Ceremony

Author
Leslie Marmon Silko. Grew up in the Laguna Pueblo Reservation. Laguna Pueblo, Mexican, and white ancestry. Was subject to some backlash from the Laguna Pueblo people after Ceremony came out because people felt it had revealed too much about their culture.

Characters
Tayo: Central character. His mother was Laguna Pueblo, but his father was white. WWII veteran who fought in Japan with his cousin. Haunted by the deaths of his cousin and his uncle. Attempting to complete the ceremony to help his community adapt. Must resist the evil stories and fight witchery. Represents the Sun Father.

Auntie: Raised Tayo when his mother couldn't, but only for the sympathy. Determined to assimilate into white culture. Does not understand or approve of Tayo's worldview after the war. Makes it clear that he is not wanted.

Josiah: Tayo's uncle (Auntie's brother). Father figure to Tayo. Has a relationship with Night Swan, which Auntie disapproves of. Buys the spotted cattle. Dies while Tayo is at war.

Rocky: Tayo's cousin, although Tayo considers him more of a brother. Convinces Tayo to enlist. Auntie's clear favorite of the two boys. Wants to leave the reservation and be a football player. Dies in Japan in WWII.

Grandmother: Mother of Auntie, Josiah, and Tayo's mother. Old age has left her mostly blind. She is a firm believer in Laguna Pueblo traditions. Could represent Thought Woman.

Betonie: A medicine man. Not trusted by traditionalists because of his blending of old and new cultures and treatments. He performs the ceremony that cures Tayo of his "ghost disease." Also helps Tayo complete his own ceremony. A good example of how hybridity works when executed well.

Emo: A WWII vet who is friends with the same group of people as Tayo. Drinks a lot. Tayo hates  him. Brags about the terrible things he did during the war. Tayo stabs him in the stomach with a broken beer bottle. Leader of the witches. Trying to complete a different ceremony opposite Tayo's.

Harley: One of Tayo's friends. Also a WWII vet. Constantly drinking with the other vets. Works wit Emo, but in the end is on Tayo's side and is killed for it.

Night Swan: The woman Josiah has an affair with, much to Auntie's displeasure. She also convinces him to buy the spotted cattle. She is a yellow woman.

Ts'eh: A woman Tayo meets while searching for the spotted cattle. She helps him complete the ceremony. A mysterious character. She could represent the land or Corn Woman (or almost anything actually).

Old Ku'oosh: A traditional medicine man who tries and fails to heal Tayo. His recommendation leads to Tayo meeting Betonie.

Setting
The Laguna Pueblo Reservation in New Mexico, in the time following WWII.

Plot
Tayo has recently returned from fighting in Japan in WWII. While he was there, his cousin, whom he loved like a brother, was killed. His uncle also died during this time. Caught in the rainforest, Tayo attempted to pray the rain away. This does not impact him until he returns to the Laguna Pueblo reservation, where there is a drought that he blames himself for.

Having been injured while a POW, Tayo is sent to a military hospital in LA. He cannot cope with the grief caused by Rocky and Josiah's deaths, and is afflicted with "ghost sickness." The people on the reservation do not realize this, attempting to use a ceremony meant for warriors to heal him instead. Since Tayo never killed anyone while at war, the ceremony does not work.

Other veterans on the reservation self-medicate with alcohol, and they try to get Tayo to join in as well. However, Tayo is not comfortable being around many of his old friends, particularly Emo, who he stabs in the stomach after hearing too many stories of terrible deeds.

Tayo is sent to Betonie, who uses a ceremony that is a blend of old and new to help cure Tayo of his ghost sickness. While Tayo initially does not trust Betonie, by the end of their time together he is ready to go complete his own ceremony.

After leaving Betonie, Tayo goes in search of the spotted cattle Josiah bought before his death. He meets Ts'eh, who seems to point him in the right direction. He trespasses on the land of the white man who captured his cattle in order to release them. Three fence guards discover him, but they are distracted by a mountain lion and Tayo escapes with the cattle.

Robert tells Tayo that the people of Laguna are beginning to side with Emo over him, and are searching for him so that he can be taken back to the hospital in LA. Tayo hides in the mountains until he sees Harley and Leroy. He realizes that they are on Emo's side as well, so he escapes and hides at the emergence place.

Emo makes an appearance, along with Leroy, Pinkie and Harley. Emo kills Harley, knowing that Tayo can see him doing so. Tayo does nothing, not wanting to risk furthering the witches' ceremony. By doing so, he completes his own ceremony.

Narrative Voice
The book is narrated primarily in the third person, following Tayo's actions and thoughts. There are also poems telling Laguna stories included throughout the story.

Motifs
Balance: Hybridity, ceremony, medicine, tradition/change, real vs. artificial, witchery, dependence, sickness.
Nature: Wind, weather, animals, eyes, ground, rain/water, clouds, real vs. artificial, direction, stars, bones, fertility.
Stories/Culture: Tradition/change, bellies/stories, vomiting, sex, fertility, cyclicality, numbers, stereotypes, decorations/awards, matriarchy, hybridity, language, color, religion, witchery.

Symbolism
Spotted Cattle: The cattle serve as a symbol of the way things must adapt in nature in order to survive, illustrating the hybridity that is central to the theme. Also symbolize the clouds that the Gambler steals.
Bellies/Sickness: The belly is the place that stories are kept, so each time Tayo throws up he is getting rid of the bad stories he's heard or witnessed.

Imagery
Silko places a heavy emphasis on nature imagery throughout the book, illustrating the presence of nature in every aspect of Tayo's life and its important role. She also uses colors as a way of associating characters with their storied counterparts. For example, Betonie's grandmother is a Yellow Woman figure, and the color blue is associated with that character. Her possessing a blue shawl hints at her other role.

Tone
Silko's tone is one of observation -- she does not want to make too much of a commentary on the cultures she is writing about. However, the observations she makes through the text are not necessarily neutral, as the situation is one that she seems to disapprove of. She seems to want to show readers a better way to do things.

Quotes
Emo played with the teeth; he pretended to put them in his mouth at funny angles. (62)
One of the major clues about Emo's status as head witch. Like the witches in the old story, he plays with dead things that should be left alone. Later in this scene, Tayo tries to stab the bad stories out of Emo's belly.

"At one time, the ceremonies as they had been performed were enough for the way the world was then. But after the white people came, elements in this world began to shift; and it became necessary to create new ceremonies. I have made changes in the rituals. The people mistrust this greatly, but only this growth keeps the ceremonies strong." (126)
Betonie fully understands the need for hybridity, which is why his ceremony is so effective for Tayo, who is sick as a result of a world the traditional medicine men don't understand. He illustrates the way that adaptability and hybridity between cultures is a good thing that benefits everyone in the end.

Theme
Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony shows that personal and natural balance can only be achieved by adapting and balancing your own culture and traditions with new ideas.
Throughout Ceremony, Silko places emphasis on the importance of hybridity. Everything that works in the book is the result of hybridity in some way, whether it is the spotted cattle created by mixing two breeds or the ceremonies Betonie creates by mixing together different cultures. However, some elements of the book are examples of hybridity gone wrong: instead of blending the two cultures, Auntie and Rocky attempt to completely abandon their heritage in favor of becoming a part of white culture. The witches take the bad things from white culture, such as drinking and gambling, and make it an essential part of their own. On the other end, Old Ku'oosh is unwilling to take into consideration the changing times and as a result is unable to perform effective ceremonies. The balance is somewhere in the middle, as Tayo realizes while completing his own ceremony.