There has come a time way back where race didn't matter and we all were one "tribal" group. Today starting from centuries ago we have come and reunited together and to not categorize races by putting ones in certain groups. As we all once knew white people was the favorable and minority group over all the other race groups but as we look back today they were like all the rest of the groups. Tayo holds a grin towards the white people and always has since they get first priority on everything they own. "For all the anger and frustration. And for the guilt too. Indians wake up every morning of their lives to see the land which was stolen, still there, within reach, its theft being flaunted. And the desire to stop them from destroying what they have taken"(Silko 118). Seeing these lands that were once owned by the Indians getting taken over by the white people is a piece of them that will be lost forever. Tayo blames the white people for stealing their lands forcing them to leave behind their memories and attributes in which they strived to obtain living on those specific lands."They want us to separate ourselves from the white people, to be ignorant and helpless as we watch our own destruction. But white people are only tools that the witchery manipulates; and I tell you, we can deal with white people, with their machines and their beliefs"(Silko 122). Race started to become a social construct where as a society gives people a certain meaning to which they are suppose to act upon those specific meanings. As it is mentioned earlier in the book that the Native Americans and the White were in separate schools teachers telling students untrue stories about each others' cultures. When this social construct had occurred the whites would have seniority getting the good jobs that paid well and owning lands taken away from the Native Americans that at one time called home. "The Gallup people knew they didn't have to pay good wages or put up with anything they didn't like, because there were plenty more Indians where these come from"(Silko 106). Indians were happy to have a job that paid but it was even better for the white people since they could pay them low wage. The Indians wouldn't argue to have a job because there are many others unemployed that would take a job if one was complaining about not getting paid enough. As we look back on times like these and realize that social construction gives everyone a new judgmental perspective on things.
Betonie is another important character in
The Ceremony. The Laguna Pueblo's medicine man, Ku'oosh that used to be Tayo's medicine man told Tayo to go see Betonie, a medicine man that is healing Tayo giving him new ceremonies in which Ku'oosh couldn't. "What kind of man lives in a place like that, in the foothills north of the Ceremonial Grounds? Auntie wanted to know. Grandma told her, never mind, Old man Ku'oosh knows him, and he thinks this man Betonie might help him"(Silko 107). Betonie is there to help Tayo with his healing but Auntie Thelma was very judgmental to begin with. She was quick to judge him on where Betonie lived and why he lived in such a poor neighborhood near the Navajo reservation. Betonie and Tayo have a strong connection because of their similarity in race. "Go ahead, old Betonie said, you can go. Most of the Navajos feel the same way about me. You won't be the first one to run away"(Silko 109). Betonie knows how Tayo feels to be a mix of different races. Being both Native American and white Betonie knows how it feels to not fit in. He's grown up in both the white and Native American societies and the whites targeted his race the most saying he didn't belong there. When Tayo finally comes to Betonie's house he noticed something very symbolic about a certain room in his house. "Tayo sat down, but he didn't take his eyes off the cardboard boxes that filled the big room; the sides of some boxes were broken down, sagging over with old clothing and rags spilling out; others were jammed with the antennas of dry roots and reddish willow twigs tied in neat bundles with old cotton strings"(Silko 110). This quote symbolizes oxymoron and that those boxes were there for a reason but contradicting specific terms that would usually not be paired together. Silko quotes this converting the meaning that at first Betonie comes across as being a hoarder to the readers. But actually Betonie placed those boxes in a specific placement that all fits together making the the hoarding room into a more symbolic room.
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