The Ceremony by leslie marmon silko is a very complicated, complex novel in many ways and cannot be fully understood without a thorough understanding of native American culture. This story begins with Tayo, a native American war veteran who seems to be in great pain and sickness with no cure. Although other veterans feed this pain with alcohol and sex, Tayo wants something more, he wants a real cure. This leads to Tayo going to several essentially praciticers of magic that perform rituals on him and such in a hidden quest for Tayo to fully understand himself and the real problems behind his sickness. Here were a group of native Americans that had been treated like hero s during the war and essentially just thrown out afterwards.
"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 the 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 the white people who took it away again when the war was over."
This quote perfectly explains the root of many of the native's problems which originate with the white people coming in and taking everything that once belonged to them.
Tayo's main issue is that since he is half native and half white, he does not entirely know which half he truly wants to embrace more and represent more. Through a series of revelations Tayo realizes that the white people are the real evil and the root of all the problems.
The main theme in Ceremony lies somewhere with preservation of culture and tradition as well as showing the destruction of the clash of two very different cultures. Throughout the novel, the main issues are that the white people have essentially detroyed all that the natives hold dear, and the natives struggle to hold on to what remains which is tradition. Tayo struggles and yet he is only fullfilled once he goes back to his roots of his true native culture which tells us that culture, even in a foreign world is a crucial part of our identity and so it is important to hold onto these things.
You sort of avoided the plot summary. You want to review the parts with Tseh and his journey. Also look at the cultural differences and how Tayo discovers himself. I think the theme is definitely the preservation of culture, but also the adaptation of culture through time and change.
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