C E R E M O N Y

John L I U Mishay K A L A N Devin H E S S Scott C H O E

Peter J O H N S O N

Historical Context

Effects of Uranium exposure

Exposure to uranium can result in both chemical and radiological toxicity...

...The uranium compounds are filtered by the kidneys, where they can cause damage to the kidney cells.

Very high uranium intakes (ranging from about 50 to 150 mg depending on the individual) can cause acute kidney failure and death.

DICTION & SYNTAXPg 168 One of them had pissed, and the rubber mat at Leroy's feet was wet, and with the windows rolled up the urine smell steamed around him. 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 heaving belly, trying to vomit out everythingall the past, all his life. -Chaoticdirty (pissed, urine, vomit, etc) -Excrete out his past?

It was summertime Iktoa'ak'o'yaReed Woman and Iktoa'ak'o'yaReed Woman went away then was always taking a bath. she went back She spent all day long to the original place sitting in the river down below. splashing down the summer rain. And there was no more rain then. Everything dried up But her sister all the plants Corn Woman the corn worked hard all day the beans sweating in the sun they all dried up getting sore hands and started blowing away in the corn field. in the wind. Corn Woman got tired of that she got angry The people and the animals she scolded were thirsty. her sister They were starving. for bathing all day long.

"Old Betonie pointed at a woolly brown goatskin on the floor below the sky hole. Tayo sat down, but he didn't take his eyes off the cardboard boxes that filled the big room; the sides of some spilling out; others were jammed with the antennas of dry roots and reddish willow twigs tied in the neat bundles with old cotton strongs. The boxes were stacked crookedly, some stacks leaning into others, with only their opposing angles holding them steady. Inside the boxes without lids, the erect brown string handles of shopping bags poked out; piled to the tops of the WOOLWORTH bags were bouquets of dried sage and the brown leaves of mountain tobacco wrapped in swaths of silvery unspun wool. -Native American Imagery

...continued from last slide He could see bundles of newspapers, their edges curled stiff and brown, barricading piles of telephone books with the years scattered among cities--St. Louis, Seattle, New York, Oakland-and he began to feel another dimension to the old man's room. His heart beat faster, and he felt the blood draining from his legs. He knew the answer before he cold shape the question. Light from the door worked paths through the thick bluish green glass of the Coke bottles; his eyes followed the light until he dizzy and sick. He wanted to dismiss all of it as an old man's rubbish, debris that had fallen out of the years, but the boxes and trunks, the bundles and stacks were plainly part of the pattern: they followed the concentric shadows of the room." -White people imagery

"The rain rattled on the rusted tin roof, and rainwater leaked out of the rain gutter and splashed off the porch railing."

The Scalp Ceremony lay to rest the Japanese souls in the green humid jungles, and it satisfied the female giant who fed on the dreams of warriors. but there was something else now, as Betonie said: it was everything they had seen--the cities, the tall buildings, the noise and the lights, the power of their weapons and machines. They were never the same after that: they had seen what the white people had made from the stolen land. It was the story of the white shell beads all over again, the white shell beads, stolen from a grave and found by a man as he walked along a trail one day. 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 the branches of a pion tree. And although he had never touched them, they haunted him; all he could think of, all he dreamed of, were these white shell beads hanging in that tree. He could not eat, and he could not work. He lost touch with the life he had lived before the day he found those beads; and the man he had been before that day was lost somewhere on that trail where he first saw the beads. Every day they had to look at the land, from horizon to horizon, and every day the loss was with them; it was the dead unburied, and the morning of the lost going on forever. So they tried to sink the loss in booze, and silence their grief with war stories about their courage, defending the land they had already lost.

The canyon was the way he always remembered it; the beeweed plants made the air smell heavy and sweet like wild honey, and the bumblebees were buzzing around waxy yucca flowers. The leaves of the cottonwood trees that crowded the canyon caught reflections of the afternoon sun, hundreds of tiny mirrors flashing. He blinked his eyes and looked away to the shade below the cliffs where the rabbit brush was green and yellow daisies were blooming. The people said that even in the driest years nobody could ever remember a time when the spring had dried up." -Descriptive, natural -Only place that was always green. This place could grow despite the drought.

-Main character, protagonist, war veteran, Sarahs son -Tayo is dying at the hands of the white doctors because their medicine is making him forget his Native American stories. -His survival is dependent on key on his ability to keep telling the story, to continue the circulations of narration and words that make up the Native American culture. -He is half white and half Native American. To many Native Americans, he is a symbol of the dismantling of their culture because he is not fully one of them. -His struggle is a lack of personal identity. He is lost, shifting in between the borders of cultures without a firm ground underneath him. DEVELOPMENT: He changed from a mental state of mind to one of peace with himself and culture. -At the beginning of the book, he suffered from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. He had many bad memories about the war, and also about the deaths of his two favorite people, Rocky and Josiah. -During the middle of the book, Betonie perfoms a ceremony to cure him. This brings Tayo closer to feeling accepted as a half-breed, but he needs time to become fully cured. He tries to find ways to feel alive again. -At the end of the book, Tayo is completely cured. He now feels like he is a part of a culture. He is now able to accept himself as a halfbreed and now he believes he is a real person with emotions and feelings. Mexican eyes, he said, the other kids used to tease me..When they look at me they remember things that happened. My mother. (99)

Tayo

Rocky -Tayos cousin, Aunties son -He attempts to exit the Native American culture to live in the white culture. -He shuns ceremonies, ancient beliefs, and traditions -He represents the younger Native American generation whose cultural bonds are becoming weaker. -When he is in the war, he is free from all his Native American connections, which causes his death. They told him, Nothing can hold you back except one thing: dont let the people at home hold you back. Rocky understood what he had to do to win in the white outside world.(51)

Auntie (Thelma)-Rockys mother, Roberts wife -Makes Tayo feel like he doesnt belong in the family. -She is completely pro-white; she pushes Rocky into the white culture. -She cares about what people think of her family. She saw it as her only chance too, after all the village gossip about her family. When Rocky was a success, no one would dare to say anything against them anymore.

Grandma -Auntie and Josiahs mother -Does not care what other people care about the family. -Grandma is virtually blind, her sight extends beyond the vision of many of her children and grandchildren. Her strong will not to see, to not change, helps save Tayo in the end. -She believes in old cultural remedies. She doesnt believe that the Army doctors will save him. Instead old medicine men are the only people who can save Tayo. -She exemplifies the older generation who embrace ceremonies, but she also represents the older generation that refuses to change in a technologically advanced world.

Harley and Leroy-Tayos friends -They are the stereotypical Native American war veterans. Both of them drank away all of their terrible war memories. Liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and choked-up throats.(40)

Emo -The antagonist -He makes Tayo feel inferior to all of the true Native Americans. He thinks hes something all right. Because hes part white. Dont you halfbreed?(57)

Betonie

-A medicine man -Lives in the foothills north of the Ceremonial Grounds, overlooking the white town. -He is in between both societies (White and Native American) because of his contact with both cultures. -He does Native American ceremonies, but he uses modern techniques to do it. This shows that he is traditional, but he has had to create a newer ceremony that will answer the needs of the world today. Old Betonies place looked down on all of it; from the yellow sandrock foothills the whole town spread out below.(116-117)

Foils

Get it?

Grandma and Auntie -Auntie is pro-white, while Grandma is proIndian -Auntie pushes Rocky to change, while Grandma wont step away from her roots. -Auntie thinks about what people think of her family, while Grandma doesnt. -They are contrasts of each other. Auntie made Tayo feel like he isnt a part of their family or even the Native American culture. Grandma is trying to save Tayo from Aunties negative effects. She calls on traditional medicine men to cure her grandson, and make him feel connected to his true roots.

Tayo and Rocky -Tayo, who is part white, wants to feel accepted in the Native American culture. -Rocky, who is all Indian, wants to become accepted in the White culture. -That is the reason why Rocky died during the war in the Philippines. While he was far away from his true roots, he dies. Tayo survived because he still brought his native culture with him to the war. This contrast makes Tayo appear as a stronger character than Rocky because he was able to survive during the war.

Jungle in the Philippines -Dark and humid -Creates an atmosphere of illness and death. -The rain and greenness of the jungle represent death and decay. Jungle rain lay suspended in the air, choking their lungs as they marched.(11)

Setting

Laguna Pueblo Reservation -Creates an atmosphere of vitality and support, the idea that humankind and the land are interconnected. -The rain in the reservation represents life. This only occurs after Tayo has visited Betonie. As far as he could see, in all directions, the world was alive.(221)

The setting of the story is connected to Tayos illness. When Tayo is in the jungle, everything around him is causing him to become ill. When he in on the reservation, his condition improves and will ultimately become cured. This characterizes Tayo because he does not die. By staying true to his native roots, he is able to survive the war and become accepted as one of his people. Tayo is ill= Setting is dark and has a negative atmosphere Tayo is cured= Setting is full of life. Rockys death is also a part of the setting. When he is in the jungles of the Philippines, he dies. This characterizes Rocky because it shows that he cannot survive away from his native roots. Rocky couldnt survive in this war, which is a metaphor in which he could not survive in a white world. If they saw how weak Rocky had

Imagery, Symbolism, and Motifs in Ceremony

Imagery -Throughout the novel Silko uses extended use of describing the colors and textures of the nature surrounding the scene. Silko does this to show the importance of the land and nature in Native American cultures. It also helps, in some parts of the novel, to make the reader feel what Tayo sees and experiences. -Jungle rain had no beginning or end; it grew like foliage from the sky, branching and arching to the earth (11) -The cloudy yellow sandstone of Enchanted Mesa was still smoky blue before dawn, and only a faint hint of yellow light touched the highest point of the mesa. (237) -He inhabited a gray winter fog on a distant elk mountain where hunters are lost indefinitely and their own bones mark the boundaries. (15)

Symbolism in 1. Cows Ceremony --[Cattle] They are scared because the land is

unfamiliar and they are lost. They dont stop being scared either, even when they look quiet and they quit running (74). --The cattle are symbolic of Tayo because he has become very lost and confused in his own identity. He also has become unfamiliar with the Earth and the Native American traditions. Even when his vomiting stops, he is still not okay and still needs a new ceremony. --The cattle Josiah bought are symbolic of Tayo because they are of mixed blood, like Tayo, and built to withstand droughts. This is a foreshadowing of Tayo curing himself. They were tall and had long thin legs like deer; their heads long and angular; their heads were long and angular, with heavy bone across the eyes supporting wide sharp horns (75). These cows represent Tayo because he feels his body doesnt fit. Tayos bones did not fit (31). These cattle often try to run away a lot like

2. Night Swan --Represents nature and the land -He could smell her before he even could see her; the perfume smelled like the ivory locust blossoms that hung down from the trees (97). wind -she was like the rain and the

-During Tayos visit to the Night Swan there is constant reminder of the weather. The rain pounded louder on the tin roof(98) Outside the thunder sounded like giant boulders cracking loose from the high cliffs and crashing into narrow canyons (98).

3. Rocky/Auntie/Emo -These three characters represent the degeneration of the traditional values in Native American cultures. -They symbolized the newer generation that has become detached from the older traditions and have assimilated more into white culture. -Rocky -Rocky deliberately avoided the old-time ways (51). -When the two are gutting the deer Rocky begins to gut the deer but then Tayo took off his jacket and covered the deers head (50). Rocky asks Tayo why he does this and its due to respect of the deer, which Rocky has seemed to disregard. -Rocky did not last however, showing that in the end, assimilating into white culture will not get you anywhere since he dies in the war. -Emo -Displays the newer generation of Native Americans who forget about their ancestry. -Emo liked to say, Look what is here for us. Look. Heres the Indians mother earth! Old dried-up thing! (25) -Auntie -she was a Christian woman (30). -You know what the Army doctor said: No Indian medicine (34) -Both of these quotes are from Auntie and show her beliefs in the Native traditions, she has become a symbol of the white beliefs.

4. Grandma -Grandma embodies the old traditional beliefs of the Native Americans. She is the one who decides for Tayo to see a medicine man. That boy needs a medicine man. (33) -She often tells stories to Tayo about the traditional Native American values. -But old Grandma always used to say, Back in time immemorial, things were different, the animals could talk to human beings and many magical things still happened.(94-95)

5. The Two Cowboys -When Tayo is searching for the cattle he encounters two cowboys that patrol the fences of property. These two symbolize the typical racism Indians faced during the time. -These goddamn Indians got to learn whose property this is! (202) lands. -Ironic saying when the Indians used to roam these

-Even after he throws up, the two decide to go look for a mountain lion rather than help him and just leave him out in the plain. This symbolizes the lack of sympathy that the white culture has for Indians and the suffering they have gone through.

Motifs in Ceremony1. Alcohol -This is a huge motif in the novel and is a false medicine and ceremony for the Native American characters in the book. It helps the characters escape from the reality and try to take away the war. -Liquor was medicine for the anger that made them hurt, for the pain of the loss, medicine for tight bellies and choked-up throats. (55) -Tayo pushed a ten dollar bill across the table. More beer please, he said. (40) -Belonging was drinking and laughing with the platoon. (43) -Start drinking! Were gonna have a party! (239) -Beer made the feeling recede and slowed

2. Vomiting -Throughout the novel, Tayo vomits a lot, especially in the beginning when he is most sick. He tries to throw up not because of an illness, but rather because he is trying to throw up his past and get rid of it. He rubbed his belly. / I keep them here [stories] (2). -he could not feel anything except a swelling in his belly, a great swollen grief that was pushing into his throat. (9) -He smelled the disinfectant then, the urine and the vomit, and he gagged. (16) -he leaned against the brick wall and vomited into the big garbage can. (18) -He could still see the face of the little boy, looking back at him, smiling, and he tried to vomit that image from his head because it was Rockys smiling face from a long time before (18) -Tayo leaned over and vomited all over the

3. Stories -The whole novel is a story, alongside stories in poem form from Native Americans, and the characters tell stories. -This one just told them to listen: / What I have is a story. (135) -Everywhere he looked, he saw a world made of stories, the long ago, time immemorial stories, as old Grandma called them. (95) -I will tell you something about stories....They are all we have, you see / all we have to fight off illness and death. (2)

-In Navajo culture, the number four represents: 1. The four mountains that surround the land and directions -Mount Taylor- Sacred Mountain of the South -Mount BlancaSacred Mountain of the East -San Francisco Peaks- Sacred Mountains of the West -Mount Big Mountain Sheep- Sacred Mountain of the North -The mountains from all the directions had been gathered there that night (145).

4

--Examples throughout Ceremony

4

-Tayos mother leaves him as a child at the age of four. -In one of the poems on page 72 it repeats this phrase four times After four days you will be alive. -In the poems in the stories the Hummingbird and Fly have to travel to the fourth world below (151). -The brand on Josiahs cattle They added Aunties brand, a rafter 4 (81). -We went into this bar on 4th Ave., see, (54) -sprinkled pinches of yellow pollen into the four footprints. (196) -it would be twenty-five minutes before the train left on track four (16) -But he the constellation in the north sky, and the fourth star was directly above him (247)

4

2. The number of seasons

4

The Sacred Colors-Yellow- West, San Francisco Peaks -The gray stone was streaked with powdery yellow uranium, bright and alive as pollen. (246) -To the west the yellow sandstone cliffs were beginning to catch the light. (237) - The cloudy yellow sandstone of Enchanted Mesaonly a faint hint of yellow light touched the highest point of the mesa. (237) -Blue- South, Mount Taylor -feeling colored by the blue flowers painted in a border around the walls. He could feel it everywhere, even in the blue sheets that were stretched tightly across the bed.(98) -He had long strings of sky-blue turquoise in his ears (207) -White- East, Mount Blanca -.drew dusty white stripes across the back of his hands, the way ceremonial dancers sometimes did, except they used white clay (104) -He wore his hair long, tied back with white cotton string in the old style the men used to wear. (207) - the stark white gypsum dust making a spotted pattern and then he knew why it was done by the dancers: it connected them to the earth (104)

-Black- North, Mount Big Mountain Sheep -the canyons and valleys were thick powdery black; their variations of height and depth were marked by a thinner black color. (145)

6. Webs -The stories connect the web together and help heal people and the earth. - Spider-Woman in the beginning of the novel is thinking of a story and is telling us that story like creating a web. -The word he chose to express fragile was filled with the intricacies of a continuing process, and with a strength inherent in spider webs woven across paths through sand hills where early in the morning the sun becomes entangled in each filament of web. - He cried the relief he felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit together- the old stories, the war stories, their stories- to become the story that

Tone-3rd person -Bitter, angry, and somber, and optimistic

"She had a way of saying it, a tone of voice which bitterly told the story, and the disgrace she and the family had suffered". (p.65) "How do you like living a Paguate now?" looking angry as she said it. "His had didn't hurt either; the blood felt like warm water trickling down his fingers. He didn't feel anything". (p.63) "He pressed his face into the pillow and pushed his head hard against the bed frame. He cried, trying to release the great pressure that was swelling inside his chest, but he got no relief from crying anymore. The pain was solid and constant as the beating of his own heart." (p.38) "The tiny apples hung on that way; they didn't seem to fall, even in strong wind. He could eat regular food. He seldom vomited anymore. Some nights he even slept all night without the dreams" (p.39)

Figurative LanguageSimile"They scattered like dry leaves" (65) Personification"The odors wrapped around him in a thin clear layer that sucked away the substance of his muscle and hones" (195) Sensory Image" The air felt damp and cold like the ground after the snow has melted into it, making it dense and rich". (p.189) Allusion"These good times were courtesy of the U.S. government and the Second World War. Cash from disability checks earned with shrapnel in the neck at Wake Island or shell shock on Iwo Jima; rewards for surviving the Bataan March". (p.40)

Structure1. Novel is divided into 10 sections, has no real chapters. 2. Chronological order is established as Tayo completes his ceremony. a. Beginning of story jumps around from past to present to future -No, they say coffee is bad for you. He laughed, and Tayo smiled because Harley didnt 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. But Tayo could remember that time in the eighth grade when they had followed old Benny to see where he kept his wine (then back to) Harley squatted down besides Tayo. He traced little figures in the dirt by his feet. b. Tayos thoughts are less sporadic at novels end. him. -California, Tayo repeated softly, thats a good place for

3. The Ceremony that Betonie performed on Tayo is what saved him and restored the structure. 4. Pueblo Indians believe life is cyclical. They believed certain events repeat themselves in life. The story is non linear and shifts from time period to time period. Silko writes it this way in reflection of that

FLASHBACKS 1. Tayo feels guilty because he believes he is responsible for Rocky and Josiahs deaths. This is experienced through flashbacks. a. The flashbacks are what make him sick -He was tired of fighting off the dreams and the voices; he was tired of guarding himself against places and things which evoked the memories. 2. Tayo has flashbacks about other bad experiences in his life as well. b. He often remembers how his mother died and what affects it had on his life. -He remembered when his mother died. It had been dry then too. The day they buried her the wind blew gusts of sand past the house and rattled the loose tin on the roof. He never forgot that sound and the sand, stinging his face at the graveyard while he stood close to Josiah Josiah held his hand as they walked away from the graveyard.He told him not to cry anymore c. Emo is another bad aspect of Tayos life. -He got stronger with every jerk that Emo made, and

POETRY 1. Poetry is a parallel to the novel a. The poems have something to do with the events or people that are in the novel at the time. -It has stiffened, with the effects of its own witchery. It is dead for now. -Its witchery, has returned, into his belly. 2. Poems represent Native American culture and ways of storytelling, while prose represents whites. a. The prose is encompassed by the poetry, -representative of Native Americans witchery that created whites. b. Similarities between two stories = agreement between N. American and white harmony - Prose and poetry go well together, interconnecting.