Ceremony begins with a poem invoking the constructive power of stories, and calling on ritual and ceremony as forces that can stand against evil influences. After this, the main prose narrative begins. Tayo, a young World War II veteran and member of the Laguna Pueblo American Indian community, has just spent a restless night on his community's reservation. He is haunted by his memories of his cousin Rocky; the two of them had fought together in the American campaign against the Japanese, but Rocky had been captured by the Japanese and executed.
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Tayo suffered from nausea, weakness, and feelings of severe depression and alienation after his return. At the start of the novel, he lives apart from his relatives Auntie (Rocky's mother) and Old Grandma. Tayo, however, occasionally accompanies the other young men who returned from the war on drinking binges. A fellow veteran named Harley seeks Tayo out in his remote residence and invites him for beers; Tayo accepts, but remembers an earlier altercation at a local bar. After returning from the war, the sensitive Tayo had attempted to kill a fellow Laguna veteran named Emo, who was known both for his bloodthirsty ways and for his contempt for Tayo's half Native American, half Mexican heritage.
Leslie Marmon Silko's reputation rests upon her ability as a storyteller, and her output of poems has been relatively small. Her poems are a central part of her work as a writer, however, and she often uses the forms of poetry even in the middle of such works of prose fiction as Ceremony. A vocabulary list featuring 'Ceremony' by Leslie Marmon Silko, Sections 4–5. Tayo is a World War II veteran and former prisoner of war who struggles to find peace when he returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. Here are links to our lists for the novel: Sections 1–3, Sections 4–5, Sections 6–8, Sections 9–10.
The focus of the narrative then switches to Tayo's memories of his family. Tayo has lost other loved ones. His mother, who at one point lived in near-poverty and was a source of shame to Auntie, died when he was fairly young. More recently, Tayo's uncle Josiah died after making an unsuccessful attempt to raise cattle on Laguna land. Back in the main current of the action, Tayo leaves the bar without Harley; eventually, he makes his way back to Auntie's household. In consultation with Auntie's husband Robert, Tayo decides to undertake a course of action that will re-connect him with local culture and, perhaps, restore him physically and psychologically.
Robert and Tayo make their way to see Betonie, a local medicine man. Betonie appears, Robert departs, and Tayo experiences doubts that his trip to the healer will be effective. Eventually, though, Betonie and Tayo have a candid conversation about how white American culture has disrupted and destroyed Native American communities; Tayo is even able to discuss Rocky's demise. This conversation sets up one of Silko's longer poems, about how a council of witches used white humans to unleash corruption upon the world, and then leads into Betonie's own account of his mixed-ethnicity family.
Ceremony by Leslie Silko The novel Ceremony, written by Leslie Silko deals with the actions of a Native American youth after fighting, and being held captive during World War II. The young mans name is Tayo and upon returning to the U.S., and eventually reservation life he has many feelings of estrangement and apathy towards society.
Tayo leaves Betonie and soon runs into some of his young, reckless peers: Harley, Leroy, and a young woman named Helen Jean, who has left her family behind in a desperate attempt to make money by appealing to men. The four of them make their way to a bar. There, Helen Jean falls into the company of a group of Mexicans, Harley gets into a fight, and Tayo realizes that the lifestyle of drink and debauchery that he is witnessing cannot be sustained.
In short order, Tayo sets off on an unexpected quest: to find Josiah's cattle. Silko prefaces Tayo's journey with a symbolic poem about a destructive trickster named Kaup'a'ta the Gambler, who is finally defeated by the Sun in a contest of wits. On his quest, Tayo meets a young woman and recognizes a group of stars that Betonie had pointed out. These are signs that he is on the right track; eventually, he finds the cattle on the property of a white man named Floyd Lee. Two men who patrol the land on Lee's behalf capture Tayo, but then let him go free because they want to hunt down a mountain lion.
Tayo is able to successfully direct the cattle back to his community. When spring comes, he goes to look after them and once more encountered the young woman from his earlier quest. She reveals that her name is Ts'eh. Together, they pass a peaceful time, immersed in nature and content in each other's company. Robert soon arrives, though, and explains that Tayo's absence from society has given rise to rumors that Tayo has lost his mind. These rumors can be traced to Emo, who rounds up Harley, Leroy, and another man named Pinkie in order to hunt Tayo down. Tayo eludes them but keeps them in his sight; Emo blames Harley for letting Tayo get away, and the hidden Tayo watches as Emo tortures Harley as punishment. As he witnesses the gruesome scene, Tayo is tempted to murder Emo, but realizes that killing his enemy would be futile and self-destructive.
At the end of the novel, the corpses of Harley and Leroy are discovered together. Tayo returns to see Auntie and Old Grandma; he learns that Emo has also killed Pinkie, and has consequently been sent away to California. Ceremony ends with one final poem, which indicates that evil forces and other 'witchery' have been dispelled, or at least rendered dormant, for the time being.
Leslie Marmon Silko- Laguna Pueblo-Ceremony
In Silko’s “Ceremony” the scene at the mine includes traditional songs, prayers, dances, drums, ritual movements, and
movement, that often have a hypnotic effect, especially through repetition. Participants in such ceremonies can reach an
and emotion are all one.
Ceremonies are held for many reasons, including for changes in season, for crops, and for 'purification,' especially of
disorder; he needs help to return to his tribal ways.
The mine scene, depicts the final ceremony in his purification. In The Sacred Hoop, Paula Gunn Allen states that Tayo's
rituals to heal his personal illness, the deterioration of the physical landscape, and the disintegration of the community.
Leroy, and Pinkie torture Harley.
Drumming occurs in the scence as Pinkie slams a tire iron repeatedly on the hood of the car. There is repetition, a
This part of the ceremony climaxes with Emo laughing and Pinkie stepping on Harley's throat. The wind suddenly kicks up
also a participant in the ceremony. At this moment, Tayo speaks to himself and addresses the universe. He sees the
to reach a greater awareness of himself and his role in life.
The sacrifice of Harley is vital for Tayo to witness and to understand as part of his purification ceremony. Until that
in time to help his grandfather, Josiah, the land would have received rain and his people would not be suffering from
blessing on the people, not their destruction'. By witnessing the sacrifice, Tayo begins to understand that Harley made
and proceed with his purification rituals.
Emo and his friends leave the scene, but the ceremony continues. Tayo begins to move, even though he is exhausted.
community within the tribe. Tayo has learned through the ceremony at the mine that he is not alone. He has learned that
to take meaning from the tribal customs. Purified, he is now ready to join the tribe. He heads to the elders in the village
middle of such works of prose fiction as Ceremony.
She makes little use of simile and metaphor in her verse, with image and narration being the key elements. Her
poems. Silko herself denies that some of her poems are poems, seeing them instead as stories placed on the page with
Short Bio
The world of Silko's poetry is very much shaped by a Native American consciousness. Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico,
Though regarded as one of the most acculturated of the pueblos, Laguna still possesses a strong sense of history and
the pueblo, Silko's 'great-grandpa Marmon' among them), it is not surprising that it has produced not only Silko but also
Rather than viewing this heritage as a curse, Silko has used European literary forms to move toward the strength of the
times the two blend. The boundary lines between the real world and the world of legends and between the modern and
changes brought by Western civilization and a lastingly strong natural environment (of which the Native American is part)
Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko CitationBear Story
Changing is an important theme in Silkos work. 'Bear Story' tells of how the bears can call people to them and make
which she grew up with and which she always returns to) who are changers, who make others change, and who can
Silko is also a writer who celebrates the strength of women, and the title of her first book, Laguna Woman, underscores
Anaya Marmon, the women in Silko's poems are strong, independent, even wildly indomitable.
Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer
Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko Summary
In such poems as 'Where Mountain Lion Lay Down with Deer' we see Silkos non-Western sense of time. Things fromI smell the wind for my ancestors
pale blue leaves
crushes wild mountain smell.
Returning
up the gray stone cliff
where I descended
a thousand years ago
Returning to faded black stone
where mountain lion lay down with deer.
Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko Notes
The image of the mountain lion and the deer may remind one of the biblical lion and lamb, but the animals have differentCeremony Leslie Marmon Silko Audio
- The old ones who remember me are gone
the old songs are all forgotten
and the story of my birth.
How I danced in snow-frost moonlight
distant stars to the end of the Earth ...
Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko Full Text
Her words are not a lament, however. They do not convey a sense of loss but rather a deep continuity which goes
for the Native American way—not a way which is gone, but one which continues beyond time, changing and unchanged.
References
Velie, A. R. Four American Indian Literary Masters: N. Scott Momaday, James Welch, Leslie Marmon Silko, and Gerald Works by Silko
Storyteller (poems and short stories) 1981
Laguna Woman (poems) 1974
Ceremony (novel) 1977
Almanac of the Dead (novel) 1991
Sacred Water (nonfiction) 1993
Yellow Woman (nonfiction) 1993
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