Finding Meaning In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

592 Words3 Pages
In my opinion this work shows the problems of societies’ fear over change and consequences of it on people. Therefore, people face trauma which they have to go through and heal themselves over time. Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko was published in 1977 in United States. The book was written for wide variety of audience, especially those who like to read about the Native American culture. Since it was a first novel to be published by Native American women, Ceremony gained high criticism and popularity. Her work is influenced on her personal experience of a Native American. The set in the book is the same to Laguna Pueblo reservation where Silko grew up. In the book she shows her concerns with the preservation of Native American culture and traditions, as well as the problem from mixing of different…show more content…
Storytelling is a big theme of the book. Ceremony is based on traditional Native American stories through poems. These poems are reference to Native American traditional character, place, and event. Ceremony opens with “I will tell you something about stories/ [he said]/They aren't just entertainment. /Don't be fooled. /They are all we have, you see, /all we have to fight off/illness and death. /You don't have anything /if you don't have the stories." This poem is a defense of storytelling. The poem argues that storytelling is a way of protecting self and culture as well as a way of making the world. For the main protagonist Tayo, these stories represent Native American understanding of the world. On the other hand, white school and the army as well as doctors tried to convince him the opposite. Teachers taught him different point of view on everything. However, through ceremonies he had practiced with Betonie helped him to recover from his PTSD and reconnect with his culture. These stories taught Tayo that he was not alone but he was connected with whole
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