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| Bar where Harley and Leroy picked up Helen Jean |
After a late night out Tayo's friends Harley and Leroy picked up a young woman by the name of Helen Jean from a bar. Helen playing a major role in the
Ceremony is a typical Native American who is trying to find a job that would be able to pay for her rent and ended up getting pulled into the the prostitution aspect of it all. "The way the men looked at her tensed Tayo's hands into fists. He didn't feel the fun or the laughter any more. His back was rigid; he sat down stiffly in the chair Leroy pulled out for him. Harley kept Helen Jean between himself and Tayo, and away from Leroy"(Silko 148). Tayo started to realize that Helen Jean represents his mother by the way she presents herself to men and how men were all over her. He is very protective over Helen because of the similarity he felt between his mother and Helen."Monday she borrowed Elaine's blue dress, and she went down to the Kimo theater to apply for the job they advertised in the theater window...She looked at the doors that said PRIVATE and OFFICE and tried to imagine what the desks looked like and what kind of typewriter they had... At the end of the corridor he pulled open a door, and she saw a push broom, and a scrub bucket"(Silko 150). Helen Jean finds herself to be an intelligent human being that could do a job that any other white people could do. But being a Native American like she is coming from the Towac reservation she was treated the same as any other Indian would be treated. By the end of her recognition of the low paying wage and her boss that wanted sexual appearance from Helen Jean she decided to quit. She thought that her ability as a typewriter was so superior to the rest of her race that she could find a job that would top all the rest of them would ever dream about.
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| Kimo Theater |
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| Transformation from bad to good |
Healing in different variations follows the same rebuilding process in a certain situation which in this case Tayo is healing from his post-traumatic stress that he gained in his experience in World War II. After his transformation from Ku'oosh to Betonie his current medicine man he has begun his healing process."He thought it might be old Betonie telling him to get on his way, telling him that he'd slept too long and there were the cattle to find, and the stars, the mountain, and the woman"(Silko 155). Betonie was telling Tayo that he needs to live and not regret his life choices he made and live in the moment by not letting his past hold him back. One night after drinking the pain away Tayo learned that enough was enough."He gagged as he pushed the door open, and something gave way in his belly. He vomited out everything he had drunk with them, and when that was gone, he was still kneeling on the road beside the truck, holding his heavy belly, trying to vomit out everything--all the past, all his life"(Silko 156). Although this specific healing process of escaping the alcoholism portion of his life was painful and hard he knew it was the right thing to do. After this experience Tayo felt like it was a cleansing for him and his body and just getting rid of all the bad stuff that he has put himself in. Sometimes it can be very crucial knowing that the past is the past and letting things go is okay."He carried the beautiful white shell beads on the end of a stick because he suspected where they came from; he left them hanging in them, they haunted him; all he could think of, all he dreamed of, were these white shell beads hanging in that tree...He lost touch with the life he had lived before the day he was lost somewhere on that trail where he first saw the beads"(Silko 157). During this process of healing Tayo biggest concern is letting go of the past. In this quote this white shell beads symbolizes an experience that he can't forget about whether or not he decides he wants to or not. All of this evil is haunting him and following him wherever he went.
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| A start to new beginning |
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