the Laguna people fear. The coming of change and meshing of cultures has brought an impending threat of ruin to Native American traditions. Although they reject him for his mixed heritage, Tayo’s journey is not his own but a continuation of the storytelling tradition that embodies Native American culture. Through tradition he learns to use his white and Mexican heritage to identify himself without abandoning his Native American practices.

Although Apess holds somewhat of a grudge against the white man, his autobiography serves as an honest look into the life of a typical Native American in the

In “From a Native Daughter,” writer, activist, and Native Hawaiian academic, Haunani-Kay Trask recounts her personal feelings along with her people’s feelings with how the ‘haole’ (white) people overwhelmed and distorted the historical context of the native Hawaiian inhabitants. Trask’s purpose is to convey the message that the native Hawaiians’ ancient culture is described as oppressive and tyrannical by white historians, rather that it was a society that functioned efficiently before the Europeans seized the land. She adopts an affectionate yet blunt tone throughout the course of the selection in order to contend

In his essay, “Pretty like a White Boy: The Adventure of a Blue-Eyed a Ojibway,” Drew Hayden Taylor discusses his negative life experiences, and decides that he will no longer classify himself as either a White, or Native person, though he is of dual ancestry. Though he aims his essay at the Everyman, he assumes that the reader has knowledge in Native history. Taylor, the comedian mentions that he never knew his White father, and it is likely that he was raised in First Nations household. This assumption supports the ethos of his essay as a whole. While examining the thesis, Taylor makes jumps in logic that are difficult for the reader to follow, on the path to his conclusion. Taylor’s style is consistently lighthearted, and his essay is structurally sound, however, due to errors in logic, his essay appeals to the heart alone.

Which leads to the next step in the stage of return: restoration of harmony. The reinstatement of balance between character and mind brought peace to Tayo’s life. He was able to completely return home and for the first time in his life became a full member of his families house. Their acceptance was what Tayo had been looking for his entire life.

This sentiment of racial inferiority by the white American was further demonstrated by their treatment of Native American society. As European settlements continued to expand across the continent, Indians were forcibly removed from their land to make room for the “more civilized” white American. The Native American population was practically eradicated with only a handful of survivors remaining on small, segregated reservations in Oklahoma. The genocide of their people-- and their culture-- left most Native Americans with extreme resentment towards the white man. Ironically, just as the white man saw the Native American people as uncivilized savages, Native Americans saw firsthand how barbaric the white man actually was. This further supports the theory that race is not a physical characteristic, but something that is constructed by different societies to establish each ones perception of how the other is viewed or perceived. In Mary C. Waters “Social Construction of Race and Ethnicity,” she explains this theory in the

This shines light upon her Native American roots and how it can be an inspiration for her Century Quilt, each square representing her family’s racial diversity and mixed roots. It is quite difficult to learn of all the harsh animosity they were enduring, such as Meema and her yellow sisters whose “grandfather’s white family nodding at them when they met” (24-27). The hostility is clear as the white relatives only register their presence; no “hello” or warm embrace as if they didn’t acknowledge them as true family. However, with descriptive imagery, the speaker’s sense of pride for having the best of both worlds is still present as she understands Meema’s past experiences and embraces her family’s complexity wholeheartedly; animosity and all.

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is a novel written multidimensionally to portray the traditions and ceremonial practices of the Native American. Silko describes the rebuilding of the Native American culture by writing the real story and poems in the alternate story. The animal symbolism is an integral piece of the novel’s importance that reflects characters and the Native American culture with the use of them in metaphors. Silko respectfully depicts the animals, such as cattle, Fly and Hummingbird, and mountain lion that represent Tayo and the Laguna people, Betonie, and the cultural relationship with nature.

"Their (Natives) present condition, contrasted with what they once were, makes a most powerful appeal to our sympathies…By persuasion and force they have been made to retire from river to river and from mountain to mountain, until some of the tribes have become extinct and others have left but remnants to preserve for a while their once terrible names. Surrounded by the whites with their arts of civilization, which by destroying the resources of the savage doom him to

Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel, Ceremony, reveals how the crossing of cultures was feared, ridiculed, and shunned in various Native American tribes. The fear of change is a common and overwhelming fear everyone faces at some point in their life. The fear of the unknown, the fear of letting go, and the fear of forgetting all play a part in why people struggle with change. In Ceremony the crossing of cultures creates “half-breeds,” usually bringing disgrace to their family’s name. In Jodi Lundgren’s discourse, “Being a Half-breed”, is about how a girl who struggles with understanding what cultural group she fits into since she is a “half-breed.” Elizabeth Evasdaughter’s essay, “Leslie Marmon Silko’s “Ceremony”: Healing Ethnic Hatred by

Traditions and old teachings are essential to Native American culture; however growing up in the modern west creates a distance and ignorance about one’s identity. In the beginning, the narrator is in the hospital while as his father lies on his death bed, when he than encounters fellow Native Americans. One of these men talks about an elderly Indian Scholar who paradoxically discussed identity, “She had taken nostalgia as her false idol-her thin blanket-and it was murdering her” (6). The nostalgia represents the old Native American ways. The woman can’t seem to let go of the past, which in turn creates confusion for the man to why she can’t let it go because she was lecturing “…separate indigenous literary identity which was ironic considering that she was speaking English in a room full of white professors”(6). The man’s ignorance with the elderly woman’s message creates a further cultural identity struggle. Once more in the hospital, the narrator talks to another Native American man who similarly feels a divide with his culture. “The Indian world is filled with charlatan, men and women who pretend…”

She teaches him the importance of certain plants, flowers, and ceremonies and how they are significant to Indian culture and survival. Tayo falls in love with her, and through his love, he begins to feel alive again. He realizes that he does have a place and that he is not invisible to everyone and

Native Americans are losing their background and where they come from starting with culture and heritage that has been passed down to each generation. Not losing site of that, there is a chance in seeing the positive of preserving and continuing the culture and heritage of the Native Americans and bringing significance to ceremonies.

In the novel Ceremony by Leslie Silko, the main character, Tayo, shows apparent madness as he suffers from PTSD due to fighting in World War II. Madness can be defined as mental delusion or the behavior arising from it. The delusions that result of Tayo’s madness, hallucinations of important people he has lost and frequent flashbacks of the worst parts of the war, occur in a reasonable manner because it is common for people to be affected by war in such a negative way and fail to understand what is truly real. The product of Tayo’s madness gives truth to the fact that if one holds on to someone or something for too long, it is impossible to move on in a positive direction.

In Leslie Marmon Silko’s Garden in the Dunes, the author writes the tale of a young Native American, Indigo, pulled between her traditional heritage—which is on the brink of extinction—and white culture. In the novel, it is evident that Silko depicts how white culture can better itself if they learn to accept other cultures; in this novel, specifically Native American culture. For instance, two Native American characters remain complicit to the majority. Both characters fully adapt to white’s ways and Silko displays how this does not better the two, but rather damages them. Additionally, Silko portrays how the heroine Indigo, despite her young age, is unique; she remains true to identity and, more-so, Indigo learns how to maneuver in a society that attempts to remain a white world. Furthermore, the character Hattie learns from Indigo’s ways and, in the end, is able to understand with Native American culture. Altogether, Garden in the Dunes is a novel that showcases a more idealistic world where in the end a white woman, Hattie, is able to accept another culture’s values and characteristics, while a Native American girl, by remaining true to her identity, reunites with her heritage and family.