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.