Ceremony Summary

Ceremony:

Author: Leslie Marmond Silko

Significant Characters:

Tayo: The main character, he is half white and half Laguna. He has recently come back from WW2 and is struggling with the aftermath of losing his cousin Rocky. He is symbol of the struggle of the people and how they can over come the white influence if they not only fight back peacefully but also adapt.

Betonie: A medicine man who helps Tayo complete his ceremony. He has a large amount of interaction with whites, which results in many distrusting him. He is very wise. He further symbolizes how both white and Laguna culture are needed to solve the problem of the corruption.

Josiah: Tayo’s uncle, he purchases cattle which Tayo helps to raise. He falls in love with a mexican woman named Night Swan. He teaches Tayo the native culture and treats him as a member of the family.

Rocky: Tayo’s adoptive brother and cousin. Rocky is the favorite and viewed by his mother as one to branch out and be successful in the world. He symbolizes the ideal that many Laguna hold, and his death represents where that route will take them.

Night Swan: Josiah’s girlfriend, she is strong willed and very attractive, she has sex with Tayo later in the story. She is the first of two major women in the story, showing the strong influence of women on a conflict that on the surface appears to be between men.

Harley: Tayo’s friend who came back from the war with a sever alcohol addiction. Harley

is the main of example of how not recognizing there is a problem will lead to your demise.

Emo: He along with the other Laguna who drink symbolize the white corruption on the Laguna and how fighting them only results in more destruction. Emo is a vet and has a large amount of resentment towards Tayo for his mixed blood. 

Ts’eh: She appears three times throughout Tayo’s journey to teach him important lessons. She represents how a strong female presence is necessary in order for them to be successful.

Setting: The Story has many different settings. Most of the story happens on the Laguna reservation, which Tayo needs to save from corruption. Another portion of the book occurs in the Philippines, showing the literal war and destruction that white culture causes. The uranium mine at the end of the novel is extremely important because it is Tayo’s final test and his completion of his ceremony, the uranium symbolizes the ultimate form of white destruction. 

Plot: Tayo is a young Laguna who has recently come back from WW2, he is damaged mentally and continually suffers. He cannot stop thinking of his dead cousin Rocky. He continually remembers the many influences on his life such as his uncle Josiah, Rocky, and Night Swan. These memories teach him lessons and slowly help him complete his ceremony, what is needed to cure him. The other veterans of the war have come back damaged too, but unlike Tayo they cling to alcohol, Emo being the most violent. As Tayo tries to cure himself they stand in the way. Eventually when Tayo is towards the end of his journey, Emo calls the police on him and Tayo is forced to hide, and eventually forced to watch them torture Harley to death. He emerges from all of this cured.

The style of ceremony is in a non-linear narrative. It constantly goes back and forth through time stringing memories together with the present in order to tell the story. It also has many poems and stories interjecting the text, they serve to give background information, put the story in a different light and foreshadow. The tone of the book is sad but there is hope shown throughout with Tayo’s continual redemption.

Quotes: 

"I was here almost a week before you came. How did you know I'd be here? Tell me that first." . Ts’eh is in tune with the land and native culture so she knows more and is more able to accomplish goals than Tayo, her probing into his knowledge is used to display how he is progressing on his route.

"because these goings-on around Laguna don't get me excited any more." She sighed, and laid her head back on the chair. "It seems like I already heard these stories before—only thing is, the names sound different." Grandma’s lines symbolize how the white corruption causes no new rebirth, no change, just never ending destruction, and how only through adaption and change can the Native people move past it.

Theme:

The theme of ceremony is that white culture has corrupted the native culture, and only through a return to old practices with modern adaption and influence can the corruption be removed.