The Ceremony(Pg.164-186)

     

New Beginnings 

          There are certain things that some people never believe that can be fixed but little do they know that that something can. For Tayo he felt that he couldn't fix his post traumatic stress healed from the war he once served in and experiences he had to deal with. "...feeling the instant of the dawn was an event which in a single moment gathered all things together--the last stars, the mountaintops, the clouds, and the winds--celebrating this coming. The power of each day spilled over the hills in great silence. Sunrise. he ended the prayer with "Sunrise" because he knew the Dawn, people began and ended all their words with "sunrise"."(Silk 169). In this quote "sunrise" plays a big symbolic roll expressing the fact that everything always end and begin again. This healing for Tayo indicates the past memories he has dealt with being in the war where "sunrise" symbolizes the start of venturing on to something new and "dawn" resembles the end to his past war experiences that has left him guilt and regret. But there's always something that can help by keeping his mind off of those specific things. "He did not expect to find Josiah's cattle near Herefords, because the spotted cattle were so rangy and wild; but without Betonie he wouldn't have hoped to find the cattle at all. Until the previous night, old Betonie's vision of stars, cattle, a woman, and a mountain had seemed remote; he had been wary, especially after he found the stars, and they were in the north"(Silko 173). Tayo had found healing through hunting and not drinking alcohol and realizing that there's something that can change the way he feels about his past actions without putting him in danger. Its as if finding the cattle is Tayo's escaping and forgetting the past in now focusing on what matters. "He had been so intent on finding the cattle that he had forgotten all the events of the past days and past years. Hunting the cattle was good for that. Old Betonie was right. It was a cure for that, and maybe for other things too. The spotted cattle wouldn't be lost any more, scattered through his dreams, driven by hesitation to admit they had been stolen, that the land--all of it-- had been stolen from them"(Silko 178). Tayo and his post traumatic stress has given him remembrance of the things that have put him through hell when he went to the war and this quote expressed the healing process in which Tayo has remembered things can be good again. And how it's okay to forget about the past and focus on the present and the things that matter to him. After Tayo's healing process with Betonie he came to the conclusion that he can focus on the good things in his life and new beginnings will come and go.

New Life

       

Mother Nature 

          Women today and in years past have always gotten a reputation to always look their best everywhere they went. And Ts'eeh a women Tayo meets isn't that typical girly girl who cares about what she wears. "She was wearing a man's shirt tucked into a yellow skirt that hung below her knees. Pale buckskin moccasins reached the edge of her skirt. The silver buttons up the side of each moccasin had railbirds carved on them"(Silko 164). She isn't trying to impress anyone like a typical women would her age. Tayo starts to begin by connecting with mother nature and relating it to this women and Night Swan. "He went on dreaming while he moved inside her, and when he heard her whisper, he saw them scatter over the crest of a round bare hill, running away from him, scattering out around him like ripples in still water"(Silko 168). This quote is describing Tayo's relationship with himself, this women, and Night Swan and how this all relates back to the symbolic aspect of the color blue and the ocean itself. "The dark yellow plant from the rocky mesa stop smelled like wet tobacco; she laid it beside the ocher sandstone. And then she pulled out a long vine covered with tiny white flowers with six sharp petals like fallen stars"(Silko 170). This represents nature and the process of how rocks become stone overtime by water. Throughout a rocks life span before becoming a stone it stumbles upon other objects when it moves through the water. It is known that sandstones are a form of a rock with a different shape and size to it. It slowly makes transitions from rock into a smooth stone and this expresses how this symbolizes Tayo transforming into a new and different man.

Transformation

The Ceremony( Pg. 141-163)

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.

Kimo Theater 

         

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.

A start to new beginning 

The Ceremony( Pg. 106-140)

         
         

          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.

The Ceremony Part Three

New beginnings 

          There comes a time in everyone's life where they are willing to find love wherever it may be. Whether it's old or young love people live to find love and cherish it. In The Ceremony, Josiah, Tayo's uncle finds love to this woman by the nick name of Night Swam. When seeing this Mexican women at Lalo's store, right then Josiah knew that this women was his everything. "By late July Josiah divided his time between the cattle, which were past Flower Mountain then, still heading southwest, and this woman"(Silko 78). His love for cattle didn't matter as much when he met this women. Before he ever met this women his first priority was to take care of his cattle, finding food for them and water for them to drink but now it's her that he cares about most. The Night Swan resembled the ocean whenever she made love to anyone. She was the symbol for the season of spring and the how it is the start of new beginnings. Racist as Josiah's sister, Auntie is he didn't care about what she thought as well as a lot of other people. "I try to tell him to stay with our own kind; but he doesn't listen to me. That woman is after anything she can get now"(Silko 85). The age that the Night Swan and Josiah are at Auntie thinks that the Josiah's girlfriend is not in it for the right reasons. Auntie thinks that the Night Swan is trying to find anything she can get since she's getting old. "He held out the note. She smiled, but she did not look at it, She looked at him" (Silko 90). Little does Josiah know that his nephew Tayo made love with his lover when giving her a note written by Josiah. And that's the society that we live in today. We get so caught up in love that the torture it is giving to one another whether it's family or friends is horrendous. That's when the society of divorce and cheating on a wife or a husband comes in ruins oneself's life.

Night Swan's rocking chair 

       

Abandonment

          After realizing why the Night Swan made love to Tayo that night before he went to war was because she wanted to make a statement to him. This was a new beginning for Tayo when he finally realized after the war his abandonment that was given to him. After his mother, Laura gave Tayo up and had to live with Auntie Thelma he started to feel insecure and ashamed of himself. "He didn't remember much: only that she had come after dark and wrapped in a man's coat-- it smelled like a man-- and there were men in the car with them: and she held him all the way..." (Silko 60) Laura having Tayo with a man of a different race made Tayo not a normal kind. Tayo felt abandonment from his mother and never knew why until after he came back from the war and looked back on the healing process he went through with the Night Swan. "Right as the sun came up, she walked under that big cottonwood tree, and I could see her clearly: she had no clothes on. Nothing. She was completely naked except for her high heel shoes. She dropped her purse under the tree"(Silko 65). Although Tayo's mother was a prostitute and an alcoholic Aunt Thelma told this to Tayo as a kid. It was like Auntie was blaming her shame on Tayo. There was never a time where Auntie would tell Tayo something good about his mother. "Auntie, he said softly, what did she look like before I was born? She reached behind the pantry curtains and began to rearrange the jars of peaches and apricots on the shelves, and he knew she was finished talking to him"(Silko 65). The way Auntie talks about Laura to Tayo is very poorly. She never likes to talk highly of her sister and that's because she got stuck with taking care of a kid that is not even her own race. The reason why Tayo's mother's abilities are not spoken from Auntie is because she wants Tayo to feel the abandonment and the "hatefulness" that she gave to her own child.

Cottonwood Tree

Reel Injun

        In many films, Native Americans have developed certain stereotypes that are found to be untrue and in the 1990's people started to finally recognize them as more humanlike. In films including Reel Injun, Iron Eyes Cody, The Cowboy, and even cartoon shows including Pocahontas that all portray false stereotypes and representing them in all the wrong ways. In films like these, Native Americans appear to live on reservations and dressed in a warrior like outfit to evoke the daily style of an average Native. By the makings of these targeted films on the Native Americans, people have become very racist towards them making fun of their languages, clothing, where they live, etc. Dances With Wolves and Little Big Man were two of the first films to start the non stereotype and taking the time to learn the Native's culture. "The Natives were fleshed out as characters and allowed to be see as more complete people, they weren't just warriors, they weren't just peaceful"(Reel Injun). In Dances With Wolves Native's weren't seen as their usual selves but more humanlike and after this film were released they finally were excepted as regular people. Although the Native's weren't in the spotlight they thought of it as progress for finally getting recognition for who they actually are as a person. On of the main characters in Dances With Wolves known as Graham Greene had to learn the language of the Lakota. Films before this one, Native actors would make up the Native's languages giving people the wrong impression to what the languages really sounded like. Even when this movie came out there were still false recognition to some Native nations. As Russell Means says, "To treat my nation like we don't know how to fight...we the Lakota, who are responsible for first nation to ever militarily defeat the United States of America on the field of battle and the Lawrence on the plains have to teach us how to fight" (Reel Injun). Although Dances With Wolves showed people a different side to Native Americans, Means was offended when he saw his own nation being shown as a nation that didn't know how to fight. Like all Native nations they all need to know how to fight but by giving the audience a different prospective on their ability to do things.

       Flags of Our Fathers another stereotype was recognized to be known as another Native American stereotype. Adam Beach a character from the film produced in 2006 played a drunkin' Native. As Adam said, "Ira Hayes was consumed by alcohol. I myself can't even attempt to drink one in a crowd because there's another drunk Indian. I've always called myself a child of an alcoholic so throughout the film you watch it that's me, that's not acting"(Reel Injun). This film has given Natives a new characteristic that they get drunk and so they will usually not drink in front of crowds fearing the judgement they will get from others. The results that are shown from this film is the insecurity about their ability to do what they want without being judged so they tend to not do it. "We don't always have to make great representations of Native people, were not asking for that, were not asking to be nobles or righteous or good all the time, were asking to be human"(Reel Injun). It has progressed throughout the years that Indians are becoming for humanized now that films today are becoming more and more realistic. Mostly all of the things stated in movies on Native Americans they are mostly likely to be misleading to viewers watching it. Today as more movies get produced about Indians the more practical people get about Natives and how they are just like everyone else.
  In other films such as

       

The Ceremony Part Two

          A relationship can have different meanings to them whether it's a good one or not. In The Ceremony Tayo and his Aunt have an abnormal relationship with each other. Auntie being a controlling oldest daughter of her family tries to take care of her household while at the same time tries to be a motherly like figure to Tayo. Although Tayo and Auntie are family members and since Tayo is Native American and Auntie is a strong christian it causes some problems with their relationship. "Those who measured life by counting the crosses would not count her sacrifies for Rocky the way they counted her sacrifices for her dead sister's half-breed child"(Silko 27). Auntie being as christian as she says she is comes across not so christian like the way she acts with Tayo. As she says "half-breed child" she is de-humanizing Tayo and putting him in a dog or animal like form which explains how Auntie acts and speaks towards Tayo. Auntie is described as a problematic character that causes a lot of trouble throughout Tayo's life. When Tayo comes home from World War II Auntie tries to be loving and caring towards him. "... and he realized then she changed the beds as if Josiah and Rocky still slept there, tucking the dark wool blankets around the corners of the clean sheets, stuffing the pillows into starched white pillowcases she had ironed the day before"(Silko 28). This quote describes the relationship between Rocky and Auntie and comparing it to the relationship with her and Tayo's. By Auntie setting up the bed and making everything look perfect is a way of showing that her relationship with Tayo is good but in reality it's not so good on the inside. It's if the only way Auntie can control the way things look as perfect but can't do anything to get rid of the appearance of Tayo being present in her life. She's comparing Tayo as a stain in a shirt that can never be removed and having to deal with the consequences forever. "All that gossip about Josiah and about Little Sister, Girls around here have babies by white men all the time now, and nobody says anything. Men run around with with Mexicans, and even worse, and nothing is ever said"(Silko 30). This was shown as an example of transferred oppression. As in Auntie is getting so anger with the different cultured relationships growing around her that she's pushing her anger onto Tayo and targeting his Native American culture.

          When one chooses to go to war they have to deal with the consequences of wearing a certain uniform. They are given the privilege to be treated with respect by fighting for other's lives. When Tayo and his cousin Rocky were fighting in World War II they wore American uniforms. Everyone around them recognized them as regular American soldiers but didn't recognize that they both were Native Americans behind the uniforms. "The war was over, the uniform was gone. All of a sudden that man at the store waits on you last, makes you wait until all the white people bought what they wanted. And the white lady at the bus depot, she's real careful now not to touch your hand when she counts out your change"(Silko 39). When the war was over they weren't treated with the same respect they were treated while in the war. People didn't care about who they once were. When the uniforms weren't worn by them anymore they didn't get recognized the same. In Dance With Wolves First Lieutenant Dunbar wore a uniform when he faced the Sioux Nation and they acknowledged him in a different way than they would if he weren't wearing his uniform. "The first day in Oakland he and Rocky walked down the street together and a big Chrysler stopped in the street and an old white woman rolled down the window and said, "God bless you, God bless you," but it was the uniform, not them, she blessed"(Silko 38). The old women didn't notice the race in which the men were only the country that they represented and that changed the way she acknowledge them. It's interesting to observe the actions people make to an American soldier dressed in uniform to a regular American man or woman when roaming the streets because it would probably relate to when Tayo and Rocky got noticed. Today, people easily acknowledge soldiers dressed in uniform and treat them with more respect than a usual American. Recognizing and thanking those soldiers for what they achieve greatly is a heroic thing but at the same time should always give respect to the people who deserve it the most because of their race.  

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.