Summary/Analysis: Ceremony

Author:
Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American writer. She is a mixed race of white, Mexican, and Laguna Pueblo. Some of her notable works are Storyteller and Ceremony.

Setting:
Laguna Reservations in America.

Significant Characters:
Tayo-
Tayo suffers from PTSD after returning from war. He struggles with his identity, not really fitting in any community because he is half-white and half-Laguna. He has to complete a ceremony to bring order back into the world and to cure himself and others.
Auntie-
Auntie excludes Tayo and blames him and his mom for causing the neighborhood to gossip about their family. She excludes Tayo often and doesn't treat him like a son.
Josiah-
He was Tayo's uncle who taught him Native American traditions and how to herd cattle. Tayo is crushed when Josiah dies and has to learn to how to get over his death and move on.
Emo-
The villian of the play, Emo has had a hatred of Tayo since childhood. He doesn't approve of Tayo's mixed race and after the war, transforms into a drinking, raged mess.

Narrative Voice-
The narrative voice changes quite often, especially between the main story and the poem. For the most part, the narrator is of a third person view, telling the story of Tayo and his past.

Plot Summary-
Tayo comes back from war and is very sick. Grandma sends him to Ku'oosh, the medicine man, and Tayo later sees Betonie, another medicine man. Betonie instructs Tayo to complete a ceremony in order to cure himself and the community. Tayo goes on his journey, which involves looking for Josiah's cattle, encountering a mountain lion, and meeting the Night Swan and the Yellow Woman. The Yellow Woman warns Tayo that Emo is trying to kill him, so Tayo hides from him. At the end of the story, Tayo and the community are cured and the ceremony is complete.

Quotes-
"It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different."
This quote shows the circle theme in that everything eventually comes back around in a huge cycle. Grandma said that the stories are always the same, but the people involved in those stories are different each time.

"Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war."
This shows that the Tayo's Laguna friends want to feel like they are included by other Americans because the only way they actually felt that was when they were at war, fighting with the other Americans. It incorporates the theme of combining different cultures into one.  

Style-Silko uses many symbols, imagery, and diction to enhance her story. The symbols of colors show different moods and themes. For example, grey symbolizes the merging of two different cultures: Laguna and American. Imagery is shown throughout the book, especially in various flashbacks of the war. Diction like "intricacy" and "entaglement" add to the description of the imagery.

Theme-
One of the major themes is the importance of tradition. In the Native American culture, preserving traditions through stories, actions, and ceremonies is very important, but the traditions must also change and mold to fit with the new values and culture of the current society.