Ceremony Summary and Analysis

Author: Leslie Marmon Silko-- She is both Laguna Pueblo and white. She grew up and still lives on the Laguna Pueblo Reservation

Setting: Laguna Pueblo Reservation, areas around the Reservation

             immediately following WWII

Characters:

Tayo is half Mexican and half Pueblo Laguna. He grew up on the reservation with his uncle, aunt, cousin, and grandmother. Tayo is just getting back from fighting the Japanese in WWII alongside his cousin, whom he considers a brother. His cousin dies fighting in the war, and his uncle dies while he is away. Tayo is trying to complete the ceremony that will restore his community and fix the destruction caused by the witches like Emo. He is also the Sun spirit.

Betonie is the medicine man who tells Tayo about his role in the ceremony and puts Tayo on the path to understanding the evil in the world. He is trying to create a ceremony that will account for the changes in the world. He is not well loved by some of the natives because he wants to make changes to the ceremony, which they fear because they believe that the “whites” caused the destruction in the first place.

Emo is the one of the many natives that went to fight in WWII. He is shown as a truly evil character with the way he disregards human and animal life. Towards the end he tries to interfere with the ceremony and blind the Pueblo people into thinking that the white people are causing the destruction, proving he is a witch.

Auntie is Tayo’s aunt. She is the head of the family, but does not beliebe in Pueblo customs. She is instead a Christian. Her relationship with Tayo is strained, especially after Rocky, her son dies. She makes Tayo feel like he is not a part of the family or the Pueblo community.

Josiah is Tayo’s uncle. He buys hybrid cattle when the Night Swan tells him he should. He is accepting of change, but still believes in Pueblo customs. He is the father figure for Tayo throughout his childhood.

Ts’eh/The Woman is the incarnation of A’moo’ooh. She guides Tayo through the ceremony and has both a romantic and sexual relationship with him though she is technically married to the Hunter.

The Hunter helps Tayp find his way back to the cattle and is the incarnation of an animal spirit.

Grandma is Tayo’s grandmother. She strictly believes in the Pueblo customs which she displays when she tells Tayo to go to the medicine man when he is sick.  

Descheeny is Betonie's grandfather and a medicine man. He began the changes to the ceremony.

Rocky is Tayo’s cousin who does in war. He was resentful of the Pueblo culture and how it held him back.

Harley is Tayo’s childhood friend who also fought in the war. In the end, he sides with Emo against Tayo. But is killed by Emo when he decides to go against him.

Pinky is another friend of Tayo’s. He is also killed by Emo in the end.

Leroy is also a friend of Tayo’s that sides with Emo. He is constantly drinking.

Old Ku’oosh is another medicine man that sends Tayo to Betonie so he can get help and complete the ceremony.

Plot:

Tayo returns to the Laguna Pueblo Reservation after the war, feeling he does not belong and constantly getting sick. He is upset over the deaths of his Uncle Josiah and his cousin, Rocky. He also feels he is the cause of a drought plaguing the Laguna people. Many of his childhood friends seem to be facing the same issues, though Tayo is not able to feel a connection with them either. They all seem to want to escape the restraints caused by the Laguna culture and become white instead. He is bothered by Emo especially, whom he stabs in the stomach in anger and disgust.

Tayo is helped by the medicine man Betonie and the medicine man Ku’oosh to understand the destruction in the community and how Tayo can fix it. Tayo realizes that he needs to recover the hybrid cattle that Josiah bought. He bought the cattle because the Night Swan, with whom he had a romantic and sexual relationship, told him he should. The Night Swan also had a sexual experience with Tayo before telling him that he is meant for something.

Tayo searches for the hybrid cattle, which he eventually finds after having a sexual experience with the Woman, who is the incarnation of the spirit A’moo’ooh. Tayo is caught by some white men, but they let him go when they go searching for a mountain lion. The Hunter leads Tayo the hybrid cattle on his land. The Woman and Hunter keep the cattle until Tayp returns.

While staying with the Woman, Tayo learns from Robert that Emo is gathering people to come after Tayo, saying he is crazy. Tayo runs, and finds Leroy and Harley, but realizes that they are on Emo’s side. He hides again at the emergence point. There Emo kills Harley in front of Tayo, though Tayo must do nothing.

The ceremony is completed and Tayo returns to the Laguna people having stopped the destruction and ended the drought.

Theme: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony warns that evil, as well as good, is present in all cultures, and ending evil is possible through balancing personal and foreign cultures.

Ceremony focuses largely on the destruction that is being caused on the Laguna Pueblo, but it also emphasizes that the same destruction (the atomic bomb for example) is being placed on others, like the Japanese. All the cultures have destruction present. The destruction is not caused by white people but witches. The changed ceremony finally ended the destruction.

The ceremony, Tayo, and the cattle are all hybrids. All the hybrids that combine cultures an ideas are able to flourish and even fix the destruction already caused by the witches. Tayo completes the ceremony that ends destruction and the hybrid cattle are a large aspect of the ceremony (clouds).

Motifs:

Hybridity

White/Yellow light

Yellow

Fertility

Direction

destruction...violence

5th world

animal spirits

nature

unnatural v. natural

belly/emotions

Balance

Tradition

Change

POV:

At times the point of view changes from third to first person. Tayo seems to be waking up from a dream or sickness at these times. Still, the third person focuses in Tayo’s actions, though sometimes past people or different characters will be focused on. There is also poems flowing throughout the piece, mirroring Tayo’s own journey.

Tone:

Silko’s tone is serious. She is trying to put the reader through the same ceremony that Tayo is completing. She wants the reader to consider how cultures interact and the destruction. the ceremony is for the Laguna people as well as the reader.

Imagery:

Ceremony has a large emphasis on natural imagery. The nature in the piece is so simportant because the Laguna Pueblo place such a large importance on animal spirits and nature. Much of the nature and light is described as yellow, the natural light from the sun. Any light that is white is artificial and blinding, like the atomic bomb. The yellow light is a guiding force and the white is destructive. At times, Silko uses specific and disturbing imagery to describe Emo and his actions, further showing he is truly evil.

Symbols:

The hybrid cattle represents the stars and sky that the Gambler took. Tayo must recover the cattle to complete the ceremony. Their hybridity also represent how blending cultures leads to less destruction.

The burrow represents animal spirits trying to guide Tayo and the Laguna people through the ceremony and away from destruction.

Quotes:

“From the jungles of his dreaming he recognized why the Japanese voices had merged with Laguna voices, with Josiah’s voice and Rocky’s voice; the lines of cultures and worlds were drawn in flat dark lines on fine light sand, converging in the middle of witchery's final ceremonial sand painting. From that time on, human beings were one clan again” (228)

This quote shows how Tayo sees the destruction caused by the witches is shared by everyone. He understands the destruction more than the other Laguna people like Leroy and Harley. Tayo sees that the world should focus more on the similarities between people. There needs to be a balance of cultures and a balance of new and traditional ideas in the culture.

“It seems like I already heard these stories before...only thing is, the names sound different” (242)

Grandma is recognizing that the story of the ceremony and destruction is being retold. Tayo’s story is the same as the poems told in Laguna culture that are such a large part of their beliefs. Old Grandma sees that the issues with the Laguna people wanting to be white, like Emo, has happened before. Destruction has always been part of the Laguna culture.