Ceremony Part 3 Analysis

In the third part of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko explains how the character Emo is dealing with Post Traumatic Stress, goes into depth about skin color and how it's a neutral matter, and the struggles of racism for Rocky. Leroy, Harley and Pinkie brought up a story they thought was funny of Emo's early in this section of the book; what was funny for them was actually painful for Emo and because of Emo's P.T.S. his anger escalated quickly. Emo says,"One thing you can do is drink like an Indian, can't you? Maybe you aren't no better than the rest of us, huh?" (Silko p.55) In this context Emo is demonstrating his internalized oppression, by talking about Native Americans like less of a people as the white man does. Tayo notices how Emo views war and taking lives also in this section. "Tayo could hear it in his voice when he talked about he killing-how Emo grew from each killing. Emo fed off each man he killed, and the higher the rank of the dead man, the higher it made Emo." (Silko p.56) Silko adds this depth to Emo's character to show that Evil has no color. When Tayo and Rocky were talking to the recruiter during this section, it really brought out the racism that was just integrated into normal conversation. "Anyone can fight for America...even you boys." (Silko p.59) This quote shows how White people and Native Americans, as people, really kept themselves separate from one another. We learn a lot about the characters in this chapter while Silko seems to keep common themes in mind when developing these characters.                                      

Reel Injun Analasis

Reel Injun directed by Neil Diamond is a movie that exemplifies the portrayal of Native Americans throughout the history. When Native Americans were first introduced to cinema, they were protrayed as inhuman, barbaric, and/or the evil villain which would cause many problems for Native Americans in real life. Russell Means says, '"When we watched the Indians getting slaughtered at the end of every movie... well, my brother would refuse to watch it. Every time that bugle went off and the charge started, my brother - he was a year and a half younger than me - he'd go like this... [bending over, head between knees] ...and he wouldn't look. He wouldn't watch. And we'd come out of those theaters after the, uh, cavalry had rescued the white people, and all of a sudden we'd hear, 'There's those Indians,' and we'd start fighting. We had to fight them white kids. Every Saturday we knew we was gonna get in a fight."' (Reel Injun) Native Americans are human but and cinema and in real life for years they were treated like inhumane garbage. Everything White Americans knew about Native Americans as a people and their culture they learned from cinema, which was a extremely skewed view. Jesse Wente says, "...this is an ingenious act of colonialism, you are essentially robbing nations of an identity and grouping them into one." (Reel Injun) Wente is talking about how in the movies Native Americans wore essentially the same clothing, no matter what Native American tribe the director was trying to portrayal. Native American people had and have put up with a very negative portrayal of there people and culture for years, but through it all many still stand up for what they believe. Charlie Hill says, "We're creative natives. And we're... and we're like the Energizer Bunny. The mightiest nation in the world tried to exterminate us, anglicise us, Christianize us, Americanize us, but we just keep going and going. And I think that Energizer Bunny must be Indian. He's got that little water drum he plays." (Reel Injun) Although Native Americans had to endure such prejudice throughout their history they have stayed a strong people, and many, true to there customs. 

Ceremony Part 2 Analysis

Ceremony Part 1 Analysis

Through the first part of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko explains how the characters Tayo and Harley are suffering with Post Traumatic Stress. One instance of Tayo struggling with his post traumatic stress is when he was dreaming of being at a train station. "He fought to come to the surface, and he expected a rifle barrel to be shoved into his face when he opened his eyes. It was all worse than he had ever dreamed: to have drifted all those months in white smoke, only to wake up again in the prison camp." (Silko p.15) When Tayo mentions "white smoke" he is referring to peyote, a psychedelic drug used as part of religious ceremonies, and his Post Traumatic Stress always kept him alert. Another example of Tayos Post Traumatic Stress Silko conveys, is when he's vomiting over images and memories he can't forget. "He could still see the face of the little boy, looking back at him, smiling, and he tried to vomit the image from his head because it was Rocky's smiling face from a long time before, when they were little kids together. He could't vomit any more, and the little face was still there, so he cried at how the world had come undone." (Silko p.16-17) Tayo wants to forget the innocence of young Rocky because he feels he can't move on. One instance of Harley dealing with post traumatic stress is when he turned to alcohol. "He laughed, and Tayo smiled because Harley didn't use to like beer at all, and maybe this was something that was different about him now, after the war. He drank a lot of beer now." (Silko p.18) Harley turning to alcoholism is a common way of coping for soldiers coping with post traumatic stress. Silko's common theme throughout the first part of Ceremony is post traumatic stress and the damaging affects it has on the people dealing with it.