Setting: Southwest United States, the Laguna Pueblo reservation, the bars, and the most significant aspect- the landscape.
Point of View: third person omniscient. The narrator is very descriptive, and even more descriptive when it comes to landmarks and natural elements.
Style: at first it was very fragmental as were Tayo's thoughts, but as the novel progressed the flow did as well. A lot of very lengthy and over-descripted sentences, poems every so many pages that were always centered and often in multiple stanzas
Plot:
-Tayo has returned from a Veterans Hospital after WWII to
his home at the Laguna Pueblo reservation. He is very traumatized by his
experiences, especially loosing Rocky and “seeing” Josiah
-Tayo struggles adapting back into his life
-Copes with other veterans, Harley, Leroy, Emo and Pinkie,
by going out to bars and telling war stories
-Tayo doesn’t think he can stand his sadness and confusion
much longer so he wishes to go back to the hospital
-Grandma calls in the first medicine man, Ku’oosh, who
performs an old ceremony on Tayo but its no longer applicable
-Ku’oosh’s ceremony helps Tayo, and initiates his
reminiscence of his life, focusing on the summer before he left for the army
-That summer…
-Rocky and Tayo enlisted in the
army after finishing high school
-Josiah fell in love with Night
Swan
-Josiah invests in some Mexican
cattle and Tayo helps care for them
-There was a drought and Tayo
creates a rain ceremony to avoid the results of previous droughts
-Ceremony is successful and it
rains the next day
-The rain keeps Josiah from
visiting Night Swan so he gives a note to Tayo to deliver for him and then she
seduces Tayo
-Ku’oosh sends Tayo to Gallup to see the second medicine
man, Betonie
-Tayo is at first skeptical of Betonie and his odd ways but
then he opens up
-Betonie tells Tayo that a new ceremony must be created and
completed because of how the world is now
-Betonie tells him stories about his grandfather and why new
ceremonies are now in need, then he sends Tayo home to finish his ceremony
-Tayo follows the stars to Ts’eh’s house and spends the
night with her
-Tayo goes up the mountain in search of Josiah’s cattle. He
finds the cattle on a white man’s land, breaks through the fence, which
releases the cattle to who knows where
-He looks all night for the cattle until dawn when a
mountain lion comes up and after the animal is honored, he follows its tracks
to the cattle
-Two patrolmen find Tayo leaving the pasture and plan to
arrest him for trespassing, but the white men notice the lion’s tracks and
leave Tayo to go hunt the animal
-Down the mountain Tayo meets a hunter who lives with Ts’eh and
they go back to her house where she has fenced Tayo’s cattle until Tayo and
Robert return with a cattle truck
-Tayo returns home but knows the ceremony isn’t complete
because of the drought
-Ts’eh and Tayo spend the summer together
-Robert comes to tell Tayo that Emo has been spreading
rumors about him
-Ts’eh tells Tayo that Emo and the white police are coming
after him, but she also gives Tayo advice on how to avoid them
-Tayo successfully avoids the police, then sees Harley and
Leroy, who have joined forces with Emo too
-Tayo continues to run from these things that Betonie warned
him would occur during his ceremony and he ends up at an abandoned uranium mine
-He realizes this is the final stage of his ceremony as he
looks down to see the gaping hole left in the earth
-Pinkie and Emo arrive and unknowingly to them, Tayo watches
Harley get tortured
-Because of the wind, Tayo makes it through the night
-Goes home, then to see Ku’oosh who tells him the drought
has ended as well as the destruction of the whites
-Tayo spends the night at Ku’oosh’s house to officially complete
the ceremony then he returns home
Significant Characters:
Tayo- half white, half Laguna Pueblo, PTSD after WWII, must complete his ceremony
Grandma- helps Tayo, a lot of knowledge on the stories
Auntie- takes Tayo in as an orphan, rude, selfish, and consumed with aspects of the white culture
Rocky- son of Auntie, had a lot of potential, best friends with Tayo, dies in the war
Josiah- Tayo's uncle, Tayo looked up to him alot, loves Night Swan
Emo- drinks a lot, talks about the great memories from the war, hates Tayo
Night Swan- Mexican, Josiah's girl who suggests he raise cattle, self-aware woman
Old Ku'oosh- Laguna medicine man, very traditional, sends Tayo to a medicine man that can create new ceremonies
Betonie- half breed like Tayo, creates a ceremony for Tayo, very wise and patient
Quotes:
"Next time, just remember the story (Silko 94)".
Josiah gives Tayo this advice as he reassures him that everybody makes mistakes which disrupt the order, but without the common mistakes there would be no order in place, or needed. I think this quote is important to Tayo's character and the novel as a whole. Initially, Tayo struggled remembering important things as a result of the war, and now Tayo is reconnected with the Earth because of his ability to remember the stories which make up his culture. Throughout the entire book, Silko keeps coming back to her stories. Remembering bits and pieces of the stories will help as those same aspects show up again and a connection is able to be formed.
"Indians or Mexicans or whites--most people are afraid of change (Silko 92)".
This quote comes from Night Swan when she comforts Tayo about his half-breed insecurities. I think this quote is important, especially coming from Night Swan, because it just shows how alike everyone truly is. Just because one's appearance may be different than others, that doesn't mean one's actions and emotions operate differently. All people of all races are still people, irregardless. I like this quote because it highlights the strenghts of Night Swan as a person and I bet Tayo really needed to hear something like that.
Theme: It's never too late to fulfill one's purpose
I thought this theme was appropriate for Ceremony, because like a circle there is no end or beginning, so it is never too late to hop on track. In Ceremony, Tayo starts off very troubled and has little faith in himself that he will ever be able to recover and live a normal life. With determination and help from others, Tayo finally has the to heal- and he does! Little by little as Tayo rebalances the elements in his life and he realizes he is headed in the right direction. Sometimes, when the balance of order is disturbed and everything is spiraling downward, even then it's not too late. There is always a way to balance everything back out by fulfilling one's purpose.
This post has a much better analysis of style than the others. One additional thing I would consider, however, is who the narrator might be. A conclusion that we arrived at in my hour is that the narrator is a Laguna storyteller at some point in the future, telling Tayo's story just like the Laguna people tell the other stories in their mythos. I think this is valid because there are parallels between Tayo and the Sun Father and between his story and Laguna mythology. Can you find other evidence to support it?
ReplyDeleteYou broke the plot down pretty well, but I think you could add more to your character analyses. So far, you have their relationships to each other and maybe one more piece of information. I think you could analyze their personalities and behaviors a little more, and, in particular, who they parallel (if anyone) in the Laguna mythos.