Summaries and Analyses of Literature: Ceremony

Ceremony
by Leslie Silko
It's set in a Laguna reservation after WWII, though it travels back in time quite often with memories of life before the war. 


Tayo is the main character. He feels alienated from Laguna culture- even more so now that he's a war veteran. He feels that everything is connected, but goes through a ceremony in order to see it more clearly.
Auntie is Tayo's mother figure. When Tayo, Rocky and her are alone, she tries to emphasize that the two are different. She has a martyr complex.
Rocky is Tayo's brother figure, the son of Auntie. He's brought up so that he can succeed in white culture (he scorns Laguna culture, turning to modern science, and he plays football). This fails, however, as he's killed in the Philippines.
Harley and Leroy are Tayo's veteran friends. They go out drinking with him, driving around in an old pick up truck.
Josiah is Tayo's father figure. He's dedicated and brave, willing to take a risk and buy the cattle the Night Swan suggests
Betonie is the second medicine man that Tayo visits. he is also only half Laguna.
Emo is the antagonist of the story. He was bad before the war, smashing crops for the pleasure of it, but the war gave him an edge. He's in love with the violence that whites have: guns, bombs, huge wars, and the like.
The Night Swan grounds Tayo when they sleep together. She's connected to nature. She used to sleep regularly with Josiah, and when she was younger, danced at bars.
Ts'eh helps Tayo to complete the ceremony. She catches the cattle and makes him feel at peace.


I'm giving the plot in bullet point so that it's extremely clear and easier to study- this is the story I get mixed up.

• Tayo comes back after being in a medical hospital
• he's haunted by the war (PTSD) and deaths (Rocky's, Josiah's) that he blames himself for
• he goes drinking with Harley and Leroy while they reminisce about sexual exploits and the war
• Auntie pushes Tayo to see a medicine man, Ku'oosh, and then Betonie
• Betonie sets him off on his mission, a ceremony of healing, reconnecting to the land, and a mission to save his culture from the witches' white people
• this mission involves finding Josiah's cattle
• Tayo is caught on a rich man's ranch, but the chance of catching a mountain lion pulls the guards  away from him
• the cattle also lead him to T'seh, who he sleeps with and later spends more time with
• their time together is interrupted by Emo bringing village and government people to take Tayo back 
• Tayo, on the run, picks up a ride with Harley and Leroy, but realizes that they're going to betray him
• he escapes to an abandoned mine, where he watches Emo, Pinky, and Leroy torture and kill Harley. They later die in a car crash.

The POV follows Tayo, but in a very nonlinear fashion- it's woven, like the stories and communal experience of Laguna culture. The tone is lush with description. So much of the novel is sensory. The imagery is rich, and helps to show the divide between good things and bad.

the weather (both the drought and the long awaited rain)- the land is involved in Tayo's struggle, as well. When the rain finally comes, it's a healing rain, just as the drought meant something was wrong

yellow and white- these colors are motifs. The yellow, coming from the sun and the creation god, is good. The white, associated with the uncertain "white smoke" of the hospital and the witches, is bad.

Emo- takes on the role of a magician. He's similar to the false healing man in the folk story within the novel. He bewitches Tayo's friends into an empty existence with large talk and beer.

"It seems like I already heard these stories before... only thing is, the names sound different."
Grandma's comment at the end pushes the novel's meaning. She recognizes the repetition and connection within Laguna culture.
"But now the feelings were twisted, tangled roots, and all the names for the source of this growth were buried under English words, out of reach. And there would be no peace and the people would have no rest until the entanglement had been unwound to the source."
Tayo's quest is to understand how his experiences fit together. He has to untangle white culture's influences from Laguna's.
"In that hospital they don't bury the dead, they keep them in rooms and talk to them."
White culture is unnatural. The dead not being allowed to rest also applies to Auntie's insistence of still calling Rocky by name , even though it's Laguna tradition not to once someone has died.


Times are changing, but a larger story is repeating; if you see the pattern of this ceremony, you can never truly be displaced.

• motif of  circles
• the folk tales in the story relating to the events of the story's present
• Ts'eh and the Night Swan remind him of the land- they help him feel connected again
• once the ceremony is complete, Tayo's fragmented story feels united- the jumbled times straighten