Ceremony Ends

Tayo is nearing the end of his journey where I have begun to read. The conflict that he faces now is dealing with his Ceremony. His past, his present his future, his life. He has left home and is now staying with a woman. He is peaceful there, at first. Tayo’s dreams about the war in the jungle return. He dreams about Beutonie and he dreams about his past. The people of his village, like his grandmother, are worried that Tayo should come home. He has not been himself and needs to see another doctor. The story hasn’t reached it’s climax in my reading yet, but I believe it is when Tayo is hiding from the “Government”. Emo has told vicious stories and lies about how Tayo lives in some cave as a crazy man and there are now people after him. Tayo has changed into a man of care and more responsibility. He learned and or discovered that the fragmented events of his life are just events and do not make up who he is as a person. He looks back on the stories he was told by his uncle and by the medicine men and realizes that he is a part of the people and that the people fell apart because of foreign invasions, or white men. They were a strong, devoted people until outside forces drew them apart. Tayo must help the people of his family, his village, of his culture, realize that in order to gain peace amongst themselves, they must find peace with the white man. He begins by searching for Josiah’s cattle. Something so simple to help his family make more money. A gesture so small and possibly a waste of time for a man who is already dead.

I am just now beginning to get into and enjoy the story Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. I’m glad that I like it now (at the end), but I still wouldn’t recommend it to any one else.