Ceremony Summary & Analysis

Leslie Marmon Silko (March 5, 1948- present)

• Native American writer of the Laguna Pueblo tribe
• Born in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
• Learned traditional storytelling from her family (grandmother)
• She is one-fourth Laguno Pueblo

Setting

• Laguna Pueblo Reservation
• Some parts of U.S (California)
• Shifts from before 1942(Bataan March) to present 

Plot (divided into time frames)

•  BEFORE THE MILITARY (childhood-enlistment)
• Tayo is a half white and half Native American boy born to Laura
• Laura is Native American but strays away from the culture; she was alcoholic and went out with white men
• Before Tayo was born, Laura's sister, "Auntie" saw her walking by the river early in the morning in heels and no clothes
• When Tayo was young, Laura died and Josiah, Tayo's uncle brought him into the family
• Tayo can't ajust well due to the fact that he's biracial. 
• Auntie never liked the idea of taking care of Tayo because their family gets judged enough. She never showed it in front of grandma, but made sure Tayo knew that he didn't belong here
• Auntie didn't was her son, Rocky, to be associated with Tayo by any means.
• Rocky and Tayo both knew, but gradually became close as they grew up. Rocky is much different from Tayo in a sense that Rocky wants to leave the reservation ASAP. 
• Tayo was closest with Josiah and helped him and Robert (Auntie's husband) with the cattle work. He also kept Josiah's secrets about night swan (Josiah's Mexican gf) and the desert cattle
• When a military recruiter visits the reservation, Rocky persuades Tayo and both sign up to enlist in the military
• Harley, Emo, Pinkie, and Leroy are Tayo's childhood friends from the reservation. Emo and Tayo were never on good terms.
• DURING DUTY
• They must fight the Japanese, but Tayo just can't kill people.
• Rocky dies during duty; Tayo doesn't believe that Rocky's dead and watched the Japanese soldier shoot dead Rocky
• Tayo is held hostage in the Japanese Prison.
• During war, he's at a point in which he was shoot the Japanese soldiers but fail to do so because he saw uncle Josiah with the Japanese. He knows that can't be possible because Josiah died at the reservation while Tayo was gone to military.
• Tayo understands the relationship of White men and native women or any men in military wear with white women
• Tayo also curses the rain away in the jungle and feels guilty that the six year drought at the reservation is his fault. 
• Emo always boasts about his killings and starts conflicts with Tayo.
• PRESENT
• White doctors say that Tayo is struggling through PTS, however grandma disagrees and insists that he sees a medicine man
• All the other friends are also affected but with alcohol
• He comes back to the reservation from the white walled hospitals in California
• He decides to help Robert out with the Cattle
• Ku'oosh introduces Tayo to Medicine Man, Betonie
• Tayo tells Betonie everything while Betonie share stories and the value of Ceremony
• Betonie insists that Tayo must complete the ceremony despite the interferences
• In order to do so Tayo goes in search of Josiah's "desert" cattle
• The mountains are under close watch and finding the cattle is not easy
• With the help of T'seh, Tayo ends up to his final destination, the mine safely
• However, His friends are with Emo and he has to watch Harley get tortured by Emo. (emo's strategy to get Tayo to come out)
• Tayo survives and finishes the Ceremony in which the drought also comes to an end.
• Grandma believes that Tayo is a recurrence of Sun god
• Characters
• Tayo
• Protagonist; struggles with identity. He is half white and half Mexican; struggles through PTS after the war and can't let go of Josiah and Rocky's death
• Josiah
• Tayo's favorite uncle; he was dating a mexican (night swan) Grandma and Auntie were strongly against. He dies in the middle of the story; he had the wish to start a cattle business with the "all-purpose" desert cattle
• Auntie
• Tayo's aunt, Rocky's mother, Josiah's sister, Robert's wife. Claims to be a christian and treats Tayo like a responsibility to get to heaven. She wants Rocky to follow his dreams and become more white. 
• Grandma
• Tayo's Grandma; she doesn't care if other people judge or talk about the family. She's always sleeping or quiet but is always listening
• Rocky
• Tayo's cousin; doesn't want to be associated with native culture in any way. dreams of being a football player and heading out to the states after school. He signs tayo and himself up for the military but ends up not returning due to death.
• Betonie
• Medicine man that Ku'oosh introduces. He is also of mixed race and he intimidates Tayo at first but ends up healing him and leading Tayo into the right direction of fulfilling the ceremony. 
• Laura
• Tayo's mother; alcoholic, prostitute? a disgrace to the family
• Harley-> Leroy-> Pinkie and Emo
• All Tayo's childhood friends who also enlists in the military. Emo always hated Tayo and is the last interference in Tayo's ceremony. 
• Quotes
• " It seems like I already heard these stories before - only thing is, the names sound different."
• where grandma believes that Tayo is sun god and that all that he's gone through was just trial 
• Narrative voice 
• The narrative voice not only shifts from past to present, but just everywhere throughout the book. There are little short storytelling going on down the center of a page at an interval of every so pages and the narrative voice is never identified. Sometimes, when he/she talks about whats going on, it's a simple and straight foward, detailed explanation. However, there's times when first and second person pronouns pop up. Usually when night swan talks about her story or when Tayo is speaking.