Ceremony Summary and Analysis

Leslie Marmon Silko

• part-Laguna Pueblo, part-Anglo American, part-Mexican
• considered part of the Native American Renaissance

Setting

• takes place mostly on the reservation and surrounding areas
• memories flash back to time spent during World War II in the Philippines
• directions and landscape important to the symbols and messages of the story as a whole

Plot

• starts with four poems, telling of Spider Woman, the power of stories, about a ceremony, and sunrise
• story starts with Tayo at home, waking up from a dream about World War II
• shifts in scene from life on the farm to memories of World War II, tell stories about Rocky and him
• establishes deaths of Rocky and Josiah
• prose poem talks of Reed Woman, Corn Woman, and purposes
• Tayo blames himself for praying away the rain - "So he had prayed the rain away..."  "...he cried for all of them, and for what he had done."
• flashback to time at hospital when Tayo feels insubstantial (literally) - "invisible scattered smoke"
• flashback to train station when he has blackout and is helped by the Japanese woman
• back at the farm, Harley visits, remember past (Tayo stabbing Emo, Harley leaving the sheep), decide to go to bar; also compare to the past Harley (hated beer) - "It tastes like poison!"
• traveling to the pub, moving in semicircles, Grandma's complaints and stubbornness, Tayo talks about his isolation/death compared to Rocky's spiritual life
• Tayo starts to cry, then falls off the mule
• arriving in New Laguna and being taken care of by Auntie, establishing a little on characters of Auntie and Robert
• Tayo wakes up crying and Grandma talks about bringing in a medicine man, against Auntie's protests of name and hints at responses to Sis's actions
• Ku'oosh arrives and he and Tayo discuss warfare and killing; discontinuity with the old ways - "In the old way of warfare, you couldn't kill another human being in battle without knowing about it."
• prose poem about Scalping Ceremony and K'oo'ko to stop bad things from happening.
• Ku'oosh speaks of the need for a ceremony, but that it might not work. - "The others who had the Scalp Ceremony, some of them are not better either."
• shift to trip to the bar, bitter at the U.S. Government, Tayo realizes power of alcohol (white medicine), telling stories about the war and wartime - "swallowed the beer in big mouthfuls like medicine"
• Tayo told to talk, provides commentary on their mistreatment but others stopped him, Tayo realized they don't want to blame whites - "They never thought to blame white people for any of it."
• shift to memory on the Philippines during WWII, relating Japanese to Native Americans, tells the story of Rocky's death - "The tall one looked like a Navajo guy..."
• jump back to present in a valley still with water, Tayo remembers the visits with his uncle, optimism while drinking from the well - "maybe this wasn't the end"
• prose poem about false magic, Pa'caya'nyi, ignoring mother corn altar, bringing drought - similarities to the main story
• Tayo and Harley leave the animals tied to a windmill and hitchhike to a bar, Tayo tries to remember Rocky
• memory of hunting with Rocky for deer, connecting idea of death, relating to Laguna pueblo traditions on hunting vs. Auntie and Rocky's view of white American culture
• shift back to the bar, Harley asks for jukebox, scared of Tayo exploding again; Tayo describes various explanations of his attack
• prose poem about continuation of drought, asking Hummingbird about other sources of food, talks about other worlds
• Emo becomes more and more aggressive about being below white people, annoyed at Tayo's half-white ancestry
• prose poem about Indian man and white women show style of possession and acceptance during the war
• story returns to making fun of Emo, Emo turns on Tayo in annoyance, Tayo stabs Emo
• shift to tale of recruitment, still emphasize discrimination, first time Rocky called Tayo brother (strong influence on him?) - "Anyone can fight for America... even you boys."
• story of how Tayo was left with Auntie at the age of four, Josiah tells Rocky that he has a brother now and Rocky doesn't want him to be a brother, Auntie gives Rocky preferential treatment when alone with them but doesn't show rest of the family
• flash to Auntie's life with Tayo's mom, trying to stop her from leaving the reservation, Sis tried to leave and fit in with whites, changing times brought fear - "They were losing her.  They were losing part of themselves."
• Auntie tells Tayo about Sis, Tayo mentions old photo of Sis
• prose poem continues to tell story of Corn Mother and how to bring back rain
• Tayo and Rocky enlist, then Tayo remembers he promised to stay on the ranch, Auntie argues then lets them go hoping something would happen to Tayo
• shift to conversation about the cows and Josiah's plan, Rocky scornful and Auntie has support in dislike from dislike of Night Swan
• cattle arrive and keep moving South towards home, Josiah has them branded, glimpse of Night Swan provided
• prose poem continues with creation of fly for being messenger to fix the world
• Josiah meets Night Swan and falls in love, Night Swan tells him her history and dances for him, lots of blue associated with Night Swan
• Auntie is furious but says that it'll make Grandma upset, Grandma doesn't care - "If she had a better one about them, then it didn't matter what they said."
• Night Swan tells Josiah about the cows and he buys them, Auntie keeps them busy with checking on the sheep to keep Josiah from visiting Night Swan, complains about nobody being home (including Rocky), compares Josiah to their old dog that was run over
• Tayo remembers his mother's funeral and Josiah's comfort
• Tayo goes to the canyon with the spring to perform ceremonial rituals and pray to bring back the rain, sees a spider
• compares old stories to school science, believes old stories anyway
• sees a hummingbird while coming home, gets rain the next day
• Josiah sends a nervous Tayo with a note to Night Swan because of rain, Tayo goes upstairs and has sex with Night Swan, comments on eye color, people fear change
• Tayo leaves Harley at bar and walks to Mexican cafe, sees man killing flies, remembers Josiah's story about the fly (same story as being told in prose poem), acknowledged separation between cultures
• Tayo still killed the flies on Rocky
• return to bar, couldn't find Harley, went to Lalo's, visited Night Swan's old place, remember that Night Swan left after Josiah died, sleep behind Harley's grandfather's barn's loft
• prose poem: Hummingbird and Fly ask Corn Mother to help the people, she says to get Buzzard to purify the town
• Tayo wants to help with the farm again, Robert tells him the others want him to get help, Tayo realizes the elders want him to leave
• description of traveling through Gallup, Tayo and Robert headed there
• relating the lives of homeless children in Gallup area, mention that many are half-Indian, half-white
• boy (Tayo) lives with his mother under the bridge in Gallup, learns to fend for himself while downtown by eating random dropped food, used to stay in nice place
• Tayo saw woman burying child, serves as a memory relating to death
• fight between white men and Indian women, police arrive and arrest all of the women, the houses are destroyed and burned, the boy hides
• prose poem: Fly and Hummingbird give Buzzard offerings, Buzzard asks for tobacco
• Robert leaves Tayo with Betonie, Betonie's house filled with collected things from both white and Indian cultures over generations, Tayo is scared of Betonie and considers returning to white hospital
• Tayo tells Betonie about his situation, factors everything into his plan on the ceremony, emphasizing interconnectedness
• Betonie talks about importance of changing ceremonies based on time, Tayo is skeptical and sees the wealth of the white people as sign of lying and broken promises, anger at whites, Betonie tells him that not all are the same, introduce Shush
• prose poem: child with the bears, medicine man got him back but slightly different, presumed to be about Shush
• clarification about witches vs. animal people and whether only evil comes from witchery
• Tayo thinks that whites took everything from Indians but Betonie says that witchery wants them to think that all evil resides in whites to cause massive destruction, tells Tayo story of how Indians created the evil
• prose poem: creation of European people from a witches' meeting, too much arrogant bragging so witch (?) tells story that comes true about people who are scared of everything and kill everything
• Betonie, Shush, and Tayo ride north, headed to high mountains for a ceremony
• prose poem: Coyote captures a man hunting, family finds him almost completely taken over by Coyote, Bear People perform ceremony to bring him back
• Betonie and Shush perform same ceremony for Tayo, Tayo dream of Josiah's cattle that night
• Betonie tells Tayo story about his grandparents, the Mexican girl and Descheeny, they design a ceremony for the future
• prose poem: Fly and Hummingbird fly back for tobacco from the people but they don't have any, go to fourth world to ask mother where to find tobacco, directs them to caterpillar
• Betonie describes his family, directs Tayo to continue the ceremony and not be impatient, look for the stars and the cattle and a woman, leaves to return home
• Tayo travels by truck, stops and sees a white man clearly for the first time, meets up with Harley, Leroy, and Helen Jean, resists offer of beer for a while, then accepts, goes to a bar, Helen Jean leaves with Mexican
• story of Helen Jean, from Towac but went to Gallup to raise money, unsuccessful in trying to get a good job, quits after boss expects sexual favors, meets up with Indians and asks for money, resists sexual favors for money but can't, wants to change how she's been acting
• Tayo fell asleep at bar, wakes up when Leroy and Harley get in a fight, drives them home, Tayo vomits out the alcohol and past
• scalp ceremony fixed the individual ghosts but still problems like white beads from grave and haunting, like lost land with Indian soldiers
• prose poem: Ck'o'yo Kaup'a'ta the Gambler taking everything from people, takes storm clouds and locks them up, another story on the absence of rain, following the advice of Grandmother Spider brings success
• jumps ahead to meeting a woman (Ts'eh), invited for dinner and sees Betonie's stars that night on her porch
• prose poem: Fly and Hummingbird go to Caterpillar to get tobacco for Buzzard
• Tayo and the woman (Ts'eh) have sex, Tayo dreams of cattle again, Tayo sings to the sunrise, watches the woman bundle rocks and plants as he eats breakfast, and leaves
• rides up to the mountain where more white people keep grazing their cattle, hopes to find them and drive them home
• reach Floyd Lee's land and sees his cattle, wait until after dark to cut through the fence, muses that it's hard to believe a white man stole the cattle because he'd always learned that they're better - "Why did he hesitate to accuse a white man of stealing but not a Mexican or an Indian?"  "He knew then he had learned the lie by heart... only brown-skinned people were thieves; white people didn't steal, because they already had the money to buy whatever they wanted."
• Tayo looks for hours for the cows, begins to lose hope in Betonie's words, falls down and approached by mountain lion, sings to the hunter's helper, follows the direction it came from to find cattle, directs them through the hole in the fence
• tries to outrun patrol, sees the cattle leaving as he falls from his stumbling horse, patrol men plan to bring him to their boss but find mountain lion tracks so track it instead, snow falls to block the tracks
• Tayo meets a hunter, takes him home to woman's house, perform rituals on the shot deer, finds his horse there, woman caught the cattle in the old corral, cattle used in roping tournaments, leaves to go home to get cattle truck, returns with Robert to find place abandoned but cattle cared for
• Grandma takes pleasure in Betonie's success, Auntie still waiting for something to go wrong
• Finally Tayo realizes the purposes of the nightmares and that nothing is ever lost, deals with daily life and watches Pinky try to deal with working on the farm with the sheep
• meets Ts'eh while looking for the cattle, stays camped up with her by the spring, gets bull for the herd of cows for more breeding, optimism
• Ts'eh asks Tayo to gather plant if she can't, hints at changing times ahead, still time of peace but with uncertain deadline
• Robert arrives to share news about Emo spreading rumors that Tayo is crazy, sending people up to capture him, Ts'eh mentions how death is not the worst thing, Tayo decides to end the witchery
• Ts'eh and Tayo spend time with the art of the she-elk, Ts'eh talks about the future and friends' betrayals, potential in hiding and waiting for it to blow over
• Ts'eh leaving as well, pack together, Ts'eh leaves with a promise to see him again
• Tayo runs away, avoiding people and planning to get out of the area, strength in the valley and optimism, trust Leroy and Harley and gets in their truck, releases they betrayed him after they stop
• realizes that he's in the witchery stronghold and has not as much power, runs off
• history of the uranium mines, hides in the mines compared to a grave, leftover explosive power can be used for destruction
• patterns of the uranium indicate the location of the final part of the ceremony, survive the night
• prose poem about working Ck'o'yo's magic and not working with spectator, Tayo is the spectator for the using of the witchery
• Leroy, Pinky, and Emo show up with Harley, witchery could be confused for normal actions, torturing of Harley causes Tayo to want to save him and kill Emo but leads to own witchery, resists urge
• stars converge and ceremony ends, Tayo survives and pushed back the evil for now
• returns back to home, crosses river towards own land at sunrise
• prose poem: getting the tobacco back to Buzzard, purified land, plants grow again and mother returns
• ceremony at home with Ku'oosh about the worship and the saving of the land
• prose poem about the joys of seeing and having support of A'moo'ooh
• Tayo still stuck there, another brought food to him and ceremony is performed
• prose poem: Coyote skin is cut to pieces and evil removed
• Harley and Leroy found bed, both got military honor at the funeral, symbolize white recognition
• Auntie treats Tayo like another member of the family, announces Pinky's death and Emo's escape to California, Grandma's heard the story before
• prose poem about the end of the witchery and new arrival of sunrise

Characters

Tayo

• representative of Sun Father
• half-Laguna, half-white and torn between two cultures
• tormented by experiences in the war and the connections between others
• importance of balancing between cultures and ideas

Rocky

• cousin to Tayo
• always tried to follow American way
• eventually overtaken by the white culture
• gave up connection with Laguna pueblo beliefs

Auntie

• supports the American way
• proud of her son, accepts his way of life
• dislikes Tayo for being left to her
• selfish in her own salvation for Christianity
• needs to have something to complain about
• hypocritical and oftentimes either purposely blind, projects feelings onto others

Josiah

• Tayo's uncle
• acts as father figure for missing father in childhood
• death brings confusion and loss to Tayo's life
• taught Tayo old customs

Betonie

• spiritual guide and medicine man
• another mixed race
• brought up with the idea of the ceremony and established the changing ceremony
• another father figure in Tayo's life

Ts'eh

• representative of the she-elk
• Yellow Woman
• lover of Tayo
• helped give Tayo strength and encouragement to bring back the rain

Emo

• main representation of evil
• believed strongly in the dominance of the white culture and tried to believe it
• hated Tayo for being part white and therefore being above him
• wants to be accepted by whites and power he had during the war

Others

• Robert: wife to Auntie, supported Tayo but quiet-spoken
• Grandma: representation of Grandma Spider, brought about change in Tayo's life
• Laura/Sis: Tayo's mother, raised him when young then took him to live with Josiah
• Ku'oosh: Laguna medicine man, uses original methods, could only stop the nausea
• Night Swan: Lover of Josiah, Yellow Woman, introduced Tayo to the world and accepted him
• Hunter: saved Tayo on the mountain, lover/friend/husband of Ts'eh
• Harley: Tayo's closest friend aside from Rocky, wanted to help Tayo but caught in web by white culture and Emo
• Pinky: Cousin of Tayo's, cheated family out of money, veteran of the war, believed in white culture
• Leroy: Friend of the group, veteran, believed in white culture, follower of witchcraft
• Helen Jean: failed Yellow Woman, tried to change her family but got caught in white culture mess
• Shush: Assistant to Betonie and a bear-child

Style and Voice

Point of View

• varied based on scene
• mainly third person limited for Tayo
• shifts to other perspectives and sometimes to first person

Structure

• jumping through time
• disjointed and chaotic
• prose poems form backbone for the story

Tone

• critical in approach to balancing white culture and Indian culture - descriptions of severe inequalities
• optimistic in the future of the balance - hopeful in Tayo's success of balance

Imagery

• detailed descriptions of nature and scenery - important in Native American culture
• emphasis on colors of all different kinds - different meanings associated
• focus on natures of objects - shapes, chaotic vs. organized

Symbolism

• Blue - power
• Stories - bring worlds of their own into existence
• Direction - cardinal directions associated with different ideas and locations
• Cows - importance of mixed balance
• Tangles - spiderweb-like structure of world and interconnectedness of everyone
• Alcohol - white medicine/corruption
• Drought - negative result from focus on white culture and not enough on Laguna culture
• Circles - indicate importance, result in continuation and renewal

Themes

• "Cultures need to adapt to others and be tolerant." - the importance of the mixed races show that, "There are balances and harmonies always shifting."  "You don't write off all the white people, just like you don't trust all the Indians."
• "People make mistakes."  - Tayo falls to temptation but always finds his way out.
• "History repeats itself." - stories repeat over and over, "It seems like I already heard these stories before...only thing is, the names sound different."