Ceremony

Author: Leslie Silko

Time/Setting: Shortly after WWII; The Laguna Pueblo Reservation 

Significant Characters: 

• Tayo: Born of the Laguna people but was taken away from his Reservation at an early age to attend a white school. Since he has learned the white ways and gone to war, he is newly returned home where he finds himself confused and must relearn the old customs of his people. Tayo goes through many spiritual journeys and ceremonies with various members (and non-members) of the reservation, who contribute to his life and his new statement of what man he is. 

• Auntie: The one who took Tayo in when his mother left him. She likes to protest what a burden he is to her and make it seem like she is some kind of martyr to the Reservation. While she is not Tayo's most trusted confidant, she runs the house when he is a child and is the one reponsible for making him feel like an outcast

• Betonie: Preforms one of many ceremonies with Tayo to help him feel like one of the people again. Betonie can be considered a witch, in that he preforms this ceremony with Tayo to help him but may also have another reason. 

• T'seh: The main lover of Tayo. She helps Tayo discover who he really is and how he has always been a part of the people, even though he has learned the white mans ways and how to fight a white mans war.  

• Josiah: The father figure to Tayo as he grows up. He is the one who teaches Tayo the Laguna ways and watches him grow into a young man. He is killed while Tayo is away at war, and Tayo is stricken with grief at this news, feeling that he has lost the one person in the world he felt a true connection with is gone. 

• Harley: A friend of Tayo's who drinks heavily and sleeps with many random white girls. Tayo doesn't look good on his actions, but he is unable to vocalize his feelings about it anytime he is with him.

• Rocky: Tayo's adopted "brother". Tayo is at first very unhappy that he has a brother, but over time the two grow close and leave the Reservation for war together.

• Grandma: The most constructive, wise adult and true confidant in Tayo's life 

• Emo: Both a friend and enemy to Tayo. The two clash on many occasions, especially when Emo likes to tell stories of the war which causes Tayo to remember its horror. One night Tayo eventually stands up to him by stabbing him with the end of a broken beer bottle in an attempt to kill him. Emo recovers and is last seen in the novel drunk and torturing Tayo's friend

• Helen Jean: A white girl that Tayo's friends meet, drink and hook up with. Tayo doesn't know what to do in this situation, so he sits quietly and drinks his beer.   
  

Significant/Important Plot Points:

• Tayo has just returned to his Reservation after being a soldier fighting against the Japanese in WWII
• He returns to his home feeling disconnected with his people's ways and cultures, which he must now relearn and put aside the "white" ways he was taught as a child
• Tayo often thinks back to his days in the war, and the death of his "brother" Rockey and good friend Josiah
• Tayo finds that his friends (Harley, Emo etc) are also struggling with things after returning from the war and that they are dealing with things by drinking heavily
• Tayo prays to his Gods that things will work out and he does ceremonies with a ceremonial medicine man in the community
• Tayo seeks the help of another medicine man but is sidetracked when he meets T'seh, a woman he spends his summer with 
• Tayo returns to the reservation, having finally discovered who he truly is 

Narrative Voice:

• This novel has one of the most interesting narrative voices! Silko's own storytelling voice flows throughout the whole novel through both the characters dialogue and the regular narrative. The novel is very descriptive from its descriptions of the different settings, to the characters ad right down to what way they each travel. Unlike many novels, Ceremony uses a completely different narrative voice because of Silko's personal background and her culture. Her novel is strange and very different to us because it is not written in the typical "Western white culture" way that many others novels are. 

Significant Quotes:

• "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" - Narrator 

Theme:

• No matter what the circumstances are or have been throughout your life, there is always a way to rediscover who you truly are and where your place in the world and among the people is