Mental And Mental Health In Ceremony, By Leslie Silko

Families are a strange phenomenon it can be a source of mutual and beloving kinship or a deep pool of antagonism that can potentially destroy connections between one another. In the story Tita is bounded by her mother's command with her freedoms handicapped to take care of her mother given her role as the youngest daughter in the family. ...Esquivel's novel is about the hardships and tribulations of a family, as it shows many characteristics and traits about the acts of undying loyalty to an authority, which plays into the abusive power of cruelty, as this leads to isolation and suffering, thus creating a victim.

Despite Kingston not even knowing her aunt’s name, she feels she has a connection to her. Kingston thinks about her aunt’s life and how she became pregnant. At first, Kingston blames the pregnancy on the aunt. She explains that the aunt took time when getting ready and cared about her appearance, which was unusual for Chinese women after they have been married. Kingston describes, “Once my aunt found a freckle on her chin… She dug it out with a hot needle and washed the wound with peroxide” (Kingston 328). This leads Kingston to believe that the aunt had an affair. However, Kingston later believes that her aunt was possibly raped. When describing her aunt’s marriage Kingston writes, “ When the family found a young man in the next village to be her husband, she stood tractable beside the best rooster, his proxy, and promised before they met that she would his forever” (Kingston 326). Chinese women were obedient. Kingston thinks that there could not be the possibility that her aunt cheated on her husband because she was a dutiful wife. Sympathizing with the aunt, Kingston writes, “ I want her fear to have lasted as long as rape lasted so that the fear could have been contained” (Kingston 326). She reflects on how horrible it must have been living in such a small community with her rapist.

For Christmas Eve, Tan’s mother had invited over a boy that at the time Tan had feelings for. Throughout the duration of the dinner, Tan is appalled at her family and the boys reactions to it. She feels uncomfortable because of her culture and the boy who she likes reacting to it, as she states, “I wanted to disappear.” It was only a while after the uncomfortable dinner that Tan realizes the importance of her culture and develops an appreciation for it. It was through that uncomfortable experience that she learned to accept herself and her

The text offers a very simple and informal word choice. The syntax contributes to Silko’s attempt to counter discursive violence. The use of everyday words assists in the validity of the story and how it is passed down from generation to generation. Also, the narrator uses native Indian vocabulary that also could be seen as countering discursive violence. Using vocabulary familiar to the tribe makes the communication between the storyteller and the audience easier. It also aids in the understanding of the story.

Tan’s parents see the shun of culture in her behavior, and don’t approve of it. They may feel disrespected by Tan’s shun of culture. Tan’s descriptive details of her parents allow the reader to see the drastic difference of how different ethnic background few things. Tan’s mother acknowledges that Amy wants to be an American girl, she continues by saying “But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.” As a mother, Tan’s mother tries to provide words of influence to her daughter allowing her to see and feel how her mother reacts towards the shun of culture. The actions her father takes allows for the idea that Amy may do this for often than not. Her father sees the reaction toward the fish eyes by Tan, and doesn’t pay any mind to it. The contrast of the mother and father reaction towards Tan’s action can show a disapproval and shame of having their daughter deny their culture.

In the novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko uses storytelling to express characters’ emotions and convey subliminal themes. Stories are a central component of all parts of the novel, and each story is connected by a continuous narrative. Silko portrays the process of passing down stories as an ancient, ongoing tradition. As Tayo begins

Good afternoon, Dr. Howell my name is Ricardo Jaime Orozco. I had the pleasure of meeting you last week at Light of the World Clinic. Despite your ambiguity about assisting in the medical admission process, you asked for me to email you. I’m truly thankful that you are willing to take some time to revise my application or nudge me in the right direction. If you ever want to know more about me, I will more than gladly share.

Next, when Hang meets Aunt Tam for the first time within her life, Hang instinctually feels a sense of the love that comes from that of a father through her Aunt because of their close resemblance. Her initial emotional response was “This voraciousness put me ill at ease. I knew she was my blood, the link to my father. This was the love that had been buried, impossible to imagine” (Huong, 72). This type of love only remained for

Does a patient swallowing 453 nails catch your attention? How about an icepick lobotomy? These are only some of the insane attractions you can find about mental illness in the Glore Psychiatric Museum located in St. Joesph, MO. Since I am going into a type of psychology field, I decided this would be in the best interest for me. I have always had a fascination with museums and anything related to the psychology/psychiatric field and this museum definitely satisfied my interest. It also brings great awareness to mental illness and the stigma/history behind it.

Another aspect of Silko’s storytelling that keeps the reader engaged and brings across her points is her interactions with her great-grandmother. These, along with interactions between Silko and her aunts, help to draw the reader into Silko’s life and explain how the Laguna thought process has affected her personally. These vivid memories allow Silko to connect to the readers on a personal level which makes them more open to her ideas and allows them to see the specifics of how different thinking can affect people throughout their

Ayah recalls Chato, who had worked for a white rancher, being told that he is too old to work. Chato then spends the unemployment checks they receive on alcohol. Ayah finds Chato passed out outside of a bar and Silko describes Ayah’s pain as she writes, “It was then that she would look at his face and his hands, scarred by ropes and the barbed wire of all those years, and she would think, this man is a stranger” (Silko). Ayah realizes that her relationship with Chato is nothing more than a relationship between two strangers and cannot be salvaged. In present time, Ayah attempts to find Chato and looks for him in Azzie’s Bar. In the bar, Ayah is greeted with unfamiliar stares and she is reminded of the visits she had with Danny and Ella. Ayah recalls two visits that were supervised by “white people” who “brought her children back that winter” (Silko). Within the two visits, it is apparent that Danny and Ella have forgotten how to speak in their Navajo language, thus Ayah is not able to stand being further distanced from her children and Silko writes, “Ayah turned away then. She did not say good-bye” (Silko). Furthermore, the estranged looks from those in the bar remind her how her children gradually became estranged from their own culture and family. However, now that she is an old woman, Ayah is not afraid of the people in Azzie’s bar because Silko

Throughout the novel, we are greeted with the kind and gentle people who Tayo is able to form a bond with. One of the most prominent is his uncle Josiah. Josiah a farm hand by all accounts was an honest, hard-working man. As a way to benefit his family and his tribe Josiah decided to purchase a batch of Mexican cattle from a relative of the night swan, who he was seeing at the time. To Tayo, Josiah is a friend, a teacher, and a father figure who Tayo looks up to as well as admires. While Tayo was off fighting in the pacific theater during the war Josiah passes away. this leaves Tayo devastated, because before Tayo left Josiah had something he wanted to tell him, though he never learned what. Tayo feels that he has let Josiah down, because while he wasn’t able to help either from the war or his period in the hospital.

In the first 4 chapters of the story, Kino’s deep inner emotions are amplified, causing him to lose control, and make poor choices due to the great oppression Kino has to deal with. Throughout the story, Kino shows the reader his emotions through loss of self control, and

The main character Tayo has to deal with many psychological traumas and losses such as war trauma, abandonment, fractured identity, destruction of culture, and the death of an uncle. What Silko does differently than many novels is she allows the reader to follow the path of the character as he faces challenges in his healing course. Perhaps the most important aspect of his suffering stems from his mixed blood ethnicity in his native society. To overcome this Tayo uses historical traditions and the memories the ancestral Indians to heal himself and his people. The idea of using a customary ceremony comes early on in the book, “The only cure I know is a good ceremony” (3) and continues on through the whole book as we see an actual ceremony for Tayo occur pages 141-145. Memory is also guiding the healing process for the Laguna Pueblo’s culture as a whole. Josiah’s cattle is used as a symbol for restoration of Tayo and ultimately of the Laguna people. As we follow Tayo’s quest to return the cattle to the homeland we see, “He had been so intent on finding the cattle that he had forgotten all the events of the past days and past years. Hunting the cattle was good for that” (Silko 178). Although this quote can be used a con against the thematic argument and seen as though forgetting has allowed Tayo escape his reality. We know that following this event Tayo has more disturbances in his identity and so it shows that he is not fully or truly healed. Only through finding his personal and ancestral accounts, is he entirely overcome of his trauma and tribulation of his fractured identity. Tayo’s personal and historical memories are ultimately the key factor in the healing process of himself as well as his culture as a

He is caught between indigenous traditional values and western Christianity. He chooses Christianity but is unable to harmonize or integrate fully, the place of the two cultures in his life. This leads to his total abandonment of and disdain for almost all things indigenous. On the other hand, he takes on all things western along with ridiculous and un-needed cultures and eccentricities such as his tea routine which he does every Sunday after mass even though hot tea is an aberration in the tropical hot season. Due to his unhealthy obsession with religion and western ideals, he puts his family through a lot of hardship, demanding all sorts of behaviors from them and punishing them in gruesome and cruel ways when they fall short of his standards. He makes them pray almost all the way from Enugu to the village as they travel. He contrives sins which he forces them to seek penance for. He is physically abusive to the point of beating his wife so that she miscarries. He chops of a piece of one of Jaja’s little fingers and scalds both of the children’s feet in hot water for sleeping in the same house with their grand-father who he considers a