Ceremony Part 7 Analysis (Final Analysis)

In the final part of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko describes Ts'eh and Tayo formally being introduced and what the rest of Tayo's war buddies think of him lately. Tayo once again felt Ts'eh's presence as he slept towards the beginning of the final section. Silko explains, "The sunlight moved up and down his back like hands, and he felt the muscles of his neck and belly relax; he lay down beside the pool, across from her and closed his eyes. He dreamed he made love with her there. He felt the warm sand on his toes and knees; he felt her body, and it was as warm as the sand, and he couldn't feel where her body ended and the sand began" (Silko 206). He feels at peace with himself and nature and Ts'eh is helping him heal. Later in this section Silko unveils what Tayo's friends think about him spending so much time in the wilderness alone. Silko conveys, "They want you to come home. They are worried about you. They think you might need the doctors again.' 'Oh.' His stomach fell into a crevice. His hands felt cold. 'Old man Ku'oosh and some of the others are wondering too why you haven't come. They thought maybe there might be something you should tell them' The words caught in his throat, and he coughed. 'And Emo has been saying things about you. He's been talking about how you went crazy and are alone out here. He talks bullshit about caves and animals"' (Silko 212).

 

Ceremony Part 6 Analysis

In the sixth part of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko explains how White people, Native Americans, and Mexicans are the same and throughout this chapter shows how Tayo is healing. Towards the middle of this section, Silko explains Tayo's realization of how it doesn't matter if your White, Native American, or Mexican because we're all human on the inside. Silko says, "Why did he hesitate to accuse a white man of stealing but not a Mexican or Indian...He cut into the wire as if cutting away at the lie inside himself. The liars had fooled everyone, white people and Indians alike; as long as people believed the lies, they would never be able to see what had been done to them or what they were doing to each other" (Silko 177). Tayo's cutting away the wire just like he's cutting away the lies. You can't always trust Indians or Mexicans, race doesn't matter. Silko later notes how Tayo is dealing with unending time, where past, present, and future are all functioning at the same time. Silko says, "The Silence was inside, in his belly; there was no longer any hurry. The ride into the mountain had branched into all directions of time. He knew then why the oldtimers could only speak of yesterday and tomorrow in terms of the present moment: the only certainty; and this present sense of being was qualified with bare hints of yesterday or tomorrow, by saying, 'I go up to the mountain yesterday or I go up to the mountains tomorrow"' (Silko 179). Since Tayo knows now, that he's dealing with unending time he can heal. Tayo is living with ghosts that don't haunt him anymore and since he isn't in the hell that he was in before he appreciates the present. Towards the end of this section, we see Tayo maturing from his past and living in the moment. Silko conveys, "He had proved something to himself; it wasn't as strong as it had once been. It was changing, unraveling like the yarn of a dark heavy blanket wrapped around a corpse, the dusty rotted strands of darkness unwinding, giving way to the air; it's smothering pressure was lifting from the bones of his skull" (Silko 184). The corpse in this quote represents Rocky and this quote also shows more of how Tayo is healing.

Ceremony Part 5 Analysis

In the fifth part of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko explains more about alcoholism and how some native people view life and death. Silko describes what a drunk Luguna Pueblo Native American looks like towards the middle of this section. Silko says, "Their hair was dirty and straight. They'd shaved off their eyebrows, but the hairs were growing back and they didn't bother to pencil them any more. Their blouses had buttons missing and were fastened with safety pins. Their western pants were splitting out at the seams; there were stains around the crotch" (Silko 153-154). This is an avid description on what  Luguna Pueblo Native Americans looked like when the white man pushed them to turn to alcoholism. Earlier in this section Silko describes another type of drunk feeling. Silko says, "Tayo sank down into sensations–the truck vibrating and bouncing down the road, the bodies squeezed around him tight, the smell of perfume and sweat and wine, and the rushing fresh air cooling the sweat. Everything made them laugh, until they were laughing at their own noises and laughter. He didn't have to remember anything, he didn't have to feel anything but this; and he wished the truck would never stop moving, that they could ride like that forever" (Silko 147). Tayo finally felt happy and at peace in his drunk euphoric state. Towards the beginning of this section Silko describes life and death through the use of poetry. Silko says, "But there was no tobacco so Fly and Hummingbird had to fly all the way back down to the fourth world below to ask our mother where they could get some tobacco. 'We came back again,' they told our mother. 'Maybe you need something?' 'Tobacco.' 'Go ask caterpillar'" (Silko 140). The Fly and the Hummingbird represent life and death in some native cultures. The Navaho believe that the Caterpillar helped grow tobacco and in turn means that Tayo may be helpful to heal. As you can see Tayo is developing as a character and he is learning how to cope with his P.T.S through the use of alcohol.

Ceremony Part 4 Analysis

In the fourth part of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko explains how Tayo is starting to heal from his P.T.S. caused by the war, P.T.S. from Tayo's childhood, and growth and change of people and how they conduct there daily lives. Tayo is starting to suppress his P.T.S. from the war by changing his perspective on the world. Silko conveys, "In a world of crickets and wind and cottonwood trees he was almost alive again; he was visible. The green waves of the dead faces and the screams of the dying that had echoed in his head were buried. The sickness had receded into a shadow behind him, something he saw only out of the corners of his eyes, over his shoulder." (Silko p.96) Tayo is pushing the war out of his mind, so that the P.T.S. will stop taking over him and his life. Tayo later in the chapter started to gain side effects of P.T.S. caused by a recollection of his childhood. Silko says, "Tayo felt the old nausea rising up in his stomach, along with the vague feeling that he knew something which he could not remember. The sun was getting hot, and he thought about flies buzzing around their faces as they slept in the weeds along the arroyo... He didn't know how the medicine man could look down at it every day." (Silko p.108) Tayo couldn't stand the bugs flying around his face not only because bugs are an annoyance, but also because it reminded him of his childhood. Adaptation to time change is a theme we see throughout this chapter and Betonie is a character that embraces it. Betonie says, "In the old days it was simple. A medicine person could get by without these things. But nowadays..." (Silko p.111) Since the world was changing so did Betonie and his medical procedures, unlike old Ku'oosh who believed the traditional way of administering medicine was always the right way. As you can see P.T.S isn't just caused by war, if you had a harsh childhood or another experience that scared your soul it could cause it.

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