In Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Tayo’s grandfather speaks about a “fragile” world on page 32 and 33, he is mostly referring to the social tower including things like race, ethnicity, and other similar factors that have started wars and are such an uncomfortable subject to talk about with certain others in society. After the conversation, Tayo decided, “It only took one person to tear away at the delicate strands of the web, spilling the rays of sun into the sand, and the fragile world would be injured” (35). How can this quote be applicable to today’s discussion on climate change and the current condition and treatment of the environment? If one person can cause so much injury to the world, can one not also help it that much more? How can we, as individuals and a society, help the environment and ensure that certain environmental and racial injustice does not occur?
Early on in Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko goes into detail about the mule. The mule is described as bony with hip bones that looked “sharp enough to push through the gray hide.” Due to drought in Laguna Pueblo, the hide of the mule not only shrunk to the bones but “ewes dropped weak lambs and cows had no calves in the spring.” (22) So far, Silko’s book focuses on Tayo and the beginning of his return to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation and some of his struggles as he acclimates to being back with “battle fatigue”. The drought that is happening in the book is referred to as if it was not always desecrated. When reading Silko, I refer back to previous texts and find ways that all the authors discussed, can relate. Silko points out that the land is not thriving as it once did and although they say its from drought, could Rachel Carson, David Thoreau, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Schumacher have more to say about why their environment has changed?
Throughout Silko’s collection of short stories known as Ceremony, she describes in many ways the struggle between faith in historical knowledge and belief in science. On page 17 Silko writes about his memories from the past with Rocky. “He believed then that touching the sky had to do with where you were standing and how the clouds were that day…Distance and days existed in themselves then; they all had a story. They were not barriers. If a person wanted to get to the moon, there was a way; it all depended on whether you knew the directions”. The author stresses that anything is possible with knowledge passed down in oral Indian stories. One must know which animals/plants to worship in order to obtain rain, grass, food, etc. Yet after years of education forced upon him by society, Rocky’s mindset seems to be altered. Once reliant on Indian legends, he now defends science and the geniuses that discovered the truth in the world. He listens to his companions Tayo and Josiah criticizing a cattle raising text book as “such a stupid idea” they did not understand anyone’s logic in managing cows ‘that’ way. In protest, Rocky objected insisting, “Those books are written by scientists. They know everything there is to know about beef cattle” (Silko 69). If individuals in the text only believe in magic/storytelling, or science is it possible to develop in a society of mixed perspectives? How can one region trust mother nature and the other ignore her and still succeed in the same goal of progress?
One of the first things I noticed in this novel is that there are no chapter numbers or titles and the writing go between prose and poem without notice. There is definitely purpose in this, but what is Silko getting at? Could this be used as a rejection of western culture? We learned in class that Silko was disgusted by the US legal system, this could be an extension of her distaste for western ideals and expectations. Or, is this a reflection of Tayo’s PTSD, where the shifting between poem and prose is a mirror of his memories and real life being interchanged?
“If a person wanted to go to the moon, there was a way; it all depended on whether you knew the directions-exactly which way to go and what to do to get there; it depended on whether you knew the story of how others before you had gone. He had believed in the stories for a long time, until the teachers at the Indian school taught him not to believe in that type of “nonsense”.” (pgs. 17-18) How can we revolutionize schools in order to reward new ways of thinking? How can we insure that imaginations are not being squandered at an institution that we require every child to attend?
On page 33, Tayo is being examined by the medicine man, Ku’oosh. Tayo says “I’m sick, but I never killed an enemy. I never even touched them.” I read this as a critique of our strict perceptions of post traumatic stress disorder and the necessary precursors to such a mentality. I think, for the most part, people assume that to have PTSD from war one has to have been a part of intense battle resulting in the death of enemies. Silko challenges this assumption through Tayo’s battle with the sickness that plagues other veterans in Ceremony.
Do you think Silko is criticizing western medicine and techniques in dealing with PTSD through Ku’oosh’s claim, “there are some things we can’t cure like we used to, not since the white people came” (35) and Grandma’s distrust of the “white doctors?”
On pages 37-39 of Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko writes about the impact of Tayo wearing a uniform on how his identity if portrayed. On page 37: “White women never looked at me until I put on that uniform, and then by God I was a U.S. Marine and they came crowding around.” He mentions about how they would be served booze at the bars and how “they had the uniform and they didn’t look different no more” (page 38). But then on the top of page 39, Tayo “explodes” talking about how his identity is half-bread and how soon after the uniform was gone, the racism returned. He mentions waiting on you lat in a restaurant or people being careful not to touch you when you reach for change.
I think this passage is a particularly powerful passage on the impact of the way we identify other people and how that impacts daily life. In class on Tuesday we spoke about the words we use to identify indigenous people and how we clarify who an indigenous person is based off of how they act or certain activities they participate in. This also brings up the question of what kind of identity inherently comes from being a solider and what identity comes with that uniform.
How do we see identities conflicting like this in our society today. A place where a certain identity is accepted, where in another context maybe it isn’t. How does America’s history of being a militaristic nation have an effect on the way a uniform describes and identifies a person, even today? Do we still see what Tayo experienced as a current reality?
“Belonging was drinking and laughing with the platoon, dancing with blond women, buying drinks for buddies born in Cleveland, Ohio. Tayo knew what they had been trying to do. They repeated the stories about good times in Oakland and San Diego; they repeated them like long medicine chants, the beer bottles pounding on the counter tops like drums.”
These sentences, to me, pointed to the presence of ceremonial experiences in seemingly mundane, everyday contexts. Tayo and the other men have their own modern habits that impart a sense of belonging upon them, and I think it is significant to recognize that there are ways in which anyone can experience this sort of communion without having to step outside of daily life. However, should one ceremony be considered more valid than another? I was raised Irish Catholic; should I understand something ancient and tied to my ancestry (such as the eucharist) to be more significant than a modern United States ceremony, like the Super Bowl?
Throughout the book, Silko brings up the environmental degradation and drought that is happening to the reservation. On page 25, she writes, “Emo liked to point to the restless dusty wind and the cloudless skies, to the bony horses chewing on fence posts beside the highway; Emo liked to say, ‘Look what is here for us. Look. Here’s the Indians’ mother earth! Old dried-up thing!’ Tayo’s anger made his hands shake. Emo was wrong. All wrong.” Why do you think this makes Tayo angry? What do you think Silko was trying to convey in this passage?
“I will tell you something about stories, he said. 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,” (1). This is the quote that introduces the book in poem form. In sustainable development, especially aspects dealing with environmental justice, we talk about the impirtance of stories. How do you interpret this quote? Do you agree or disagree? What is a story, not just for entertainment, that means a lot to you and why?
On page 43, Tayo is at the bar and the men are telling stories about after they came back from the war and all their white friends and white women they were dating. Tayo says: “Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took. They never thought to blame white people for any of it; they wanted white people for their friends. They never saw that it was the white people who gave them that feeling and it was white people who took it away again when the war was over.”
We have discussed severally in class the effects of colonialism on the groups of people and entire countries that have undergone colonization. It is obvious that the United States and Europe have acted as one giant white man and taken, stolen, and then tried to define success and happiness for these people, eradicating any societal concepts of these cultures that would allow them fulfillment and replacing them with systems of white fulfillment that they will never reach. This idea and this quote reminds me of A Month and a Day, but in a much different way. Tayo was sick to his stomach when he heard his friends talk about being best friends with the whites because he knew what trap the whites had set for him and his people, and he refused to be friendly with those who only had negative plans for Native Americans. He beings to cry and says he “is crying for them.” Ken Saro-Wiwa spoke extensively about colonialism and put the desire for autonomy in the Ogoni Bill of Rights, but was still very, very friendly with European powers, structures created by such (such as the UN), and the US (which he toured for some time.) What causes these differences in action and thought towards the white man that we see from Tayo and Saro-Wiwa? Does it have to do with personal experience and trauma? Or does it have to do more with the fact that Saro-Wiwa was on a political platform and knew he had to appeal to these organizations regardless?
Throughout the first hundred pages of the book, I can tell there is a strong theme of the importance of storytelling. There are various styles of writing: both prose and old Native tales/segments of oral history. Some of the tales are short and some are long. Some tell funny stories about going to a bar and some tell old tales about the environment. Do you think including cultural aspects such as folklore/storytelling helps to reach more people emotionally and intellectually? Can art forms such as storytelling be more effective than large block texts when it comes to portraying real-life struggles of people?
In the opening pages of Ceremony the author Leslie Sliko goes into a deep description about how Tayo is witnessing men kill Japanese soldiers and another soldier named Rocky along with Tayo tells him to look at that soldiers saying, “This is a Jap! This is a Jap uniform! (7)” Silko opens the book up strong, going into the deep descriptions and harsh realities of war. I find it interesting that she starts the book off with this scene and I am even more intrigued on how the rest of the book will play out.
Will Tayo conform to the rest of the group as in killing the prisoners of war? What kind of message is Silko trying to send in the beginning of the reading?
” “But you know, grandson, this world is fragile.” The word he chose to express “fragile” was filled with the intricacies of a continuing process, and with a strength inherent in spider webs woven across paths through sand hills where early in the morning the sun becomes entangled in each filament of web.” (32).
This quote caught my attention by the throat. This scene of an elder explaining to a young man that the world is fragile and everything is interconnected, seemed to call out through the pages, explaining that not only is it fragile in that it needs protecting, such as it implies here. But also seeming to imply, sub-textually, that everything we do has impact upon the environment in which we live. Seems to call for the need to protect the land from ourselves as well as from our enemies. This seems to echo in Tayo’s thought that “he had done things far worse [than killing an enemy], and the effects were everywhere in the cloudless sky” (33).
So I want to know will Tayo step forward to help with this drought? And in doing so will he also help heal his own fragility while trying to help with the interconnectedness of the environment?
On page 30 Silko writes, “He lay there with the feeling that there was no place left for him; he would find no peace in that house where the silence and the emptiness echoed the loss” (Silko 30). This quote stood out to me due to the way it relates to the culture of these peoples. Many people were disheartened after the loss of their lands and many felt there was no place left for them following their forced extraction. This feeling of exclusion and displacement is synonymous with many native cultures and people and Silko does a great job emphasizing these feelings in her descriptions. My question is: Does the book serve as a means of conveyance of her feelings on the oppression of her peoples cultures? Why do you believe she chose the words she did in the descriptions of sorrow?
On page 42, Josiah talks about the water, mentioning “there are some things worth more than money.” He goes on to say “This is where we come from, see. This sand, this stone, these trees, the vines, all the wildflowers. This earth keeps us going.” It is clear that many indigenous definitions of and relationship with the land are inherently non-capitalistic and that seems to be increasingly incompatible with the state’s understanding of land ownership, particularly when it comes to implementing initiatives for indigenous ‘reclamation.’ Has our current understanding of land ownership served as a barrier to realizing the regenerative and healing powers of the land? In what ways can we better acknowledge seemingly unrecognizable indigenous land ownership? Josiah says “The old people used to say that droughts happen when people forget, when people misbehave” (42). Does this forgetfulness and misbehavior have to be as dramatic as the sprawl of extractivism or is it as simple as drinking water and not pausing to taste where the water came from?
The poem from page 42 through 45 describes a Ck’o’yo medicine man who fascinates the town with magic. The medicine man begins to conduct a ceremony and uses his magic to bring water and a bear out of the walls. The town is so enthralled in the magic that they forget about their own traditions and duties and didn’t take care of the corn altar, and their livelihoods were taken. Earlier on Tayo is telling the story about the prestige of being a soldier, how great it was to be respected by the white men, and especially white women. This however wasn’t his group, and once his duties as a soldier were completed all the previous prestige was lost and he was returned to the respect he received before his uniform. In other parts of the story you can also see a kind of crisis in Tayo of uncertainty. Tayo seems to want something other than what he has.This poem occurs in between the point where the burro is drinking water, and where it is revitalized by it and becomes full of energy by taking care of its basics. Does this poem and the other stories in the book so far allude to the idea that the grass may always look greener on the other side, but you’ve got your own grass to worry about, and your own own methods of taking care of it that you’ve got to stick to; that “hard work pays off”?
Marmon Silko starts off the book by describing some of the mental problems that Tayo has. It is clear that he has post traumatic stress disorder, as many war veterans have, but he also is struggling with his perception of things both past and present. Tayo regrets praying for the rain to stop because he is now back home and facing a drought. Is this how the author portrays the interconnectedness of the world? Does this also show some of the inner turmoils the author struggles with? Does the author feel responsible for something in her life that she describes as a drought?
While reading Silko’s Ceremony, I’m struck by the commonalities between Marmon and Ken Saro-Wiwa, especially how they are both in communities of oppressed and historically ignored peoples. I feel that Silko feels much more suffocated than Saro-Wiwa, for at least in Nigeria his own people and community felt equally indignant to the colonial and international exploitation of their lands, but Silko is caught in a sort of psychosis, being surrounded by fellow Natives who glorify and admire whiteness. Silko shows how their brief involvement in the war provided them the privilege of being able to experience what is was to be white, to be respected and admired in uniform, and not treated as second-class citizens as was before, and certainly after the war. The tradition of ceremony, and the ability for stories and rituals to heal not just people, but the soul of the land as well plays an important role in the literary prose of this book, and while it may be disorienting to switch between different perspectives or narrative voice, I think it does justice to illustrate the difference between the exactness of white or western culture, and sometimes intention and practice are more important than precision. Storytelling in Native culture is an important device, and while Silko rebels against the forces that sent him and his fellow man to war, he returns to elements of storytelling to reinforce the slow and contemplative traditions of Native Americans as opposed to the fast paced and rash foreign and domestic policies of oppression and domination.
One thing I immediately noticed about the novel is that the text is not divided into chapters. Silko is able to make the story flow in a logical manner without them even though some parts of the novel flow nonlinear. Poems and flashbacks serve as the transitions in between settings and time. To a conventional writer, separating into chapters gives the text a more rigid structure, but Silko, accustomed to the oral traditions of native stories, is able to convey her text in almost an orally presented manner without breaks.
There is a line on page 88 of Silko’s book Ceremony that reads “[…] As long as the hummingbird has not abandoned the land, somewhere there were still flowers, and they could all go on.” This line reminded me of many things, the first being Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the importance of looking at the signs and quality of life in our environment as markers of a healthy/unhealthy ecosystem. It is clear that for Tayo and his community, understanding relationships between living beings is essential to their survival. It makes me sad and worried that today few people do what Tayo was doing on that page, watching the life around him to better understand their situation and environment. I would like to practice what he, Rachel Carson, and Thoreau all did: sit, watch, and listen to understand. While I was not raised to practice such things, I don’t believe it is too late to start. Thoughts?
I’m struggling trying to follow Silko’s writing style, but I thought, isn’t that the point? By writing in such a disjointed way, are we, the readers better able to sympathize with Tayo? Tayo, seems to be suffering from a severe case of PTSD; he has night sweats and memory flashes that involve being far away fighting the Japanese (5-8). He also exhibits a wide range of very strong emotions, such as anger that makes his hands shake (23). Disjointed writing might be Silko’s way to put us in the same head space of a confused, jarred character.
Tayo is clearly a very kind soul, who now suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. I found it very interesting the way he clams himself down so he can go to sleep. He thinks of a lone deer, which makes me think, why solitude? Why not a heard of deer? Maybe its because he thinks of himself to be alone in wartime, and I think Its calming to him because stillness within nature is very calming. Throughout the book, the narrator uses so much symbolism about nature that I find quite beautiful. I enjoyed the poem on page 12, that recognizes that everything has a reaction to a response and that sometimes that reaction is a consequence, in this case, it was the drought.
On page 57, Emo compares smashing melons on the ground to “the big mortar shells that blew up tanks and big trucks to pieces”. He then goes on to say that he was the best and they told him he was the best in the U.S. Army. Emo was very proud of all the damage and killings that he had caused. Being that both Emo and Tayo are Native Americans and United States veterans, could it be said that the evils of American culture has overtaken Emo and he has forgotten his own roots and culture? How does Tayo perceive the actions and words used by Emo?
Early in Ceremony, Tayo is experiencing a hallucinations known as battle fatigue. In his hallucination he finds himself being apart of a firing squad facing a line of captured Japanese soldiers. Except one of the soldiers is his friend named Josiah and the hallucination is very traumatic for him. Many veterans experience this kind of trauma. It is the result of wars that are organized by men who never have to see the field of battle. These wars are over land and resources and are masked as inevitable actions to save mankind or something like that. If the highest officials could see that war not only destroys life, but haunts those who survive it, would they still value the resources they are fighting over as much?
On pages 36-37, Tayo talks about his experiences with alcohol. Silko writes, “He had heard Auntie talk about the veterans – drunk all the time, she said. But he knew why… Liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and choked-up throats.” This makes me wonder if alcoholism and unemployment on reservations and military service contribute to each other. After some research, I found that a large percentage of Native Americans have fought in all the major wars since the Civil War. It seems that lack of a better option for work leads to military service and then the negative mental effects of life after war. It seems there are so many issues intertwined, all stemming from Native Americans being pushed away onto reservations and oppressed for centuries. What would it take to lessen unemployment on reservations? What efforts are already being made to slow/stop this vicious cycle?
On pages 69-70, Marmon Silko compares the conflicting ecological and social values of Tayo, Rocky and Josiah. It begins with Rocky reading an unspecified book relating to cattle. Tayo and Josiah mock a passage from it, but they have a point–the things they see as worthwhile in a cow are different from their Euro-American counterparts. Tayo even remarks on the bizarre physicality of this new cow. Rocky, however, accepts the scientific worldview promoted in the book, arguing that it was written by “scientists.” It is revealed to us that this relates to his relates to his relationship with his aunt (Auntie.) She wants him to embrace the “outside world” but Marmon Silko also shows us how Auntie’s perception of the rationalist “outside” perspective is clouded by her own desires. She writes, “[she] did not like the cattle business and she was pleased to have a scientific reason for the way she felt.” This is a very powerful passage to me. It shows the human unity between these two supposedly alien worldviews–our emotions always get in the way. Afterwards Marmon Silko writes of Auntie’s disdain for Ulibarri’s wife. Auntie uses foul language to describe her. I think Marmon SIlko’s transition here was intentional. She is comparing one false consciousness–scientistic thinking–to another–racial stereotyping. The implication here is that they both confront the characters in the context of a colonial takeover. She ends this encounter with Tayo’s observation of Rocky’s reaction to his Grandma and Auntie–“Tayo knew that what village people thought didn’t matter to Rocky anymore” (71). This conveys the tragedy of the characters’ confrontation with Western ideology–no matter what utility they can find in it, it will always come alongside a loss that is sometimes of even greater value than the gain. Would you characterize “Ceremony” as a tragedy?
The imagery in Ceremony remains extremely powerful throughout the novel. Silko’s ability to describe both the terrifying experiences of the war and the intricate details of the land Tayo is living off display a contrast that remains prevalent throughout the novel- gruesome and beauty meet in this novel. Although the novel as a whole stands out as an extremely powerful and jam packed novel, I was very intrigued by the deer scene. Today it seems like the only perspective we get of animals being eaten is that which is presented by factory farms, slaughterhouses, and large scale agriculture as a whole. Even local meat is raised up by the farmers. Hunting is a sport, and although I’m sure there are a few people who respect the animals that they kill, it’s extremely rare to see such a beautiful ceremony to respect and thank the animal for what they have provided for you. Seeing this intricate connection with nature (and Rockys desire to push it away), creates an interesting contrast with our perspective of dominance.
My question is– what exactly makes something a ceremony? If we create something with ritual and intention, can it be called such? What are some ways in which we can implement ceremonies in our own life that don’t appropriate from other cultures? Are ceremonies important for sustainability?
In Ceremony, Silko tells us of the healing ceremony being used on Tayo to try and alleviate some of the illness of what Tayo feels he has carried back from war. A ceremony designed for warriors to help them move past battle. It does not succeed, in part because Tayo is uncertain of whether or not he has actually killed anyone. Do you think that this is a failure on the part of the tribe for not adapting this ceremony to the modern day, for Betonie even says he has adjusted rituals throughout his time as a medicine man, because that is part of tradition. To Change. Or do you think the primary fault falls with a world that has made it much easier to be personally removed from the act of killing in war?
“Those who measured their life by counting the crosses would not count her sacrifices for Rocky the way they counted her sacrifices for her dead sister’s half-breed child. When Rocky died he became unassailable forever in his frame on top of her bureau; his death gave her new advantages with the people: she had given so much. But advantages wear out; she needed a new struggle, another opportunity to show those who might gossip that she had still another unfortunate burden which proved that, above all else, she was a Christian woman” (27). This passage describes Tayo’s interpretation of why Auntie took him in after his release from the veteran’s hospital. What does it say about how white religion is viewed in Native American culture? Is it generally accepted, in the way Auntie seems to have accepted it as a “Christian woman” or is there a negative outlook on it, in the way Tayo seems to view it? Do you agree with Tayo’s opinion on Christian religion and using personal struggles as a way to prove yourself to the public? Why or why not?
The poem starting on page 42 of Ceremony tells a story of a medicine man who tempted a village with his magic powers which ended up throwing everything in the community off balance. The poem says, “From that time on they were so busy playing around with that Ck’o’yo magic they neglected the mother corn altar. They thought they didn’t have to worry about anything, they thought this magic could give life to plants and animals. They didn’t know it was just a trick” (44). This causes mother corn to leave and take all of nature with her, leaving them with only magic to live off of. What do you see the lesson of this story to be? Is it a true story and has it already happened?
In this poem, I see the magic to symbolize the things which we put energy into that are not good for the earth or our personal well-being/ values. What do you think this magic entails in ceremony? What do you think this magic would look like in today’s society?
The initial section of Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko sets the tone for the rest of the novel, Silko begins with the story of creation from the view of the pueblos perspective, giving the book a non-traditional contextual approach. Much like the beginning story the rest of the book is written in a way to interest readers while providing an experience that isn;t had in simpler novels. The intricacies of ceremony and healing within the pueblo traditions are used not only for the title but as the means for the main character to revive his character after suffering ptsd in Vietnam. Beginning with the stories of Tayos time in vietnam and what has lead to his condition we can see the multiple issues tearing at tayos personal beliefs right from the beginning. The horrors of war as well as the experience of discrimination and racism due to his ethnicity signals the way for Tayo to return to what is true in his life in order to rebuild himself.
SD 3800 Voices in Sustainable Development 
In Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Tayo’s grandfather speaks about a “fragile” world on page 32 and 33, he is mostly referring to the social tower including things like race, ethnicity, and other similar factors that have started wars and are such an uncomfortable subject to talk about with certain others in society. After the conversation, Tayo decided, “It only took one person to tear away at the delicate strands of the web, spilling the rays of sun into the sand, and the fragile world would be injured” (35). How can this quote be applicable to today’s discussion on climate change and the current condition and treatment of the environment? If one person can cause so much injury to the world, can one not also help it that much more? How can we, as individuals and a society, help the environment and ensure that certain environmental and racial injustice does not occur?
Early on in Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko goes into detail about the mule. The mule is described as bony with hip bones that looked “sharp enough to push through the gray hide.” Due to drought in Laguna Pueblo, the hide of the mule not only shrunk to the bones but “ewes dropped weak lambs and cows had no calves in the spring.” (22) So far, Silko’s book focuses on Tayo and the beginning of his return to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation and some of his struggles as he acclimates to being back with “battle fatigue”. The drought that is happening in the book is referred to as if it was not always desecrated. When reading Silko, I refer back to previous texts and find ways that all the authors discussed, can relate. Silko points out that the land is not thriving as it once did and although they say its from drought, could Rachel Carson, David Thoreau, Ken Saro-Wiwa, and Schumacher have more to say about why their environment has changed?
Throughout Silko’s collection of short stories known as Ceremony, she describes in many ways the struggle between faith in historical knowledge and belief in science. On page 17 Silko writes about his memories from the past with Rocky. “He believed then that touching the sky had to do with where you were standing and how the clouds were that day…Distance and days existed in themselves then; they all had a story. They were not barriers. If a person wanted to get to the moon, there was a way; it all depended on whether you knew the directions”. The author stresses that anything is possible with knowledge passed down in oral Indian stories. One must know which animals/plants to worship in order to obtain rain, grass, food, etc. Yet after years of education forced upon him by society, Rocky’s mindset seems to be altered. Once reliant on Indian legends, he now defends science and the geniuses that discovered the truth in the world. He listens to his companions Tayo and Josiah criticizing a cattle raising text book as “such a stupid idea” they did not understand anyone’s logic in managing cows ‘that’ way. In protest, Rocky objected insisting, “Those books are written by scientists. They know everything there is to know about beef cattle” (Silko 69). If individuals in the text only believe in magic/storytelling, or science is it possible to develop in a society of mixed perspectives? How can one region trust mother nature and the other ignore her and still succeed in the same goal of progress?
One of the first things I noticed in this novel is that there are no chapter numbers or titles and the writing go between prose and poem without notice. There is definitely purpose in this, but what is Silko getting at? Could this be used as a rejection of western culture? We learned in class that Silko was disgusted by the US legal system, this could be an extension of her distaste for western ideals and expectations. Or, is this a reflection of Tayo’s PTSD, where the shifting between poem and prose is a mirror of his memories and real life being interchanged?
“If a person wanted to go to the moon, there was a way; it all depended on whether you knew the directions-exactly which way to go and what to do to get there; it depended on whether you knew the story of how others before you had gone. He had believed in the stories for a long time, until the teachers at the Indian school taught him not to believe in that type of “nonsense”.” (pgs. 17-18) How can we revolutionize schools in order to reward new ways of thinking? How can we insure that imaginations are not being squandered at an institution that we require every child to attend?
On page 33, Tayo is being examined by the medicine man, Ku’oosh. Tayo says “I’m sick, but I never killed an enemy. I never even touched them.” I read this as a critique of our strict perceptions of post traumatic stress disorder and the necessary precursors to such a mentality. I think, for the most part, people assume that to have PTSD from war one has to have been a part of intense battle resulting in the death of enemies. Silko challenges this assumption through Tayo’s battle with the sickness that plagues other veterans in Ceremony.
Do you think Silko is criticizing western medicine and techniques in dealing with PTSD through Ku’oosh’s claim, “there are some things we can’t cure like we used to, not since the white people came” (35) and Grandma’s distrust of the “white doctors?”
On pages 37-39 of Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko writes about the impact of Tayo wearing a uniform on how his identity if portrayed. On page 37: “White women never looked at me until I put on that uniform, and then by God I was a U.S. Marine and they came crowding around.” He mentions about how they would be served booze at the bars and how “they had the uniform and they didn’t look different no more” (page 38). But then on the top of page 39, Tayo “explodes” talking about how his identity is half-bread and how soon after the uniform was gone, the racism returned. He mentions waiting on you lat in a restaurant or people being careful not to touch you when you reach for change.
I think this passage is a particularly powerful passage on the impact of the way we identify other people and how that impacts daily life. In class on Tuesday we spoke about the words we use to identify indigenous people and how we clarify who an indigenous person is based off of how they act or certain activities they participate in. This also brings up the question of what kind of identity inherently comes from being a solider and what identity comes with that uniform.
How do we see identities conflicting like this in our society today. A place where a certain identity is accepted, where in another context maybe it isn’t. How does America’s history of being a militaristic nation have an effect on the way a uniform describes and identifies a person, even today? Do we still see what Tayo experienced as a current reality?
On pp. 39, Silko writes:
“Belonging was drinking and laughing with the platoon, dancing with blond women, buying drinks for buddies born in Cleveland, Ohio. Tayo knew what they had been trying to do. They repeated the stories about good times in Oakland and San Diego; they repeated them like long medicine chants, the beer bottles pounding on the counter tops like drums.”
These sentences, to me, pointed to the presence of ceremonial experiences in seemingly mundane, everyday contexts. Tayo and the other men have their own modern habits that impart a sense of belonging upon them, and I think it is significant to recognize that there are ways in which anyone can experience this sort of communion without having to step outside of daily life. However, should one ceremony be considered more valid than another? I was raised Irish Catholic; should I understand something ancient and tied to my ancestry (such as the eucharist) to be more significant than a modern United States ceremony, like the Super Bowl?
Throughout the book, Silko brings up the environmental degradation and drought that is happening to the reservation. On page 25, she writes, “Emo liked to point to the restless dusty wind and the cloudless skies, to the bony horses chewing on fence posts beside the highway; Emo liked to say, ‘Look what is here for us. Look. Here’s the Indians’ mother earth! Old dried-up thing!’ Tayo’s anger made his hands shake. Emo was wrong. All wrong.” Why do you think this makes Tayo angry? What do you think Silko was trying to convey in this passage?
“I will tell you something about stories, he said. 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,” (1). This is the quote that introduces the book in poem form. In sustainable development, especially aspects dealing with environmental justice, we talk about the impirtance of stories. How do you interpret this quote? Do you agree or disagree? What is a story, not just for entertainment, that means a lot to you and why?
On page 43, Tayo is at the bar and the men are telling stories about after they came back from the war and all their white friends and white women they were dating. Tayo says: “Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took. They never thought to blame white people for any of it; they wanted white people for their friends. They never saw that it was the white people who gave them that feeling and it was white people who took it away again when the war was over.”
We have discussed severally in class the effects of colonialism on the groups of people and entire countries that have undergone colonization. It is obvious that the United States and Europe have acted as one giant white man and taken, stolen, and then tried to define success and happiness for these people, eradicating any societal concepts of these cultures that would allow them fulfillment and replacing them with systems of white fulfillment that they will never reach. This idea and this quote reminds me of A Month and a Day, but in a much different way. Tayo was sick to his stomach when he heard his friends talk about being best friends with the whites because he knew what trap the whites had set for him and his people, and he refused to be friendly with those who only had negative plans for Native Americans. He beings to cry and says he “is crying for them.” Ken Saro-Wiwa spoke extensively about colonialism and put the desire for autonomy in the Ogoni Bill of Rights, but was still very, very friendly with European powers, structures created by such (such as the UN), and the US (which he toured for some time.) What causes these differences in action and thought towards the white man that we see from Tayo and Saro-Wiwa? Does it have to do with personal experience and trauma? Or does it have to do more with the fact that Saro-Wiwa was on a political platform and knew he had to appeal to these organizations regardless?
Throughout the first hundred pages of the book, I can tell there is a strong theme of the importance of storytelling. There are various styles of writing: both prose and old Native tales/segments of oral history. Some of the tales are short and some are long. Some tell funny stories about going to a bar and some tell old tales about the environment. Do you think including cultural aspects such as folklore/storytelling helps to reach more people emotionally and intellectually? Can art forms such as storytelling be more effective than large block texts when it comes to portraying real-life struggles of people?
In the opening pages of Ceremony the author Leslie Sliko goes into a deep description about how Tayo is witnessing men kill Japanese soldiers and another soldier named Rocky along with Tayo tells him to look at that soldiers saying, “This is a Jap! This is a Jap uniform! (7)” Silko opens the book up strong, going into the deep descriptions and harsh realities of war. I find it interesting that she starts the book off with this scene and I am even more intrigued on how the rest of the book will play out.
Will Tayo conform to the rest of the group as in killing the prisoners of war? What kind of message is Silko trying to send in the beginning of the reading?
” “But you know, grandson, this world is fragile.” The word he chose to express “fragile” was filled with the intricacies of a continuing process, and with a strength inherent in spider webs woven across paths through sand hills where early in the morning the sun becomes entangled in each filament of web.” (32).
This quote caught my attention by the throat. This scene of an elder explaining to a young man that the world is fragile and everything is interconnected, seemed to call out through the pages, explaining that not only is it fragile in that it needs protecting, such as it implies here. But also seeming to imply, sub-textually, that everything we do has impact upon the environment in which we live. Seems to call for the need to protect the land from ourselves as well as from our enemies. This seems to echo in Tayo’s thought that “he had done things far worse [than killing an enemy], and the effects were everywhere in the cloudless sky” (33).
So I want to know will Tayo step forward to help with this drought? And in doing so will he also help heal his own fragility while trying to help with the interconnectedness of the environment?
On page 30 Silko writes, “He lay there with the feeling that there was no place left for him; he would find no peace in that house where the silence and the emptiness echoed the loss” (Silko 30). This quote stood out to me due to the way it relates to the culture of these peoples. Many people were disheartened after the loss of their lands and many felt there was no place left for them following their forced extraction. This feeling of exclusion and displacement is synonymous with many native cultures and people and Silko does a great job emphasizing these feelings in her descriptions. My question is: Does the book serve as a means of conveyance of her feelings on the oppression of her peoples cultures? Why do you believe she chose the words she did in the descriptions of sorrow?
On page 42, Josiah talks about the water, mentioning “there are some things worth more than money.” He goes on to say “This is where we come from, see. This sand, this stone, these trees, the vines, all the wildflowers. This earth keeps us going.” It is clear that many indigenous definitions of and relationship with the land are inherently non-capitalistic and that seems to be increasingly incompatible with the state’s understanding of land ownership, particularly when it comes to implementing initiatives for indigenous ‘reclamation.’ Has our current understanding of land ownership served as a barrier to realizing the regenerative and healing powers of the land? In what ways can we better acknowledge seemingly unrecognizable indigenous land ownership? Josiah says “The old people used to say that droughts happen when people forget, when people misbehave” (42). Does this forgetfulness and misbehavior have to be as dramatic as the sprawl of extractivism or is it as simple as drinking water and not pausing to taste where the water came from?
The poem from page 42 through 45 describes a Ck’o’yo medicine man who fascinates the town with magic. The medicine man begins to conduct a ceremony and uses his magic to bring water and a bear out of the walls. The town is so enthralled in the magic that they forget about their own traditions and duties and didn’t take care of the corn altar, and their livelihoods were taken. Earlier on Tayo is telling the story about the prestige of being a soldier, how great it was to be respected by the white men, and especially white women. This however wasn’t his group, and once his duties as a soldier were completed all the previous prestige was lost and he was returned to the respect he received before his uniform. In other parts of the story you can also see a kind of crisis in Tayo of uncertainty. Tayo seems to want something other than what he has.This poem occurs in between the point where the burro is drinking water, and where it is revitalized by it and becomes full of energy by taking care of its basics. Does this poem and the other stories in the book so far allude to the idea that the grass may always look greener on the other side, but you’ve got your own grass to worry about, and your own own methods of taking care of it that you’ve got to stick to; that “hard work pays off”?
Marmon Silko starts off the book by describing some of the mental problems that Tayo has. It is clear that he has post traumatic stress disorder, as many war veterans have, but he also is struggling with his perception of things both past and present. Tayo regrets praying for the rain to stop because he is now back home and facing a drought. Is this how the author portrays the interconnectedness of the world? Does this also show some of the inner turmoils the author struggles with? Does the author feel responsible for something in her life that she describes as a drought?
While reading Silko’s Ceremony, I’m struck by the commonalities between Marmon and Ken Saro-Wiwa, especially how they are both in communities of oppressed and historically ignored peoples. I feel that Silko feels much more suffocated than Saro-Wiwa, for at least in Nigeria his own people and community felt equally indignant to the colonial and international exploitation of their lands, but Silko is caught in a sort of psychosis, being surrounded by fellow Natives who glorify and admire whiteness. Silko shows how their brief involvement in the war provided them the privilege of being able to experience what is was to be white, to be respected and admired in uniform, and not treated as second-class citizens as was before, and certainly after the war. The tradition of ceremony, and the ability for stories and rituals to heal not just people, but the soul of the land as well plays an important role in the literary prose of this book, and while it may be disorienting to switch between different perspectives or narrative voice, I think it does justice to illustrate the difference between the exactness of white or western culture, and sometimes intention and practice are more important than precision. Storytelling in Native culture is an important device, and while Silko rebels against the forces that sent him and his fellow man to war, he returns to elements of storytelling to reinforce the slow and contemplative traditions of Native Americans as opposed to the fast paced and rash foreign and domestic policies of oppression and domination.
One thing I immediately noticed about the novel is that the text is not divided into chapters. Silko is able to make the story flow in a logical manner without them even though some parts of the novel flow nonlinear. Poems and flashbacks serve as the transitions in between settings and time. To a conventional writer, separating into chapters gives the text a more rigid structure, but Silko, accustomed to the oral traditions of native stories, is able to convey her text in almost an orally presented manner without breaks.
There is a line on page 88 of Silko’s book Ceremony that reads “[…] As long as the hummingbird has not abandoned the land, somewhere there were still flowers, and they could all go on.” This line reminded me of many things, the first being Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the importance of looking at the signs and quality of life in our environment as markers of a healthy/unhealthy ecosystem. It is clear that for Tayo and his community, understanding relationships between living beings is essential to their survival. It makes me sad and worried that today few people do what Tayo was doing on that page, watching the life around him to better understand their situation and environment. I would like to practice what he, Rachel Carson, and Thoreau all did: sit, watch, and listen to understand. While I was not raised to practice such things, I don’t believe it is too late to start. Thoughts?
I’m struggling trying to follow Silko’s writing style, but I thought, isn’t that the point? By writing in such a disjointed way, are we, the readers better able to sympathize with Tayo? Tayo, seems to be suffering from a severe case of PTSD; he has night sweats and memory flashes that involve being far away fighting the Japanese (5-8). He also exhibits a wide range of very strong emotions, such as anger that makes his hands shake (23). Disjointed writing might be Silko’s way to put us in the same head space of a confused, jarred character.
Tayo is clearly a very kind soul, who now suffers from post-traumatic stress syndrome. I found it very interesting the way he clams himself down so he can go to sleep. He thinks of a lone deer, which makes me think, why solitude? Why not a heard of deer? Maybe its because he thinks of himself to be alone in wartime, and I think Its calming to him because stillness within nature is very calming. Throughout the book, the narrator uses so much symbolism about nature that I find quite beautiful. I enjoyed the poem on page 12, that recognizes that everything has a reaction to a response and that sometimes that reaction is a consequence, in this case, it was the drought.
On page 57, Emo compares smashing melons on the ground to “the big mortar shells that blew up tanks and big trucks to pieces”. He then goes on to say that he was the best and they told him he was the best in the U.S. Army. Emo was very proud of all the damage and killings that he had caused. Being that both Emo and Tayo are Native Americans and United States veterans, could it be said that the evils of American culture has overtaken Emo and he has forgotten his own roots and culture? How does Tayo perceive the actions and words used by Emo?
Early in Ceremony, Tayo is experiencing a hallucinations known as battle fatigue. In his hallucination he finds himself being apart of a firing squad facing a line of captured Japanese soldiers. Except one of the soldiers is his friend named Josiah and the hallucination is very traumatic for him. Many veterans experience this kind of trauma. It is the result of wars that are organized by men who never have to see the field of battle. These wars are over land and resources and are masked as inevitable actions to save mankind or something like that. If the highest officials could see that war not only destroys life, but haunts those who survive it, would they still value the resources they are fighting over as much?
On pages 36-37, Tayo talks about his experiences with alcohol. Silko writes, “He had heard Auntie talk about the veterans – drunk all the time, she said. But he knew why… Liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and choked-up throats.” This makes me wonder if alcoholism and unemployment on reservations and military service contribute to each other. After some research, I found that a large percentage of Native Americans have fought in all the major wars since the Civil War. It seems that lack of a better option for work leads to military service and then the negative mental effects of life after war. It seems there are so many issues intertwined, all stemming from Native Americans being pushed away onto reservations and oppressed for centuries. What would it take to lessen unemployment on reservations? What efforts are already being made to slow/stop this vicious cycle?
On pages 69-70, Marmon Silko compares the conflicting ecological and social values of Tayo, Rocky and Josiah. It begins with Rocky reading an unspecified book relating to cattle. Tayo and Josiah mock a passage from it, but they have a point–the things they see as worthwhile in a cow are different from their Euro-American counterparts. Tayo even remarks on the bizarre physicality of this new cow. Rocky, however, accepts the scientific worldview promoted in the book, arguing that it was written by “scientists.” It is revealed to us that this relates to his relates to his relationship with his aunt (Auntie.) She wants him to embrace the “outside world” but Marmon Silko also shows us how Auntie’s perception of the rationalist “outside” perspective is clouded by her own desires. She writes, “[she] did not like the cattle business and she was pleased to have a scientific reason for the way she felt.” This is a very powerful passage to me. It shows the human unity between these two supposedly alien worldviews–our emotions always get in the way. Afterwards Marmon Silko writes of Auntie’s disdain for Ulibarri’s wife. Auntie uses foul language to describe her. I think Marmon SIlko’s transition here was intentional. She is comparing one false consciousness–scientistic thinking–to another–racial stereotyping. The implication here is that they both confront the characters in the context of a colonial takeover. She ends this encounter with Tayo’s observation of Rocky’s reaction to his Grandma and Auntie–“Tayo knew that what village people thought didn’t matter to Rocky anymore” (71). This conveys the tragedy of the characters’ confrontation with Western ideology–no matter what utility they can find in it, it will always come alongside a loss that is sometimes of even greater value than the gain. Would you characterize “Ceremony” as a tragedy?
The imagery in Ceremony remains extremely powerful throughout the novel. Silko’s ability to describe both the terrifying experiences of the war and the intricate details of the land Tayo is living off display a contrast that remains prevalent throughout the novel- gruesome and beauty meet in this novel. Although the novel as a whole stands out as an extremely powerful and jam packed novel, I was very intrigued by the deer scene. Today it seems like the only perspective we get of animals being eaten is that which is presented by factory farms, slaughterhouses, and large scale agriculture as a whole. Even local meat is raised up by the farmers. Hunting is a sport, and although I’m sure there are a few people who respect the animals that they kill, it’s extremely rare to see such a beautiful ceremony to respect and thank the animal for what they have provided for you. Seeing this intricate connection with nature (and Rockys desire to push it away), creates an interesting contrast with our perspective of dominance.
My question is– what exactly makes something a ceremony? If we create something with ritual and intention, can it be called such? What are some ways in which we can implement ceremonies in our own life that don’t appropriate from other cultures? Are ceremonies important for sustainability?
In Ceremony, Silko tells us of the healing ceremony being used on Tayo to try and alleviate some of the illness of what Tayo feels he has carried back from war. A ceremony designed for warriors to help them move past battle. It does not succeed, in part because Tayo is uncertain of whether or not he has actually killed anyone. Do you think that this is a failure on the part of the tribe for not adapting this ceremony to the modern day, for Betonie even says he has adjusted rituals throughout his time as a medicine man, because that is part of tradition. To Change. Or do you think the primary fault falls with a world that has made it much easier to be personally removed from the act of killing in war?
“Those who measured their life by counting the crosses would not count her sacrifices for Rocky the way they counted her sacrifices for her dead sister’s half-breed child. When Rocky died he became unassailable forever in his frame on top of her bureau; his death gave her new advantages with the people: she had given so much. But advantages wear out; she needed a new struggle, another opportunity to show those who might gossip that she had still another unfortunate burden which proved that, above all else, she was a Christian woman” (27). This passage describes Tayo’s interpretation of why Auntie took him in after his release from the veteran’s hospital. What does it say about how white religion is viewed in Native American culture? Is it generally accepted, in the way Auntie seems to have accepted it as a “Christian woman” or is there a negative outlook on it, in the way Tayo seems to view it? Do you agree with Tayo’s opinion on Christian religion and using personal struggles as a way to prove yourself to the public? Why or why not?
The poem starting on page 42 of Ceremony tells a story of a medicine man who tempted a village with his magic powers which ended up throwing everything in the community off balance. The poem says, “From that time on they were so busy playing around with that Ck’o’yo magic they neglected the mother corn altar. They thought they didn’t have to worry about anything, they thought this magic could give life to plants and animals. They didn’t know it was just a trick” (44). This causes mother corn to leave and take all of nature with her, leaving them with only magic to live off of. What do you see the lesson of this story to be? Is it a true story and has it already happened?
In this poem, I see the magic to symbolize the things which we put energy into that are not good for the earth or our personal well-being/ values. What do you think this magic entails in ceremony? What do you think this magic would look like in today’s society?
The initial section of Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko sets the tone for the rest of the novel, Silko begins with the story of creation from the view of the pueblos perspective, giving the book a non-traditional contextual approach. Much like the beginning story the rest of the book is written in a way to interest readers while providing an experience that isn;t had in simpler novels. The intricacies of ceremony and healing within the pueblo traditions are used not only for the title but as the means for the main character to revive his character after suffering ptsd in Vietnam. Beginning with the stories of Tayos time in vietnam and what has lead to his condition we can see the multiple issues tearing at tayos personal beliefs right from the beginning. The horrors of war as well as the experience of discrimination and racism due to his ethnicity signals the way for Tayo to return to what is true in his life in order to rebuild himself.