RedGage

Since the early colonization of the Americas, instead of absorbing the natives into the new culture, history reveals that the prevailing culture attempted to destroy the Indian culture through repeated efforts of re-education and annihilation. Even the name, American Indian, was pressed upon them by the conquering culture.  Only since the late 1970's and early 1980's has the United States and its people realized the value of tribal culture, a way of life that incorporates the individual within nature.

In Leslie MarmonSilko's novel Ceremony, as members of the conquering race, we can view the conflict our culture has placed upon a small tribe, the Laguna Pueblo, after World War II. Tayo, a half-breed of this tribe, must reconcile the two sides of his nature, the psychological damage he received in the war, and his tribe's place in the Anglo culture. He does this through a ceremony that has never been performed before, by magic that can only be performed by a half-breed: a member of both cultures.

Reconciliation

To understand the reconciliation of the two sides of Tayo's nature, we must first understand the guilt Tayo feels for his mother's betrayal of his people. She betrays her people by having sexual relations with white men and Mexicans.  As a half-breed, his very existence reminds the Laguna Pueblo tribe and specifically Tayo's aunt that their world is in danger of extinction. 

When Little Sister started drinking wine and riding in cars with white men and Mexicans, the people could not define their feeling about her.  The Catholic priest shook his finger at her drunkenness and lust, but the people felt something deeper: they were losing her, they were losing part of themselves. The older sister had to act; she had to act for the people, to get this young girl back.  (70)

Little Sister, Tayo's mother, loses her identity as a Laguna Pueblo because she cannot reconcile her boarding school education with the teachings of her people.  She starts on the road to destruction, becoming a symbol of the destruction of her own village - for according to tribal wisdom - what happens to a single person would eventually happen to all.  The sins of Tayo's mother hang heavily on Tayo because her sins remind Tayo that he is neither Indian nor white.

However, Tayo must reconcile his two natures.  Two inset stories in the novel Ceremony hint that Tayo can reconcile himself. The first story chronicles the life of the old Mexican woman named Night Swan.  As a young woman, she dances the flamenco (83-6), a wild magical dance.  During the first season that she performs, she takes a married man as a lover. He blames her for his unfaithfulness to his wife and children. In her pain over his accusations, she dances his death. That night, his horses crush him underfoot. He does not survive.  This inset story reveals the magic contained in a child of two cultures.  The Mexican woman, who carries the same hazel eyes as Tayo, can carry out her own ceremony, implying that Tayo through his heritage will have the magic to create his own ceremony.

The Ceremony

The second inset story chronicles Betonie's grandmother. Betonie, a half-breed medicine man, creates the ceremony that Tayo must perform to clear away his psychological troubles and to restore his people's balance with the land.  The story of Betonie's grandmother starts outside a Mexican village that the Navajos were raiding.  The Navajo men find a young Mexican girl in a tree. Instead of selling her to the slavers in Mexico, they give her to an old medicine man named Descheeny: Betonie's grandfather.  This girl bears a child, a girl, which she leaves with Descheeny's family with the understanding that once a grandson is born, she will raise him. 

Fourteen years later, Betonie is born. Betonie learns from his grandmother that he was born to keep the world from unraveling, from destruction, and from witches (145-151).  Like the Mexican woman's story, Betonie carries the blood of two cultures and needs to reconcile these cultures within himself.  In these two inset stories, we learn that Tayo, in comparison with Betonie and the Mexican woman, has talents that are magical and that need to be used for the good of both societies he represents.

World War II Experiences

Beyond Tayo's purpose and responsibility to the world, Tayo also must overcome his repulsion to the white world.  His reasons for his hatred of the white world centers around his experiences as a soldier in the Philippines during World War II.  A Japanese soldier kills his cousin, who is closer to Tayo than a brother.  In Tayo's mind, to allow the death of his cousin directly contravenes his purpose in life, voids the contract with his aunt, and forces all meaning out of his life.  Because of the failure of his first purpose to save his cousin, Tayo loses all touch with his world. The following words show Tayo's state of mind after the war:

They sent me to this place after the war. It was white. Everything in this place was white. Except for me. I was invisible. But I wasn't afraid there. I didn't feel things sneaking up behind me. I didn't cry for Rocky or Josiah. There were no voices and no dreams. Maybe I belong back in that place. (123)

These words reveal the wound in Tayo's soul. Silko continues to show Tayo's distress by his actions of drunkenness, fighting, and despair. Even the weather, dry and dusty, echoes Tayo's wounds. 

Time of Healing

Tayo's psychological, emotional, and physical healing does not occur instantly.  The healing, like the stages of grief, go through distinct stages. First, Tayo admits he has a problem. Then, he seeks help from the medicine man, Betonie. Next, he sets goals through the ceremony. Through the ceremony, the crux of the novel, Tayo remembers the Mexican cattle that his uncle bought to live on their dusty land; he remembers they were stolen; he remembers he promised to find them.  Through recapturing the yellow spotted cattle, he not only ties himself back to the land but also balances himself. 

In the ceremony, he realizes that his enemies, who are witches, want to destroy the world.  The witches, enemies of all life and change, delight in the atom bomb, which unravels the basic building blocks of life.  These enemies delight in the destruction of the Japanese.  These enemies delight in the agonies of the returning soldiers, and the disappearing culture of the Laguna Pueblo.  Betonie tells Tayo that "they [the witches] will try to stop you from completing the ceremony" (125). Tayo's ceremony, which includes the return of the cattle, affirms the validity of life, yes, even his life. 

Tayo's Quest

As in any quest, Tayo does meet personified deities, the Corn Maiden and Hunter, who help him accomplish his task; however, the ceremony can only be completed by Tayo.  At the end of the ceremony, Tayo finds that his friends, who had been soldiers in W.W.II, had developed into the witches he had been fighting.

In the last dramatic scene, he watches one of his friends being skinned alive, realizing that if he tries to rescue his friend that he, Tayo, might be killed and that he, Tayo, might kill. Tayo realizes that he must not kill because if he kills any of his friends or enemies, the killing would completely destroy Tayo's psyche, thereby destroying the land and his people. Instead of following the path of destruction, Tayo restores the land by doing nothing and by allowing his friends to make their own mistakes.

Silko's novel emphasizes that each of us is responsible for our actions whether creative or destructive. She also shows that Tayo accomplishes the task of reconciling two cultures, while giving hope that we, whether conquered or conquerors, can learn to overcome our base desires and live in balance with the land and with each other: a hope that each of us will succeed in accomplishing our own ceremonies.

Works Cited

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.