The Ceremony

          Today, many go through a daily routine of trying to numb one's pain and emotions by doing something that's simply just blocks every memory from them for a certain amount of time. The effect that war gives on oneself comes off to be one of the most brutal and painful experiences one has ever dealt with.  Many veterans try to forget about these specific emotions they have towards the war and the experiences but tends to stick with them forever. It's hard to let go of what happened in the past especially when seeing one get killed right before their very eyes. The post traumatic stress and depression tends to appear in every living veteran. In the book The Ceremony written by Leslie Silko several examples are shown throughout the first couple of pages the biggest way to get rid of those thoughts is to drink. "No, they say  coffee is bad for you. He laughed, and Tayo smiled because 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 a lot of beer now"(Silko 18). Tayo and his childhood friend, Harley are veterans from World War II that have dealt with post traumatic stress for years. Tayo being a good friend that he always is to Harley tries to help Harley out with his addiction to alcohol from the outcome of the war. Before the war, Harley didn't use to like beer but since then the effect of him fighting in the war it left him with nothing but bad thoughts. "The sound of the rain got louder, pounding on the leaves, splashing into the ruts; it splattered on his head, and the sound echoed inside his skull"(Silko 11). This quote is an example of how often post traumatic stress can relate to the smallest of things. And how the thumping of rains drops can remind oneself about the bullets going off non stop. "It was all worse than he had ever dreamed: to have drifted all those months in white smoke, only to wake up again in the prison camp"(Silko 15). The white smoke was a western medicine made from plants that would help soldiers with their pain and help the process of their healing.

          Weather can change a mood in an instant such as raining can changes ones emotion to be sad or tired where as if it's sunny it make one feel happy and energetic. Different people act different ways according to the weather but every climate switches ones mood dramatically. In the book it starts off with a drought and how the dryness in Gallup Ceremonies has effected Tayo and all the rest of the people living there. The drought brings back the memories and flashbacks of fighting in the war and the reservation having a dry climate. "Jungle rain had no beginning or end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching to the earth, sometimes in solid thickets entangling the islands, and, other times, in tendrils of blue mist curling out of coastal clouds"(Silko 10). When rain pours after a drought its a happy thing. During a drought everything is very dry, dead, and yellow but when water comes it makes everything green and alive and turns the mood around. "...it was for dry air, dry as a hundred years squeezed out of yellow sand, air to dry out the oozing wounds of Rocky's leg, to let the torn flesh of broken bones breathe, to clear the sweat that filled Rocky's eyes"(Silko 10). The drought dried everything up. Although Rocky had died from the Japanese grenade the drought had helped him heal his wounds letting them dry up and letting his bones breathe. "...if they saw how weak Rocky had become, and came to crush his head with the butt of the rifle, then it would be the rain and the green all around that killed him"(Silko 10). Tayo had blamed the rain for the death of his friend Rocky and how the rain had made him sick and everyone else around him. Ever since Rocky's death in the rainfall Tayo has had a remembrance of the rain and the green nature surroundings that always triggers back to Rocky. Tayo's mood changes dramatically always coming back to a recognition to World War II.