Character Conflict

Tayo, the main character of Ceremony is having a problem with his mental health and having someone to understand and help him. The types of conflicts that he experiences in the story are man v. self and man v. society. This is caused by the lack of a therapist, psychologist, and or psychiatrist after war and after the childhood he’s lived. Most of the conflict appears to be man v. society until he goes to see a medicine man who kind of forces Tayo to continue to battle himself, but without the physical illness, or the terrible flashbacks, or the drinking, or the anger. I think that in the end Tayo’s problems will be resolved when he realizes that he is at no fault for anything that’s happened to him. My favorite scene thus far is the scene where Tayo has just left the medicine man cleansing and gets into a truck with his friends and a strange woman and starts his bad habits all over again. It’s funny how people turn around so quickly. This scene shows how Tayo has not resolved one bit of his conflict and/or life and the book/story is almost over. Even as I become more interested in the novel, I am disappointed. He runs back to the people who enable his depression. I’m tired as hell, these blog entries are coming out crappy, and that’s the voice in my heart speaking, not in my head. I hope I don’t have to have a peer read or see this. If I read it to her (all of my group members are girls), I’ll change some things. I really hope Tayo figures out his purpose, because he’s going to drive himself to an early grave by drinking. It could be suicide, an accident, or an altercation with someone else, but I don’t see him surviving without becoming more sure of himself. I want to tell him that it’s not his fault. That nothing is and that he will be okay, better if he lets things go. I feel so shitty right now.