Tyao Vs. everybody

Tayo has many conflicts in the book Ceremony. However, there are conflicts within every character in  this book. These conflicts are most likely caused by many of the same reasons. Given that all of these characters have been oppressed throughout their entire lives,  they are all angry and want to oppress others. This is shown in Emo and his hatred towards Tayo. "There he is. He thinks he's something all right. Because he's part white. Don't you, half breed?" Silko Pg. 57  Emo is not a good person, in general, but this quote especially shows his darkness. He is Native American and does terrible things in WWII. This makes Emo a worse person than he already is. "Tayo could hear it in his voice when he talked about the killing-how he grew from each killing.  Emo fed on each man he killed, the higher the rank the dead man, the higher it made Emo." Silko Pg. 6
1 Emo is different from most characters, because he is blatantly mean, rude, and scary.  However, some characters are rude and not trying to be. In old man Ku'oosh's place, he says racist things only because that is the way he was raised. "more than an hour went by before Ku'oosh asked him. "you were with the others,  the ones who went to the white peoples war?" Silko Pg. 37  This is obviously a racist statement, however ku'oosh does not see it as such.  He was raised racist, and white people are racist towards hi
m, and so the circle never ends.

Alcoholism effects P.T.S. in a very negative way.  It can make it significantly worse by bringing up bad memories causing emotions to come to life in horrific ways. This is true for Tayo in Ceremony. He says while drinking several beers, "Something was different about the beer this time; it swelled through his blood and made all the muscles loose and warm, but it was also loosening something deeper inside which clenched the anger and held it in place." Silko Pg. 62 Alcohol is a depressant. Therefore, drinking makes Tayo feel angry and upset. Violence can be a product of hurt and anger and sometimes drinking is a product of violence.  The guys may drink to escape, but in the end, it makes things worse increasing violence, "reports note that since the
 second world war a pattern of drinking and violence, not previously seen before, is emerging among Indian veterans." Silko Pg. 53 intact alcohol can make people someone their not. For instance, Tayo is not a violent or hateful person at heart, but when he drinks it is different. "when Emo laughed at him. He moved suddenly, with speed which was effortless and floating like a mountain lion. He got stronger with every jerk that me made" Silko Pg. 63 Tayo acts savage as he punches Emo in the stomach repeatedly. He does not like Emo and is filling himself with alcohol. Mixing those things together can never end good. 

The Injun

The film "Reel Injun" shows the reality of what it is like to be a Native American, and how Hollywood portrays them.  As times have changed, the stereotype of Native Americans in Hollywood has has changed as well. In the early 1920s when cinema was still young, there were silent films of Native American ceremonies.  Jesse Wente says, "there were more than 100 silents made involving Native Americans because this part of American history was ongoing at the time." (Reel Injun) During this time, native people were given more respect in cinema.  Their ceremonies were real. However, as time went on, the social problem continued to get worse.  Cinema made native people out to be savages and not human. Through classic "western films" the Natives were played by caucasians who did not even know how to speak the native language.  They wore headbands and head dresses only to keep their wigs on.  Richard Lamante, a hollywood costume designer says "if you look at movies in the 30s, Native Americans much like African Americans are used as props." Lamente is saying Native Americans were only in movies to portray a stereotype. This trend went on for a long time, and cinema had a big affect on the Native American sterotype.  John treadle, a Native American activist says, "The predatory mentality shows up and starts calling us Indians and using this as a vehicle for erasing the memories of being a human being." This is a powerful quote. The memories of being human slowly disintegrate over watching these unrealistic films.  This is a sad thing but it is getting better.


There are poor representations of Native Americans shrouded throughout Hollywood's history.

There are so few real representations of Native americans that they become an inhuman stereotype. John Trudell says in the film Reel Injun, "Im a human being, this is the name of my tribe, this is the name of my people, but I'm a human being!" (Reel Injun) What he is trying to get across is how he and his people want to be portrayed as human beings. For so many years and still today, Native people are treated as objects, or props in a film. Several years ago when Marlin Brando won the Oscar for "Godfather" a Native American woman named Little Feather went up to the stage and said "I am representing Marlin Brando this evening, and he has asked me in this very long speech that I cannot share with you due to time. He cannot accept this award and the reasons being of the treatment of American Indians today by the film industry." Something appaling happens while she is talking, people from the crowd start booing. What Little Feather does is very controversial at the time. It is insane to think that something like that is "controversial". However it is how Native Americans were

treated in cinema at that time. Since then, several films have been made that glorify native people and their culture, for example, Smoke Signals and The fast Runner. Although these two titles do not come close to showing what it's like to be Native American, they do give a glimpse. Grahm Green says this about The fast Runner, "This movie brought it top the point where cinema was telling our stories, our way." Of course not all stereo types will be erased with two or three movies.  Cinema is finally coming to the point where they will let Natives tell their story the way it should be told. Why tell it any other way?

the Opresser and the Opressed

There are many indicators of Tayo's hard life that cannot go unnoticed in the novel Ceremony. These  make him want to become invisible to the world and everything around him.  For Tayo, the best way become invisible is using large amounts of morphine. A great quote that emphasizes this is, "He wanted to go back to the hospital. Right away. He had to get back where he could merge with the walls and ceiling, shimmering white, remote from everything." Silko Pg. 32  He wants to go back to the hospital for the morphine and wants to merge with the walls to block himself out of everything that is happening to him and the pain
he is feeling. Tayo may not be suffering from the pain of P.T.S. either.  This quote shows how subtle racism was a big part of his life. "You know the army doctor said "no Indian medicine". Old man Ku'oosh will bring his bag of of weeds and dust." Silko Pg. 34 Tayo has much respect for Ku'oosh and everything he does. This quote speaks to the fact that Americans are trying to take culture away from the Native Americans. Incidents such as these happen to Tayo often which can have a big emotional impact of him. When so much happens to one person, it eventually makes them have the need to oppress others.  This is called 'Transfer of Oppression'.  In this quote, Auntie wants Tayo to talk to the medicine man. "You know what people will say if we ask for a medicine man to help him. Someone will say its not right they'll say he's not pure blood any way." Silko Pg. 33  Because Auntie is being treated unfairly and ridiculed about using a medicine man, she is almost sure people will do the same to Tayo.   Throughout the novel Auntie ridicules Tayo. It is sad to see, but anger and pain can create a domino affect for those around you and those you care about.








Humans will always escape from pain.  People will do what it takes to heal. In Tayos case, it seems to be nature that heals him. Every time he brings up the Baton death march, he will associate it with rain which causes him to feel uneasy. However, he also brings up other types of nature when talking to old man Koo'ush. "Then he
heard the old man describe a cave north east of laguna where bats flew out on summer evenings. The rattlesnakes liked to lie there in the early spring. The snakes went there to restore life to themselves." Silko Pg. 35 First of all, Tayo is talking about animals in this quote, which calms him. Second he has a cheerful spirit when talking about this cave. Some might say, "He can't just ignore what happened and think about nature!" but right after that quote Tayo says "He remembers the wide round hole, so deep that lying on his belly beside Rocky, he had never been able to see the bottom." Silko Pg. 35 Although the animals and such are making him feel calm, any type of nature he thinks about can somehow be related to the Baaton death march. Tayo tells him that he has never killed anyone in war yet is still sick. This is when the old man slows down and begins to understand what is really going on in Tayo's head. "The old man shook his head slowly an made a low humming sound in his throat. you couldn't  kill another human being in battle without knowing it without seeing the result because even a wonder deer that got and ran again left great clots or lung blood or spilled guts on the ground." Silko Pg. 36 Old man Ku'oosh is basically saying, even if he did not kill any one, just the participation in war can give emotional scars. The old man still has faith in Tayo because although he is lost at the moment, does not mean he can come back. The past is not equal to the future.

Invisibility by Drugs

On this journey Tayo is going through, there are many ways he learns to deal with his pain. He talks a lot about becoming invisible or disappearing from the world. That could be taken several different ways, it could go the rout of racism, or maybe

The Path to Healing

There are many grenades being thrown at Tayo's life in the beginning of Leslie Silko's, Ceremony. So many grenades that one may think he will never come out of this deep depression.  In fact some believe he is on a path to healing by telling stories. "You don't have anything, if you don't have stories. Their evil is mighty, but it can't stand up to our stories" Pg. 2 Silko. This statement says a lot. First of all, it touches on the evil of something out there.  However Tayo is also saying his stories demolish it. This quote summarizes how he feels at the end of the book, but not necessarily how he is feeling in the beginning of the book. Frightened and distraught from World War II "Japanese soldiers shouting orders to him, suffocating damp voices drifted out in the jungle steam." Silk Pg. 6  This statement was only a memory but even for the reader it feels real.  It is hard to imagine, but what Tayo is dealing with is a natural reaction to a traumatizing event in ones life. Tayo can most likely recall almost everything that happened when he was at war, especially the traumatic parts. One example is when he was carrying Rocky, he remembers the very rocks he was walking on. "The words of the story pouring out of his mouth as if they had substance, pebbles and stone extending to old the corporal up, to keep his knees from buckling." Silk Pg. 12 It is also interesting how he talks about telling a story to give strength. Although pain is riddled through out this book, from pain comes growth which is what will come next for Tayo

among the obvious themes in the book, there are subtle ones as well, like racism, classism, and alcoholism. this quote gives a subtle yet strong example of classism. for example there is a quote that says "She spent all day splashing down the summer rain, but her sister corn woman worked all day sweating in the sun, getting sore hands." Silko Pg. 13 This is a poem which has not been explained yet in the book however, as a metaphors it makes complete sense. One person looses so the other can win. Another interesting underlying theme in this novel is alcoholism. Tayo's friend Harley seems to be constantly drinking to solve his problems or at least subdue them. "Harley didn't use to like beer at all, and maybe this was something that was different about him now after the war. He drank lots of beer now." Silko Pg. 20 This quote makes an interesting point that even though he did not

use to drink at all, harley had been changed by the war. racism is also a big hidden factor to this book, ad there are many facts to prove it, for instance, when Tayo is talking about his school, he talks about basically intuiting him his own religion. "He had believed i  stories for a long time, until the teachers in indian school taught him not to believe in that kind of nonsense." Silko Pg. 19 it is astonishing how many themes are brought up through the pain this man is going through in this book. one may be able to feel for what he has been through because they have gone through it too. Even if they have not been through the same types of problems and issues one is sure to understand it.