The opening poems introduce themes of creation and destruction, about Indigenous erasures essentially shaping the reader’s understanding of Tayo’s suffering and the larger cultural and historical wounds he and others who have suffered similarly carry. Tayo’s dream sequences blur the lines between past and present, reality and hallucination. This, reflects his disconnection from his identity and homeland, as a result of consistent change fueled by colonization and the tendency for Western knowledge systems to enforce a “civilized” understanding of livelihood. Similarly, Ku’oosh’s healing ceremony, though rooted in powerful traditions, seems unable to fully reach the depths of Tayo’s war trauma and alienation. Somewhat suggesting and highlighting many of the challenges Indigenous communities face in preserving traditional ways of healing in a world that has consistently brought forth notions of adjusting to “Western ways” of life through changes sparked by colonization and war. Additionally, these early sections seemingly foreshadow broader themes of the power behind reclaiming lost and stolen identities fueled by colonization restoring balance to the indigenous way of life. Silko suggests that healing is not a singular event but a continuous process that requires adaptation, reconnection, and an understanding of one’s place within a larger cultural and spiritual framework.
Therefore, how do the three opening poems, Tayo’s dream, and Ku’oosh’s first healing ceremony work together to establish the central themes of Ceremony, particularly regarding the role of storytelling, and the relationship between individual and collective trauma?
Leslie Marmon Silko emerges “Ceremony” with 3 opening poems. Which explore the concept of three women creators, the power and significance of stories, and the healing powers of ceremonies. Which, all of these themes we see expand later in the novel. These poems are helpful for the reader as they display the important attributes of the author’s culture, and provides a context for later events in the novel. From the third poem, “What she said,” the author states,
“The only cure I know is a good ceremony, that’s what she said.”
Which relates to the first ceremony being used as a healing method for Tayo, later on in pages 30-45.
Do reading these poems beforehand change the way we view the characters in the book? (Tayo, Rocky, Ku’oosh) How do you think your perceptions of each character would change if you hadn’t read these 3 poems?
The opening poems of “Ceremony” are about creation by women. These poems also integrate magic and manifestation in with creation. I feel like these opening poems are also reflections of the authors cultural experiences and also experiences with creation and women creating. I also feel like these opening poems are reflections of stories being told of different cultures and traditions.
Discussion Question: what kinds of messages do other readers get besides creation and women creating?
As discussed in class today, Silko implements various ways of storytelling including switching to various parts of the story’s timeline, the use of poems, and the integration of Pueblo Indigenous stories. In the first poem of the book, Silko talks about Thought Woman stating at the end that she is “telling you the story she is thinking” (Silko 1). This invites us to dwell on whose story we are truly reading about and the use of storytelling within fictional or nonfictional tales. These thoughts (brought by Thought-Woman interestingly enough) are fed with the following poems throughout the book, speaking to Pueblo Indigenous stories.
How does books like Ceremony help us less acquainted with Indigenous storytelling become more familiar with other forms of storytelling? In your opinion, do these stories help us in the process of, as we’ve previously read from Gandhi and Fanon, actively decolonizing our minds?
In the poem labeled “Ceremony” on the second page of Leslie Silko’s book of the same name, she explores the idea of culture. In this case the indigenous Laguna people see their stories as the most powerful tool they possess, stating on lines 5-9, “They are all we have you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories”. These poignant lines allude to the importance of understanding everything around them. The author later writes that by taking away these stories they will have robbed them from their identity which point to how interconnected they are with their past and future via stories and the environment around them. Something I have been grappling with recently is the idea of knowing vs. understanding. Does the belief of knowing the answers cloud ourselves from understanding the truth? The idea of knowing everything has always been the forefront of European science and has commonly been seen as the only way to know, however the indigenous people of North America thought differently. They are comfortable with not knowing the answers of everything as, like I previously mentioned, understanding the unknown nature of our existence is how they can exist amongst it so comfortably and thrive.
That leads to my question, how can we reinvigorate this idea of being comfortable in our complex world rather than seeing it as a linear machine capable of being fixed via unnatural/uninspired solutions?
Leslie Marmon Silko opens Ceremony with the inclusion of three distinct poems. The first poem is a very unique creation story, stating all things were created by spider-woman who simply would think things into existence. This creation story is atypical in the sense that it is a woman creator and she created the world simply by thinking about it rather than possessing some sort of godly power. The second poem, titled “Ceremony”, touches on the importance of storytelling and the ritualistic nature of Native American culture. The final poem, if you can call it such, simply reads: “The only cure I know is a good ceremony, that’s what she said.” This, I suppose, is simply meant to further highlight the importance of ceremonies and rituals and how sometimes it is the only thing to turn to.
My question to the class is this: I think it is safe to say that the rituals and ceremonies Silko is alluding to our not very prominent in modern American society. Given the fact that the Native Americans occupied this land before the colonizer, why might these types of ceremonies have been phased out of our societies in the way they have? Did the colonizer simply not believe in them, or was there a larger motive possibly relating to fear of other cultures, fear of the unknown, etc.?
My understanding of Leslie Marmon Silkos book Ceremony is that it focuses on the clashes between indigenous and western perspectives. Another big point was nature and balance and the healing process in our cultures. Not only is there a big difference in the way that westernized cultures heal themselves medicinally but spiritually.
Indigenous cultures have a strong connection to the land, they use natural remedies to heal. As seen with Tayo though, unlike western medicine it is not just about taking the medicine, but using spiritual remedies, ceremonies, and connections to understand your body and give the love and respect to it that it needs.
We have lost our connection to these cultures which worked so well historically and are still a huge part of many native people’s lives. Yes, our medicine has advanced in a way that has increased our lifespans drastically, but what are we missing? If it worked so well for them for so long, would it be worth learning and introducing? Is our medicine really that much better or is it just pushed so hard for capitalistic purposes? Should we take time to learn and revitalize these traditions?
How or why is storytelling the consistent form of remembering and finding one’s self? As Tayo struggles with the guilt and trauma of the war, he also struggles with finding himself again after the war. “He could feel it inside his skull—the tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more,” (Silko). He has lived in dreams and false realities for so long. This reminded me of Val Plumwood, who was an Australian ecofeminist and philosopher who was traveling through the bush in Australia by herself in a kayak when a crocodile bit her and almost killed her. After the incident, many people around her wanted to kill the crocodile for attacking her, to which she responded by saying that she was in the crocodile’s home and that the crocodile did nothing necessarily wrong. She found herself being defined by the incident, just as Tayo found himself being defined by these terrible moments during the war. But, like Tayo, Val used storytelling to reinvent her idea of death and explore the philosophical ideas of death. It was through storytelling that she was able to cope, deal with, and understand being prey. She was able to use storytelling to redefine herself after being prey to a crocodile and continue on with her life. Tayo uses storytelling to heal and reconnect with his identity and his culture, where he found strength in traditional stories by creating a living story. Both Val and Tayo were able to use storytelling as a way to reconnect with themselves and those around them. If storytelling is so impactful and powerful, why have we lost so much touch with storytelling in the Western world? It seems many people in our Western world have lost touch with nature and all that truly matters in the world, who do we turn to in order to regain storytelling abilities?
In sections 1–3 of Ceremony, Silko explores fundamental themes such as trauma, cultural identity, and the battle for healing. Tayo, the main character, returns from World War II deeply impacted by his time there, particularly his guilt over his cousin Rocky’s murder and his difficult relationship with his heritage. Silko’s nonlinear storytelling highlights Tayo’s disturbed mental state and the relationship of personal and collective healing. Much of his disturbed state comes from PTSD from the war and also his struggles with his identity, highlighting the underlying themes of colonialism and internalized racism.
In the first three sections of Ceremony, what is the importance, and how does Silko depict Tayo’s psychological state and journey towards his healing through nonlinear storytelling?
Based on what I was able to figure out in the small portion of the story we have read along with the poems that came before the story began, it seems as if there will be a notable theme of traditional beliefs (Laguna values) and what Tayo has learned about the world and modern life through his time in the war. In what ways could the healing ceremony performed by Ku’oosh contrast against this learned knowledge? Or in better wording that might make more sense, what are some of the key differences between Laguna beliefs and Tayo’s experiences and how might this theming be built upon further?
Leslie Marmon Silko and Tayo have a couple attributes in common, they’re both from Laguna and come from mixed ancestry. The big difference is that Tayo is written as a Laguna man who is a war veteran. In the preface Silko talks about how she decided to write from the perspective of a struggling war veteran similar to the ones she knows in her village, “The war veterans weren’t always drunk, and they were home and available to us children when the other adults were busy at work… Even as a child I knew these were not bad people, yet something had happened to them. What was it?” (xvi).
Silko clearly states that she wrote the book because she wanted to better understand what happened to the war veterans, but why do you think she decided to give Tayo mixed ancestry similar to herself? How does this shape his character?
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony provides intimate insight into the indigenous experience through a collection of poems as well as the story of a Tayo, a mixed race Native American battling personal struggles after returning from WWII. The poems center around different aspects of indigenous culture, story-telling, and mythology that connect not only with each other, but the story of Tayo. The first poem, which shares its title with the book, illustrates the way in which storytelling is an important part of indigenous resilience and cultural preservation. Tayo’s story and lived experience, a direct product of the Thought-Women’s place in indigenous culture, is a reminder of the ways in which stories can explore very real/tangible issues, experiences, and beliefs.
How could the combination of culture and storytelling be utilized in a world becoming increasingly homogenized? How does indigenous storytelling and mythology challenge colonial culture and society?
The opening poems of Silko’s “Ceremony” are fundamental for understanding the value and fundamental principles behind the idea of indigenous storytelling. These poems blend the ideas of traditional values with that of more modern perspectives, and the understanding of both are key to analyzing Tayo’s journey. One overarching theme seen in both the initial poems and throughout Tayo’s journey is the idea of interconnectedness, or the relation of all things.
While the concept is introduced in the opening poems, and then played out following Tayo, why does Silko put such an emphasis on the idea of interconnectedness? How we can we relate this to the broader scale of sustainability or sustainable development?
Ceremony, written by Leslie Silk is a nonlinear type of book, which can get quite confusing if you don’t pay attention. So far, it hasn’t been my favorite reading assignment, but it has been growing on me. Reading the beginning of the book highlights the protagonist, Tayo, a young guy who recently returned home after serving in World War II. Throughout the pages, Tayo is struggling with PTSD and traumatizing experiences. His cousin passes away in the war, which is a significant distressing and damaging memory for Tayo. Whenever Tayo returns to the reservation, he feels disconnected from his family and friends, especially Auntie, who resents him for being the son of a white man. Tayo’s friend Harley, another Native veteran, copes with his trauma through drinking and reflecting on the broader struggles of his personal life. Storytelling is another central theme in Ceremony, which discusses narratives as a means of understanding and healing. The Laguna myths and ceremonies serve as a contrast to Western medicine, which has failed to help Tayo recover from his war trauma.
A few poems discuss traditional storytelling like the first one, which introduces the thought Woman (Ts’its’tsi’nako) and her sisters, who are “[creators of the universe]”. This small poetic passage emphasizes the power of storytelling, suggesting that stories shape reality, which is a central idea in the story. Another poem describes two sisters, Corn Woman and Reed Woman. They represent balance and disruption. Reed Woman brings disorder by making it rain too much, and Corn Woman leaves, leading to drought. This connects to Tayo’s guilt over praying for the rain to stop during the war and the imbalance in his life.
For this week’s discussion question regarding Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, I want to focus on the opening poem and how it parallels Silko’s own experiences. In her preface Silko details the events and headspace she experienced while writing Ceremony. The majority of this time was spent in Ketchikan, Alaska as Silko tried to adjust to the cold rainy climate despite her feelings of depression. Silko writes in the preface, “Once I started writing the novel, the depression lifted… Fortunately, as the main character, Tayo, began to recover from his illness, I too began to feel better… The novel was my refuge, my secret vehicle back to the Southwest land of sandstone mesas, blue sky, and sun… I was no longer on a dark rainy island thousands of miles away” (Silko, xv). In a poetic way, Silko’s experience mirrors the poem she writes to open the novel. In her own way Silko retells her nation’s creation story, “Ts’its’tsi’nako, Thought-Women, is sitting in her room and whatever she thinks about appears. She thought of her sisters Nau’ts’ity’i and I’tcts’ity’i, and together they created the Universe… Thought-Women, the Spider, named things and as she named them they appeared. She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now. I’m telling you the story she is thinking” (Silko, 1). Much like the Thought-Women who was alone in existence before she thought of her sisters, Silko faces tremendous loneliness and isolation while living in Ketchikan. Silko, like the Thought-Women, turns to creation as well, but in her case it is the creation of her novel Ceremony and other short stories that provides comfort and strength. This parallel could be interpreted as an intentional nod to Thought-Women’s divine knowledge, and how each of us can call upon a greater consciousness to create art and personal understanding.
Do you think Silko intentionally drew this parallel at the beginning of Ceremony? How do you think this idea relates to the other themes in the novel?
At the beginning of the novel, “Ceremony,” by Leslie Marmon Silko, we can see that storytelling is a central aspect. Storytelling is not solely a means of communication, but also the passing down of culture and ways of life. Stories serve as a way of preservation and resistance. They can be healing for both individual people and communities as a whole. Even just the way in which the novel is laid out and formatted, we can see the themes of oral storytelling and the passing down of history. It is fluid and an example of collective intelligence and wisdom. The novel opens with Thought-Woman by saying, “She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now. I’m telling you the story she is thinking.” This shows both the dynamic nature of stories and the art of storytelling. How do the ways of traditional storytelling portrayed in Silko’s novel differ from that of Western ideas, history-keeping formats, and narrative structures?
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony intertwines Indigenous and Western/modern perspectives, particularly in its exploration of culture and storytelling. A central theme in the novel is the continuation and transmission of culture through oral tradition. She begins the novel with a creation poem that reflects Laguna beliefs, presenting a creator who is a woman, not in the biological sense of giving birth, but through the power of thought. This challenges dominant Western creation narratives and emphasizes the role of storytelling in shaping cultural identity.
How does Silko’s use of Indigenous storytelling traditions in Ceremony challenge or reshape Western notions of history, creation, and identity?
In the first chapter of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, we are introduced to Tayo, an Indigenous man struggling to understand identity in a very complex life. When the novel specifically recounts Tayo’s time in battle during WWII, we catch an early glimpse of this struggle as Tayo experiences hallucinations of Josiah, his uncle, when he is asked to execute Japanese soldiers. I interpreted this as evidence that Tayo’s family and cultural history play an important role in his personal identity, but do not fully fit into his identity as a soldier. As the chapter goes on, Tayo reflects further on his personal experiences and how they have shaped him. Storytelling appears to be a central theme and seems vital to Tayo’s understanding of self. This theme of storytelling is also evident at the very beginning of the novel, which opens with a series of three poems, the first of which describes the creation of the world, making storytelling pivotal to all aspects of being. How does storytelling, traditionally and personally, help to shape Tayo’s perception of self? What can you infer about the importance of storytelling in Indigenous communities based off of this?
Reflecting on the beginning poems in Ceremony and Tayo’s journey, I find that Silko utilizes poems in order to reinstate themes that are potrayed in Tayo’s story, almost in subconscious way. As we read Tayo’s perspective and his struggles of mental health and identity after returning from war. Having fought in a war he also feels disconnected from his Laguna beliefs, which have strong spiritual connections to cultural heritage, story-telling, and healing ceremonies. Silko wrote in the poem Ceremony, “I will tell you something about stories, They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories.” This poem made me reflect on the differences of spiritual and non-western societies, much like Tayo often reflects on as western society has led to his personal identity and relationship conflicts. As we read more of the novel it is apparent that storytelling is what helps Tayo find peace, in one way or another, even when he went tried modern medicine and other solutions. My question is, have western societies neglected the power of storytelling and ancestral spirituality to achieve dominance over those who continue to practice it? These beliefs have high regard for interconnectedness and relationships with nature, which would go against what western societies have done for centuries. I personally think our society has tried to create such a vast difference between many indigenous beliefs in order to create a greater sense of difference.
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony dives into the heightened tensions between indigenous and Western perspectives, focusing on the stark contrasts of worldviews. A central theme that this text follows is that of nature and its role, balance and the healing within indigenous cultures not just physically but also the spiritual healing. Within the indigenous community they have been known to have a profound connection to the land while also utilizing natural remedies within their healing practices.
In contrast western medicine focuses more on the physical aspect of treatment and often shrug off the indigenous healing ceremonies that are pertinent to their culture and spiritual practices. Using a more holistic approach that is narrated to us by Tayo’s journey helps emphasizes the importance of love, respect, and being on the same level with one’s body. In our current day we have almost entirely removed ourselves from these traditional practices that have been marked historically effective and critical within native communities.
My question would be, if these indigenous methods worked so well for so long, is there value in revisiting and incorporating them into our own practices?
Throughout the first section of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmom Silko takes the reader on a journey through Tayo’s struggles as he tries to adjust to life at home outside of war. Intertwined to me in this first section, is the correlation between weather patterns and Tayo’s mental health. The first reference of his complex relationship with rain is when he was away at war:
“Jungle rain has no beginning or end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching to the earth, sometimes in solid thickets entangling the islands, and, other times, in tendrils of blue mist curling out of coastal clouds. The jungle breathed an eternal green that fevered men until they dripped sweat the way rubbery jungle leaves dripped the monsoon rain… This was not the rain he and Josiah had prayed for, this was not the green foliage they sought out in sandy canyons as a sign of spring. When Tayo prayed on the long muddy road to the prison camp, it was for dry air, dry as a hundred years squeezed out of yellow sand, air to dry out the oozing wounds of Rocky’s leg, to let the torn flesh and broken bones breathe, to clear the sweat that filled Rocky’s eyes: it was that rain which filled the tire ruts and made the mud so deep that the corporal began to slip and fall with his end of his muddy blanket that held Rocky. Tayo hated this unending rain as if it were the jungle green rain and not the miles of marching or the japanese grenade that was killing Rocky. He would blame the rain if the Japs saw how the corporal staggered; if they saw how weak Rocky had become, and came to crush his head with the butt of a rifle, then it would be the rain and the green all around that killed him” (10).
Here, we see Tayo’s internalized struggle with anger towards rain, almost as if it’s the soldier he should be fighting against. For him, the rain is the ultimate enemy rather than the soldiers he is fighting. While the other soldiers accompanying him are also battling the elements, I believe Tayo’s experience is uniquely personal and more internalized for him. His struggle is not against the enemy, but against the weather itself. Instead of rain as a symbol of life through giving green lands and spring, it now represents destruction- sinking mud that swallows his friends, infection, and the haunting green that devours his surroundings. The jungle becomes a metaphor for his own emotional entrapment and helplessness. This internalized battle continues after he returns home. When Tayo is back in his community, the impact of his wartime experiences on his perception of rain becomes even clearer:
“He had prayed the rain away, and for the sixth year it was dry; the grass turned yellow and it did not grow. Wherever he looked, Tayo could see the consequences of his praying; the gray mule grew gaunt, and the goat and kid had to wander farther and farther each day to find weeds or dry shrubs to eat… When the corn was gone, the mule licked for the salt taste on his hand; the tongue was rough and wet, but it was also warm and precise across his fingers. Tayo looked at the long white hairs growing out of the lips like antennas, and he got the choking in his throat again, and he cried for all of them, and for what he had done” (13).
Tayo blames the deterioration of his land and suffering of his animals on his act of “praying the rain away”. He becomes emotional for what ‘he’ did to his land and animals knowing that his uncomfortability with rain from the war affected what he and Josiah had prayed for, the health of land and animals. I think that this is where we see the correlation with the idea that Tayo’s uncomfortability with rain is almost his uncertainty with himself. In another way, this connection relates to the idea of environmental degradation of war in tandem with degradation of self. Tayo’s struggle with his identity, as a ‘half breed’ in society is linked to his emotional and physical struggles, and his PTSD further complicates his sense of self. He struggles viewing humanity the same as the brothers he is fighting with, targeting the rain as the enemy and giving humanity to those he is fighting against furthering his detachment of belonging. Knowing that he is struggling with himself, he too is struggling with his story. To me this relates to the poem of the Reed woman and the rain specifically, “Iktoa’ak’oya- Reed Woman went away then she went back to the original place down below. And there was no more rain then. “Everything dried up all of the plants the corn the beans they all dried up and started blowing away in the wind.” This poem connects the absence of rain and the desolation it causes to not only the earth but also to ones self identity.
My question: Is Silko suggesting that Tayo’s battle with the rain in war times has irrevocably affected his relation with Land, his identity, and his community at home? Does his negative relationship with rain constrain his ability to heal and reconcile with himself and his environment?
There is a faith that supports the structures that the people in the book live by. Children do not know why things happen the way they appear in the world. Adults can pass stories down through the generations because they are the ones who spread the stories that they believe in. What is to stop people from not keeping the traditions and passing on their message? The life lessons are to be assumed by elders to be correct because they are the ones who experience things firsthand. People could brush off these stories being passed down and ay the wrong lessons. I feel that the lessons that are correct will be passed down because they will hold true always when it comes to nature. If you do not use nature’s lessons then you will not be able to teach them.
The poems use a connection to nature. The poems talk about hummingbirds and how they exist in the environment. These poems give life lessons that are to be learned in one way or another by the characters in the story. The poems are meant to spread wisdom to be passed on and could be seen as cautionary tales or more to be wise about what you do in your life. The Ceremony poem has left a more layered and complex story. There are things that people will learn along their journey through life and will fill you with knowledge like how a belly would be full after a meal.
The spider women poem is more directed at her because it says she and is directed towards her. The idea is that there is an actual Mother Earth figure in this story that goes along with a matriarchal creationist with the spider woman who has all of these worker creators that show another version of how the world is created. There is a relationship with the families that is a great lesson to give to your children to build an expectation to live in their society. It is a great way to say that you need to respect your environment and where you came from. Everyone has come from nature so the storytelling gives a personality and gives someone to thank.
Western stories allow there to be one certain solution to the problem whereas in Ceremony there is an ambiguity that what truly has been the reason for why things happen the way that they do. The lessons and stories created are ways for us to understand and as humans we always are trying to find the specific reason here in the Western world of thinking it may be due to the amount of different technology that allows us to be connected rather than being connected directly with nature.
At the start of Ceremony we are thrown into Tayo’s dream, he is in the jungle, being ordered to participate in the execution of a group of Japanese soldiers that were being held prisoner. When commanded to fire Tayo could not do so because when he looked at one of the Japanese soldiers he saw his uncle Josiah who he loves dearly. Tayo then enters a state if despair and the author makes him appear as if he is crazy and genuinely sees his uncle in the face of this dead Japanese soldier. I think that instead of Tayo being crazy, this scene is showing the virtue and pureness of heart that Tayo possesses. I think that when Tayo sees his uncles face, it is representative of how the Japanese soldiers were dehumanized, particualrly by Rocky, and how Tayo is unable to see the soldiers as less than human and automatically associates another human with a human he loves. Tayo is able to recognize in that moment the inherent value of human life and was unable to separate the actions he was ordered to take from his internal conflict. In contrast, Rocky, possibly due to his upbringing, is more comfortable with doing what he believes is the right thing to do as well as his “duty” which involves conforming to western philosophy. This is shown when Rocky uses logic to try and snap Tayo out of it. Rocky tells Tayo that the man could not possibly be Josiah, because Josiah is on the other side of the world, showing how Rocky missed the point completely.
My question is, was Tayo just hallucinating or is there a deeper meaning to this scene?
Ceremony is a novel laced with poems, which serve to portray the importance of storytelling among Native people. This can be understood from Silko’s first poem which says,
“Their evil is mighty
But it can’t stand up to our stories.” (pp. 2)
Native Americans heavily rely on metaphysics and dreams to guide them down their path, in stark opposition of Western societies. Silko makes use of this aspect so central to Native lives by telling the story of Tayo, a half-white and half-Native American who struggles with his identity. Tayo, upon returning home from World War 2, begins having hellish dreams in which a Japanese soldier that he was ordered to shoot and kill turns out to be his uncle, Josiah. Rocky, a full-blood Native American who seems to feel he must reject all of his traditional values to thrive in the Western world, asserts to Tayo that the killing was justified and should not upset him because, “Tayo, it’s a Jap.” On one hand with Rocky, we see that he has become complicit with the Western values of war and domination. On the other hand, Tayo’s recognition of his uncle (in the Japanese soldier’s body) represents his understanding of the interconnectedness among all people, a Native value.
In characterizing the full-blood Native as having Western values and the half-white Native as having Native values, what messages are Silko trying to convey? With this story, how is she making use of the Native cornerstone of storytelling to challenge structures of power that attempt to devalue Native senses?
When reading Ceremony, pp. 59-105 it is a very tough couple of pages. ‘Go away, he screamed ‘you’re not my brother. I don’t want no brother!” pg 61. There seems to be a conflict between the concept of whiteness and native words for Tayo. He is a mix of Laguna Pueblo and has European ancestry. Tayo was so hurt that he covered his ears while crying in Josiah’s leg. I believe Tayo is having internalized racism and wrestles between colonialism and Native identity. Tayo feels terrible about what happened to his people when their traditions were stripped because of the war from colonialism. On the other hand, Emo seems to like proximity towards whiteness and havoc that colonialism has caused on Native people while calling Tayo weak Emo has internalized racism the as well but in a different way compared to Tayo.
Reflecting on Ceremony by Leslie Silko, I found some interesting parallels between Reed woman and Tayo, as well as Corn woman and Rocky. On page 13, Tayo thinks he prayed the rain away. On page 12, the poem of Reed woman and Corn woman, Corn woman describes how her sister Reed woman basks in her time taking many, many baths and appreciates the rain, while Corn woman gets upset that Reed woman is using up the water. Corn woman, hardened by harsh working conditions, shames her sister for using the resources, so Reed woman leaves and takes the rain with her. Tayo is in tune with the world, while his brother Rocky is hardened and removed from the natural world like Corn woman. Tayo, like Reed woman, is more in tune with Indigenous ideology while Rocky falls victim to a more Western point of view, similar to how Corn woman acts with her sister. Rocky is stuck in the military standpoint that is facilitated by imperialistic and colonialistic ideals, and Tayo has found himself alienated from that mindset while in that setting. Tayo feels different because he does not subscribe to the propaganda of military alliance, and he feels bad for that, even though he has his own calling. I think that this book sheds amazing light on the topic of Westernization versus Indigenous ideology in a beautiful way that really shows the stark differences and challenges the Western perspective puts upon us that has been so normalized in American society.
The opening poems in Ceremony there are themes of cultural identity, trauma, assimilation and resilience. These themes follow Tayo through his life and interactions with his own identity and the worlds perceptions of him. He struggles with how connected he wants to be with his indigenous heritage and even if he attempts to stray away from it, he ends up being sick and disoriented. Though he may not always feel like he is connected with these indigenous practices, the poems at the beginning are telling of the importance of resistance to doubt, faith in faith and creation being a powerful tool. How is Tayo’s experience with his mixed experience reflected in the lessons of the poems that begin the story?
In Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko takes us deep into the struggles of Tayo, a young man from the Laguna Pueblo reservation who returns home after fighting in World War II. He’s physically back, but mentally and emotionally, he’s a wreck. Haunted by memories of war, including the death of his cousin Rocky and the guilt over something he did in the Philippines, Tayo feels like he’s lost everything. The story isn’t just about his individual trauma, though it’s also about the trauma of his people and their community. The drought that has gripped the land for years feels connected to Tayo’s inner turmoil, and he’s convinced that something he did has cursed not only him but the earth itself. As Tayo tries to make sense of his pain, he has to navigate the complicated relationships with his family and his community, all while grappling with a system that constantly undervalues his people.
Silko uses poetry to show how Tayo’s healing process isn’t just about getting better in the usual sense it’s a journey of spiritual and cultural restoration. Through ceremonies, old stories, and even his memories of the summer before the war, Tayo starts to find his way back to himself. He has to reconcile his guilt, his identity, and his relationship to the land. Along the way, he realizes that his pain is not isolated; it’s part of a larger history and collective experience that his people have been dealing with for generations. In Ceremony, Silko doesn’t just tell a story about an individual’s healing, she tells a story about how healing can be collective, how tradition and spirituality can help rebuild not just one person, but a whole community, and even the land itself.
For Tayo, the protagonist, healing comes not from rejecting his cultural roots but from embracing the stories and traditions of his people, which guide him through his trauma and personal struggles. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the way modern society often dismisses storytelling as secondary to empirical knowledge. Much like how Western thought prioritizes logic and categorization, we often view stories as entertainment rather than essential tools for understanding ourselves and the world around us. As Ceremony illustrates, stories hold the power to shape our realities, connect us to our ancestors, and provide healing in ways that rigid structures of knowledge cannot. This leads me to my question: How can we shift our perspective to see storytelling as a necessary part of healing and understanding, rather than just a relic of the past? In what ways can we incorporate the wisdom of stories into our daily lives in a world that often prioritizes facts over meaning?
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is a nonlinear book that is difficult to understand if you aren’t paying close attention. It is a pretty interesting read so far. The story focuses on a boy named Tayo, a young Native American man who returns home after serving in WWII. Because of his experience, he struggles with PTSD, depression, and disconnection from society. His cousin died in the war, and it has continued to affect him, and unfortunately, his aunt resents him for being mixed. Harley, Tayo’s friend, is another Native veteran who relies on alcohol to cope with his trauma. Not only is the story of these characters compelling but so is the storytelling of the traditional Laguna beliefs. The narrative of culture offers a different perspective on Western medicine, that has failed to heal Tayo’s psychological trauma so far. The poems written throughout the book are very interesting but also hard to understand if you don’t read it a few times. For example, the poem about Corn Woman and Reed Woman symbolizes the tension between balance and chaos, which mirrors Tayo’s inner conflict. His guilt over praying for the rain to stop during the war ties into this theme of imbalance and the need for spiritual healing. My question is: How does storytelling/traditions change our mindset and influence our everyday life.
I found Ceremony to be a highly intriguing story of long lasting effects of PTSD and colonialism, and their impacts on individuals, particularly Tayo. His visions and dreams, often physically overtaking, are highly symbolic and contain recurring themes, one of these being cattle. I found the use of cattle as an animal to be unfamiliar, and was very interested in the processes of cattle stealing and how that occurred between settlers and indigenous communities. Cattle are clearly highly relevant to this time period where farming and animal husbandry was very popular. My question is, what applications of cattle symbolism can be seen in contemporary sustainability contexts? Is there another animal that would be a better representation for our modern world, and why?
SD 3800 Voices in Sustainable Development 
The opening poems introduce themes of creation and destruction, about Indigenous erasures essentially shaping the reader’s understanding of Tayo’s suffering and the larger cultural and historical wounds he and others who have suffered similarly carry. Tayo’s dream sequences blur the lines between past and present, reality and hallucination. This, reflects his disconnection from his identity and homeland, as a result of consistent change fueled by colonization and the tendency for Western knowledge systems to enforce a “civilized” understanding of livelihood. Similarly, Ku’oosh’s healing ceremony, though rooted in powerful traditions, seems unable to fully reach the depths of Tayo’s war trauma and alienation. Somewhat suggesting and highlighting many of the challenges Indigenous communities face in preserving traditional ways of healing in a world that has consistently brought forth notions of adjusting to “Western ways” of life through changes sparked by colonization and war. Additionally, these early sections seemingly foreshadow broader themes of the power behind reclaiming lost and stolen identities fueled by colonization restoring balance to the indigenous way of life. Silko suggests that healing is not a singular event but a continuous process that requires adaptation, reconnection, and an understanding of one’s place within a larger cultural and spiritual framework.
Therefore, how do the three opening poems, Tayo’s dream, and Ku’oosh’s first healing ceremony work together to establish the central themes of Ceremony, particularly regarding the role of storytelling, and the relationship between individual and collective trauma?
Leslie Marmon Silko emerges “Ceremony” with 3 opening poems. Which explore the concept of three women creators, the power and significance of stories, and the healing powers of ceremonies. Which, all of these themes we see expand later in the novel. These poems are helpful for the reader as they display the important attributes of the author’s culture, and provides a context for later events in the novel. From the third poem, “What she said,” the author states,
“The only cure
I know
is a good ceremony,
that’s what she said.”
Which relates to the first ceremony being used as a healing method for Tayo, later on in pages 30-45.
Do reading these poems beforehand change the way we view the characters in the book? (Tayo, Rocky, Ku’oosh) How do you think your perceptions of each character would change if you hadn’t read these 3 poems?
Abbey Smith
The opening poems of “Ceremony” are about creation by women. These poems also integrate magic and manifestation in with creation. I feel like these opening poems are also reflections of the authors cultural experiences and also experiences with creation and women creating. I also feel like these opening poems are reflections of stories being told of different cultures and traditions.
Discussion Question: what kinds of messages do other readers get besides creation and women creating?
Ciara Gurganus
As discussed in class today, Silko implements various ways of storytelling including switching to various parts of the story’s timeline, the use of poems, and the integration of Pueblo Indigenous stories. In the first poem of the book, Silko talks about Thought Woman stating at the end that she is “telling you the story she is thinking” (Silko 1). This invites us to dwell on whose story we are truly reading about and the use of storytelling within fictional or nonfictional tales. These thoughts (brought by Thought-Woman interestingly enough) are fed with the following poems throughout the book, speaking to Pueblo Indigenous stories.
How does books like Ceremony help us less acquainted with Indigenous storytelling become more familiar with other forms of storytelling? In your opinion, do these stories help us in the process of, as we’ve previously read from Gandhi and Fanon, actively decolonizing our minds?
In the poem labeled “Ceremony” on the second page of Leslie Silko’s book of the same name, she explores the idea of culture. In this case the indigenous Laguna people see their stories as the most powerful tool they possess, stating on lines 5-9, “They are all we have you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories”. These poignant lines allude to the importance of understanding everything around them. The author later writes that by taking away these stories they will have robbed them from their identity which point to how interconnected they are with their past and future via stories and the environment around them. Something I have been grappling with recently is the idea of knowing vs. understanding. Does the belief of knowing the answers cloud ourselves from understanding the truth? The idea of knowing everything has always been the forefront of European science and has commonly been seen as the only way to know, however the indigenous people of North America thought differently. They are comfortable with not knowing the answers of everything as, like I previously mentioned, understanding the unknown nature of our existence is how they can exist amongst it so comfortably and thrive.
That leads to my question, how can we reinvigorate this idea of being comfortable in our complex world rather than seeing it as a linear machine capable of being fixed via unnatural/uninspired solutions?
-Tyler Nece
Leslie Marmon Silko opens Ceremony with the inclusion of three distinct poems. The first poem is a very unique creation story, stating all things were created by spider-woman who simply would think things into existence. This creation story is atypical in the sense that it is a woman creator and she created the world simply by thinking about it rather than possessing some sort of godly power. The second poem, titled “Ceremony”, touches on the importance of storytelling and the ritualistic nature of Native American culture. The final poem, if you can call it such, simply reads: “The only cure I know is a good ceremony, that’s what she said.” This, I suppose, is simply meant to further highlight the importance of ceremonies and rituals and how sometimes it is the only thing to turn to.
My question to the class is this: I think it is safe to say that the rituals and ceremonies Silko is alluding to our not very prominent in modern American society. Given the fact that the Native Americans occupied this land before the colonizer, why might these types of ceremonies have been phased out of our societies in the way they have? Did the colonizer simply not believe in them, or was there a larger motive possibly relating to fear of other cultures, fear of the unknown, etc.?
My understanding of Leslie Marmon Silkos book Ceremony is that it focuses on the clashes between indigenous and western perspectives. Another big point was nature and balance and the healing process in our cultures. Not only is there a big difference in the way that westernized cultures heal themselves medicinally but spiritually.
Indigenous cultures have a strong connection to the land, they use natural remedies to heal. As seen with Tayo though, unlike western medicine it is not just about taking the medicine, but using spiritual remedies, ceremonies, and connections to understand your body and give the love and respect to it that it needs.
We have lost our connection to these cultures which worked so well historically and are still a huge part of many native people’s lives. Yes, our medicine has advanced in a way that has increased our lifespans drastically, but what are we missing? If it worked so well for them for so long, would it be worth learning and introducing? Is our medicine really that much better or is it just pushed so hard for capitalistic purposes? Should we take time to learn and revitalize these traditions?
-Corrin Dotson
How or why is storytelling the consistent form of remembering and finding one’s self? As Tayo struggles with the guilt and trauma of the war, he also struggles with finding himself again after the war. “He could feel it inside his skull—the tension of little threads being pulled and how it was with tangled things, things tied together, and as he tried to pull them apart and rewind them into their places, they snagged and tangled even more,” (Silko). He has lived in dreams and false realities for so long. This reminded me of Val Plumwood, who was an Australian ecofeminist and philosopher who was traveling through the bush in Australia by herself in a kayak when a crocodile bit her and almost killed her. After the incident, many people around her wanted to kill the crocodile for attacking her, to which she responded by saying that she was in the crocodile’s home and that the crocodile did nothing necessarily wrong. She found herself being defined by the incident, just as Tayo found himself being defined by these terrible moments during the war. But, like Tayo, Val used storytelling to reinvent her idea of death and explore the philosophical ideas of death. It was through storytelling that she was able to cope, deal with, and understand being prey. She was able to use storytelling to redefine herself after being prey to a crocodile and continue on with her life. Tayo uses storytelling to heal and reconnect with his identity and his culture, where he found strength in traditional stories by creating a living story. Both Val and Tayo were able to use storytelling as a way to reconnect with themselves and those around them. If storytelling is so impactful and powerful, why have we lost so much touch with storytelling in the Western world? It seems many people in our Western world have lost touch with nature and all that truly matters in the world, who do we turn to in order to regain storytelling abilities?
Parker Williamson
In sections 1–3 of Ceremony, Silko explores fundamental themes such as trauma, cultural identity, and the battle for healing. Tayo, the main character, returns from World War II deeply impacted by his time there, particularly his guilt over his cousin Rocky’s murder and his difficult relationship with his heritage. Silko’s nonlinear storytelling highlights Tayo’s disturbed mental state and the relationship of personal and collective healing. Much of his disturbed state comes from PTSD from the war and also his struggles with his identity, highlighting the underlying themes of colonialism and internalized racism.
In the first three sections of Ceremony, what is the importance, and how does Silko depict Tayo’s psychological state and journey towards his healing through nonlinear storytelling?
Margo Smith
Based on what I was able to figure out in the small portion of the story we have read along with the poems that came before the story began, it seems as if there will be a notable theme of traditional beliefs (Laguna values) and what Tayo has learned about the world and modern life through his time in the war. In what ways could the healing ceremony performed by Ku’oosh contrast against this learned knowledge? Or in better wording that might make more sense, what are some of the key differences between Laguna beliefs and Tayo’s experiences and how might this theming be built upon further?
-Connor Kuharcik
Leslie Marmon Silko and Tayo have a couple attributes in common, they’re both from Laguna and come from mixed ancestry. The big difference is that Tayo is written as a Laguna man who is a war veteran. In the preface Silko talks about how she decided to write from the perspective of a struggling war veteran similar to the ones she knows in her village, “The war veterans weren’t always drunk, and they were home and available to us children when the other adults were busy at work… Even as a child I knew these were not bad people, yet something had happened to them. What was it?” (xvi).
Silko clearly states that she wrote the book because she wanted to better understand what happened to the war veterans, but why do you think she decided to give Tayo mixed ancestry similar to herself? How does this shape his character?
Ella Holmes
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony provides intimate insight into the indigenous experience through a collection of poems as well as the story of a Tayo, a mixed race Native American battling personal struggles after returning from WWII. The poems center around different aspects of indigenous culture, story-telling, and mythology that connect not only with each other, but the story of Tayo. The first poem, which shares its title with the book, illustrates the way in which storytelling is an important part of indigenous resilience and cultural preservation. Tayo’s story and lived experience, a direct product of the Thought-Women’s place in indigenous culture, is a reminder of the ways in which stories can explore very real/tangible issues, experiences, and beliefs.
How could the combination of culture and storytelling be utilized in a world becoming increasingly homogenized? How does indigenous storytelling and mythology challenge colonial culture and society?
-Max Lawrence
The opening poems of Silko’s “Ceremony” are fundamental for understanding the value and fundamental principles behind the idea of indigenous storytelling. These poems blend the ideas of traditional values with that of more modern perspectives, and the understanding of both are key to analyzing Tayo’s journey. One overarching theme seen in both the initial poems and throughout Tayo’s journey is the idea of interconnectedness, or the relation of all things.
While the concept is introduced in the opening poems, and then played out following Tayo, why does Silko put such an emphasis on the idea of interconnectedness? How we can we relate this to the broader scale of sustainability or sustainable development?
-Jack Brion
Ceremony, written by Leslie Silk is a nonlinear type of book, which can get quite confusing if you don’t pay attention. So far, it hasn’t been my favorite reading assignment, but it has been growing on me. Reading the beginning of the book highlights the protagonist, Tayo, a young guy who recently returned home after serving in World War II. Throughout the pages, Tayo is struggling with PTSD and traumatizing experiences. His cousin passes away in the war, which is a significant distressing and damaging memory for Tayo. Whenever Tayo returns to the reservation, he feels disconnected from his family and friends, especially Auntie, who resents him for being the son of a white man. Tayo’s friend Harley, another Native veteran, copes with his trauma through drinking and reflecting on the broader struggles of his personal life. Storytelling is another central theme in Ceremony, which discusses narratives as a means of understanding and healing. The Laguna myths and ceremonies serve as a contrast to Western medicine, which has failed to help Tayo recover from his war trauma.
A few poems discuss traditional storytelling like the first one, which introduces the thought Woman (Ts’its’tsi’nako) and her sisters, who are “[creators of the universe]”. This small poetic passage emphasizes the power of storytelling, suggesting that stories shape reality, which is a central idea in the story. Another poem describes two sisters, Corn Woman and Reed Woman. They represent balance and disruption. Reed Woman brings disorder by making it rain too much, and Corn Woman leaves, leading to drought. This connects to Tayo’s guilt over praying for the rain to stop during the war and the imbalance in his life.
For this week’s discussion question regarding Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, I want to focus on the opening poem and how it parallels Silko’s own experiences. In her preface Silko details the events and headspace she experienced while writing Ceremony. The majority of this time was spent in Ketchikan, Alaska as Silko tried to adjust to the cold rainy climate despite her feelings of depression. Silko writes in the preface, “Once I started writing the novel, the depression lifted… Fortunately, as the main character, Tayo, began to recover from his illness, I too began to feel better… The novel was my refuge, my secret vehicle back to the Southwest land of sandstone mesas, blue sky, and sun… I was no longer on a dark rainy island thousands of miles away” (Silko, xv). In a poetic way, Silko’s experience mirrors the poem she writes to open the novel. In her own way Silko retells her nation’s creation story, “Ts’its’tsi’nako, Thought-Women, is sitting in her room and whatever she thinks about appears. She thought of her sisters Nau’ts’ity’i and I’tcts’ity’i, and together they created the Universe… Thought-Women, the Spider, named things and as she named them they appeared. She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now. I’m telling you the story she is thinking” (Silko, 1). Much like the Thought-Women who was alone in existence before she thought of her sisters, Silko faces tremendous loneliness and isolation while living in Ketchikan. Silko, like the Thought-Women, turns to creation as well, but in her case it is the creation of her novel Ceremony and other short stories that provides comfort and strength. This parallel could be interpreted as an intentional nod to Thought-Women’s divine knowledge, and how each of us can call upon a greater consciousness to create art and personal understanding.
Do you think Silko intentionally drew this parallel at the beginning of Ceremony? How do you think this idea relates to the other themes in the novel?
Clara NeSmith
At the beginning of the novel, “Ceremony,” by Leslie Marmon Silko, we can see that storytelling is a central aspect. Storytelling is not solely a means of communication, but also the passing down of culture and ways of life. Stories serve as a way of preservation and resistance. They can be healing for both individual people and communities as a whole. Even just the way in which the novel is laid out and formatted, we can see the themes of oral storytelling and the passing down of history. It is fluid and an example of collective intelligence and wisdom. The novel opens with Thought-Woman by saying, “She is sitting in her room thinking of a story now. I’m telling you the story she is thinking.” This shows both the dynamic nature of stories and the art of storytelling. How do the ways of traditional storytelling portrayed in Silko’s novel differ from that of Western ideas, history-keeping formats, and narrative structures?
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony intertwines Indigenous and Western/modern perspectives, particularly in its exploration of culture and storytelling. A central theme in the novel is the continuation and transmission of culture through oral tradition. She begins the novel with a creation poem that reflects Laguna beliefs, presenting a creator who is a woman, not in the biological sense of giving birth, but through the power of thought. This challenges dominant Western creation narratives and emphasizes the role of storytelling in shaping cultural identity.
How does Silko’s use of Indigenous storytelling traditions in Ceremony challenge or reshape Western notions of history, creation, and identity?
-Kendall Nerenberg
In the first chapter of Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, we are introduced to Tayo, an Indigenous man struggling to understand identity in a very complex life. When the novel specifically recounts Tayo’s time in battle during WWII, we catch an early glimpse of this struggle as Tayo experiences hallucinations of Josiah, his uncle, when he is asked to execute Japanese soldiers. I interpreted this as evidence that Tayo’s family and cultural history play an important role in his personal identity, but do not fully fit into his identity as a soldier. As the chapter goes on, Tayo reflects further on his personal experiences and how they have shaped him. Storytelling appears to be a central theme and seems vital to Tayo’s understanding of self. This theme of storytelling is also evident at the very beginning of the novel, which opens with a series of three poems, the first of which describes the creation of the world, making storytelling pivotal to all aspects of being. How does storytelling, traditionally and personally, help to shape Tayo’s perception of self? What can you infer about the importance of storytelling in Indigenous communities based off of this?
-Sofie Crump
Reflecting on the beginning poems in Ceremony and Tayo’s journey, I find that Silko utilizes poems in order to reinstate themes that are potrayed in Tayo’s story, almost in subconscious way. As we read Tayo’s perspective and his struggles of mental health and identity after returning from war. Having fought in a war he also feels disconnected from his Laguna beliefs, which have strong spiritual connections to cultural heritage, story-telling, and healing ceremonies. Silko wrote in the poem Ceremony, “I will tell you something about stories, They aren’t just entertainment. Don’t be fooled. They are all we have, you see, all we have to fight off illness and death. You don’t have anything if you don’t have stories.” This poem made me reflect on the differences of spiritual and non-western societies, much like Tayo often reflects on as western society has led to his personal identity and relationship conflicts. As we read more of the novel it is apparent that storytelling is what helps Tayo find peace, in one way or another, even when he went tried modern medicine and other solutions. My question is, have western societies neglected the power of storytelling and ancestral spirituality to achieve dominance over those who continue to practice it? These beliefs have high regard for interconnectedness and relationships with nature, which would go against what western societies have done for centuries. I personally think our society has tried to create such a vast difference between many indigenous beliefs in order to create a greater sense of difference.
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony dives into the heightened tensions between indigenous and Western perspectives, focusing on the stark contrasts of worldviews. A central theme that this text follows is that of nature and its role, balance and the healing within indigenous cultures not just physically but also the spiritual healing. Within the indigenous community they have been known to have a profound connection to the land while also utilizing natural remedies within their healing practices.
In contrast western medicine focuses more on the physical aspect of treatment and often shrug off the indigenous healing ceremonies that are pertinent to their culture and spiritual practices. Using a more holistic approach that is narrated to us by Tayo’s journey helps emphasizes the importance of love, respect, and being on the same level with one’s body. In our current day we have almost entirely removed ourselves from these traditional practices that have been marked historically effective and critical within native communities.
My question would be, if these indigenous methods worked so well for so long, is there value in revisiting and incorporating them into our own practices?
-Lex Blake
Throughout the first section of the book Ceremony, Leslie Marmom Silko takes the reader on a journey through Tayo’s struggles as he tries to adjust to life at home outside of war. Intertwined to me in this first section, is the correlation between weather patterns and Tayo’s mental health. The first reference of his complex relationship with rain is when he was away at war:
“Jungle rain has no beginning or end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching to the earth, sometimes in solid thickets entangling the islands, and, other times, in tendrils of blue mist curling out of coastal clouds. The jungle breathed an eternal green that fevered men until they dripped sweat the way rubbery jungle leaves dripped the monsoon rain… This was not the rain he and Josiah had prayed for, this was not the green foliage they sought out in sandy canyons as a sign of spring. When Tayo prayed on the long muddy road to the prison camp, it was for dry air, dry as a hundred years squeezed out of yellow sand, air to dry out the oozing wounds of Rocky’s leg, to let the torn flesh and broken bones breathe, to clear the sweat that filled Rocky’s eyes: it was that rain which filled the tire ruts and made the mud so deep that the corporal began to slip and fall with his end of his muddy blanket that held Rocky. Tayo hated this unending rain as if it were the jungle green rain and not the miles of marching or the japanese grenade that was killing Rocky. He would blame the rain if the Japs saw how the corporal staggered; if they saw how weak Rocky had become, and came to crush his head with the butt of a rifle, then it would be the rain and the green all around that killed him” (10).
Here, we see Tayo’s internalized struggle with anger towards rain, almost as if it’s the soldier he should be fighting against. For him, the rain is the ultimate enemy rather than the soldiers he is fighting. While the other soldiers accompanying him are also battling the elements, I believe Tayo’s experience is uniquely personal and more internalized for him. His struggle is not against the enemy, but against the weather itself. Instead of rain as a symbol of life through giving green lands and spring, it now represents destruction- sinking mud that swallows his friends, infection, and the haunting green that devours his surroundings. The jungle becomes a metaphor for his own emotional entrapment and helplessness. This internalized battle continues after he returns home. When Tayo is back in his community, the impact of his wartime experiences on his perception of rain becomes even clearer:
“He had prayed the rain away, and for the sixth year it was dry; the grass turned yellow and it did not grow. Wherever he looked, Tayo could see the consequences of his praying; the gray mule grew gaunt, and the goat and kid had to wander farther and farther each day to find weeds or dry shrubs to eat… When the corn was gone, the mule licked for the salt taste on his hand; the tongue was rough and wet, but it was also warm and precise across his fingers. Tayo looked at the long white hairs growing out of the lips like antennas, and he got the choking in his throat again, and he cried for all of them, and for what he had done” (13).
Tayo blames the deterioration of his land and suffering of his animals on his act of “praying the rain away”. He becomes emotional for what ‘he’ did to his land and animals knowing that his uncomfortability with rain from the war affected what he and Josiah had prayed for, the health of land and animals. I think that this is where we see the correlation with the idea that Tayo’s uncomfortability with rain is almost his uncertainty with himself. In another way, this connection relates to the idea of environmental degradation of war in tandem with degradation of self. Tayo’s struggle with his identity, as a ‘half breed’ in society is linked to his emotional and physical struggles, and his PTSD further complicates his sense of self. He struggles viewing humanity the same as the brothers he is fighting with, targeting the rain as the enemy and giving humanity to those he is fighting against furthering his detachment of belonging. Knowing that he is struggling with himself, he too is struggling with his story. To me this relates to the poem of the Reed woman and the rain specifically, “Iktoa’ak’oya- Reed Woman went away then she went back to the original place down below. And there was no more rain then. “Everything dried up all of the plants the corn the beans they all dried up and started blowing away in the wind.” This poem connects the absence of rain and the desolation it causes to not only the earth but also to ones self identity.
My question: Is Silko suggesting that Tayo’s battle with the rain in war times has irrevocably affected his relation with Land, his identity, and his community at home? Does his negative relationship with rain constrain his ability to heal and reconcile with himself and his environment?
Sasha Fuellhart
There is a faith that supports the structures that the people in the book live by. Children do not know why things happen the way they appear in the world. Adults can pass stories down through the generations because they are the ones who spread the stories that they believe in. What is to stop people from not keeping the traditions and passing on their message? The life lessons are to be assumed by elders to be correct because they are the ones who experience things firsthand. People could brush off these stories being passed down and ay the wrong lessons. I feel that the lessons that are correct will be passed down because they will hold true always when it comes to nature. If you do not use nature’s lessons then you will not be able to teach them.
The poems use a connection to nature. The poems talk about hummingbirds and how they exist in the environment. These poems give life lessons that are to be learned in one way or another by the characters in the story. The poems are meant to spread wisdom to be passed on and could be seen as cautionary tales or more to be wise about what you do in your life. The Ceremony poem has left a more layered and complex story. There are things that people will learn along their journey through life and will fill you with knowledge like how a belly would be full after a meal.
The spider women poem is more directed at her because it says she and is directed towards her. The idea is that there is an actual Mother Earth figure in this story that goes along with a matriarchal creationist with the spider woman who has all of these worker creators that show another version of how the world is created. There is a relationship with the families that is a great lesson to give to your children to build an expectation to live in their society. It is a great way to say that you need to respect your environment and where you came from. Everyone has come from nature so the storytelling gives a personality and gives someone to thank.
Western stories allow there to be one certain solution to the problem whereas in Ceremony there is an ambiguity that what truly has been the reason for why things happen the way that they do. The lessons and stories created are ways for us to understand and as humans we always are trying to find the specific reason here in the Western world of thinking it may be due to the amount of different technology that allows us to be connected rather than being connected directly with nature.
-Vincent Spinelli
At the start of Ceremony we are thrown into Tayo’s dream, he is in the jungle, being ordered to participate in the execution of a group of Japanese soldiers that were being held prisoner. When commanded to fire Tayo could not do so because when he looked at one of the Japanese soldiers he saw his uncle Josiah who he loves dearly. Tayo then enters a state if despair and the author makes him appear as if he is crazy and genuinely sees his uncle in the face of this dead Japanese soldier. I think that instead of Tayo being crazy, this scene is showing the virtue and pureness of heart that Tayo possesses. I think that when Tayo sees his uncles face, it is representative of how the Japanese soldiers were dehumanized, particualrly by Rocky, and how Tayo is unable to see the soldiers as less than human and automatically associates another human with a human he loves. Tayo is able to recognize in that moment the inherent value of human life and was unable to separate the actions he was ordered to take from his internal conflict. In contrast, Rocky, possibly due to his upbringing, is more comfortable with doing what he believes is the right thing to do as well as his “duty” which involves conforming to western philosophy. This is shown when Rocky uses logic to try and snap Tayo out of it. Rocky tells Tayo that the man could not possibly be Josiah, because Josiah is on the other side of the world, showing how Rocky missed the point completely.
My question is, was Tayo just hallucinating or is there a deeper meaning to this scene?
Ceremony is a novel laced with poems, which serve to portray the importance of storytelling among Native people. This can be understood from Silko’s first poem which says,
“Their evil is mighty
But it can’t stand up to our stories.” (pp. 2)
Native Americans heavily rely on metaphysics and dreams to guide them down their path, in stark opposition of Western societies. Silko makes use of this aspect so central to Native lives by telling the story of Tayo, a half-white and half-Native American who struggles with his identity. Tayo, upon returning home from World War 2, begins having hellish dreams in which a Japanese soldier that he was ordered to shoot and kill turns out to be his uncle, Josiah. Rocky, a full-blood Native American who seems to feel he must reject all of his traditional values to thrive in the Western world, asserts to Tayo that the killing was justified and should not upset him because, “Tayo, it’s a Jap.” On one hand with Rocky, we see that he has become complicit with the Western values of war and domination. On the other hand, Tayo’s recognition of his uncle (in the Japanese soldier’s body) represents his understanding of the interconnectedness among all people, a Native value.
In characterizing the full-blood Native as having Western values and the half-white Native as having Native values, what messages are Silko trying to convey? With this story, how is she making use of the Native cornerstone of storytelling to challenge structures of power that attempt to devalue Native senses?
-Carson Mease
When reading Ceremony, pp. 59-105 it is a very tough couple of pages. ‘Go away, he screamed ‘you’re not my brother. I don’t want no brother!” pg 61. There seems to be a conflict between the concept of whiteness and native words for Tayo. He is a mix of Laguna Pueblo and has European ancestry. Tayo was so hurt that he covered his ears while crying in Josiah’s leg. I believe Tayo is having internalized racism and wrestles between colonialism and Native identity. Tayo feels terrible about what happened to his people when their traditions were stripped because of the war from colonialism. On the other hand, Emo seems to like proximity towards whiteness and havoc that colonialism has caused on Native people while calling Tayo weak Emo has internalized racism the as well but in a different way compared to Tayo.
Kye Harris
Reflecting on Ceremony by Leslie Silko, I found some interesting parallels between Reed woman and Tayo, as well as Corn woman and Rocky. On page 13, Tayo thinks he prayed the rain away. On page 12, the poem of Reed woman and Corn woman, Corn woman describes how her sister Reed woman basks in her time taking many, many baths and appreciates the rain, while Corn woman gets upset that Reed woman is using up the water. Corn woman, hardened by harsh working conditions, shames her sister for using the resources, so Reed woman leaves and takes the rain with her. Tayo is in tune with the world, while his brother Rocky is hardened and removed from the natural world like Corn woman. Tayo, like Reed woman, is more in tune with Indigenous ideology while Rocky falls victim to a more Western point of view, similar to how Corn woman acts with her sister. Rocky is stuck in the military standpoint that is facilitated by imperialistic and colonialistic ideals, and Tayo has found himself alienated from that mindset while in that setting. Tayo feels different because he does not subscribe to the propaganda of military alliance, and he feels bad for that, even though he has his own calling. I think that this book sheds amazing light on the topic of Westernization versus Indigenous ideology in a beautiful way that really shows the stark differences and challenges the Western perspective puts upon us that has been so normalized in American society.
Caroline Laschinger
What are the biggest challenges to Western culture this book asks? How does it make us question ourselves and how we were raised?
Caroline Laschinger
The opening poems in Ceremony there are themes of cultural identity, trauma, assimilation and resilience. These themes follow Tayo through his life and interactions with his own identity and the worlds perceptions of him. He struggles with how connected he wants to be with his indigenous heritage and even if he attempts to stray away from it, he ends up being sick and disoriented. Though he may not always feel like he is connected with these indigenous practices, the poems at the beginning are telling of the importance of resistance to doubt, faith in faith and creation being a powerful tool. How is Tayo’s experience with his mixed experience reflected in the lessons of the poems that begin the story?
Posey Lester-Niles
In Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko takes us deep into the struggles of Tayo, a young man from the Laguna Pueblo reservation who returns home after fighting in World War II. He’s physically back, but mentally and emotionally, he’s a wreck. Haunted by memories of war, including the death of his cousin Rocky and the guilt over something he did in the Philippines, Tayo feels like he’s lost everything. The story isn’t just about his individual trauma, though it’s also about the trauma of his people and their community. The drought that has gripped the land for years feels connected to Tayo’s inner turmoil, and he’s convinced that something he did has cursed not only him but the earth itself. As Tayo tries to make sense of his pain, he has to navigate the complicated relationships with his family and his community, all while grappling with a system that constantly undervalues his people.
Silko uses poetry to show how Tayo’s healing process isn’t just about getting better in the usual sense it’s a journey of spiritual and cultural restoration. Through ceremonies, old stories, and even his memories of the summer before the war, Tayo starts to find his way back to himself. He has to reconcile his guilt, his identity, and his relationship to the land. Along the way, he realizes that his pain is not isolated; it’s part of a larger history and collective experience that his people have been dealing with for generations. In Ceremony, Silko doesn’t just tell a story about an individual’s healing, she tells a story about how healing can be collective, how tradition and spirituality can help rebuild not just one person, but a whole community, and even the land itself.
-Will Bradford
Question: How common of an experience could this be among Native American Cultures? What does this say about historical trauma and healing from it?
For Tayo, the protagonist, healing comes not from rejecting his cultural roots but from embracing the stories and traditions of his people, which guide him through his trauma and personal struggles. Lately, I’ve been thinking about the way modern society often dismisses storytelling as secondary to empirical knowledge. Much like how Western thought prioritizes logic and categorization, we often view stories as entertainment rather than essential tools for understanding ourselves and the world around us. As Ceremony illustrates, stories hold the power to shape our realities, connect us to our ancestors, and provide healing in ways that rigid structures of knowledge cannot. This leads me to my question: How can we shift our perspective to see storytelling as a necessary part of healing and understanding, rather than just a relic of the past? In what ways can we incorporate the wisdom of stories into our daily lives in a world that often prioritizes facts over meaning?
Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko is a nonlinear book that is difficult to understand if you aren’t paying close attention. It is a pretty interesting read so far. The story focuses on a boy named Tayo, a young Native American man who returns home after serving in WWII. Because of his experience, he struggles with PTSD, depression, and disconnection from society. His cousin died in the war, and it has continued to affect him, and unfortunately, his aunt resents him for being mixed. Harley, Tayo’s friend, is another Native veteran who relies on alcohol to cope with his trauma. Not only is the story of these characters compelling but so is the storytelling of the traditional Laguna beliefs. The narrative of culture offers a different perspective on Western medicine, that has failed to heal Tayo’s psychological trauma so far. The poems written throughout the book are very interesting but also hard to understand if you don’t read it a few times. For example, the poem about Corn Woman and Reed Woman symbolizes the tension between balance and chaos, which mirrors Tayo’s inner conflict. His guilt over praying for the rain to stop during the war ties into this theme of imbalance and the need for spiritual healing. My question is: How does storytelling/traditions change our mindset and influence our everyday life.
-Fia Mascari
I found Ceremony to be a highly intriguing story of long lasting effects of PTSD and colonialism, and their impacts on individuals, particularly Tayo. His visions and dreams, often physically overtaking, are highly symbolic and contain recurring themes, one of these being cattle. I found the use of cattle as an animal to be unfamiliar, and was very interested in the processes of cattle stealing and how that occurred between settlers and indigenous communities. Cattle are clearly highly relevant to this time period where farming and animal husbandry was very popular. My question is, what applications of cattle symbolism can be seen in contemporary sustainability contexts? Is there another animal that would be a better representation for our modern world, and why?
Paige Kaine