Kaitlyn Richardson INQ-271-G1 Dr. Srikanth Mallavarapu April 18, 2024 Reflection Essay: Cultural Difference in Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is a touching exploration of cultural difference, weaving a tapestry of loss, resilience, and the enduring power of tradition. Through Tayo, a Laguna Pueblo man grappling with the psychological wounds of war, Silko paints a vivid portrait of a community confronting the invasion of white society and the erosion of their traditions. For this essay, I want to reflect on the lessons learned about cultural difference from Ceremony, focusing on the significance of cultural heritage, the burden of historical trauma, and the potential for healing through cultural revitalization. One of the most striking …show more content…
This quote emphasizes the interconnectedness between the Laguna people and their environment. The land is not simply a resource to be exploited, but a living entity with which they share a reciprocal relationship. Ceremonies like the hunt blessing become rituals that reaffirm this connection and ensure the community’s well-being. These ceremonies, passed down through generations, function as a form of cultural memory, reminding the Laguna people of their history, values, and place within the natural world. However, the ceremony doesn’t shy away from depicting the harsh realities of cultural differences. The arrival of white settlers disrupts the Laguna way of life. Forced assimilation policies like the Indian boarding schools systematically aimed to eradicate their traditions and language, replacing them with Eurocentric values. This is evident when “the teachers at Indian schools taught him not to believe in that kind of “nonsense”” (Silko 18). This disrespect for Laguna rituals highlights the destructive nature of cultural domination. The violence of war further exacerbates these
“A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.” - Laozi. In Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, Tayo’s journey is being told. The reader travels in time with Tayo to experience pre and post war living, and to an extent, the role Native Americans play during that era. Through Tayo’s life, we see the importance of storytelling, and how without it, a culture is lost. Silko uses Tayo’s perception as a template to explain how storytelling guides a person mentally, strengthens a person physically
richness of Silko’s Ceremony Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is the extraordinary tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Native American in his long quest to cure the suffering that afflicts him and his people. The novel is complex enough that it can be interpreted in the context of starkly different paradigms, each highlighting important facets of the story. For instance, in the article “Feminine perspectives at Laguna Pueblo: Silko’s Ceremony,” Edith Swan offers a (symbolic) analysis of the plethora of
The Value of Narrative in Ceremony The story is the most powerful and most compelling form of human expression in Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony. Stories reside within every part of every thing; they are essentially organic. Stories are embedded with the potential to express the sublime strength of humanity as well as the dark heart and hunger for self destruction. The process of creating and interpreting stories is an ancient, ongoing, arduous, entangled, but ultimately rewarding experience
Throughout many novels and films, authors have used the idea of ceremonies to show their characters progression and healing be it from PTSD or loss of identity. Novels like ceremony and Films such as smoke signals, bury my heart at Wounded Knee as well as john trundles poetry represent Native American perspective on these issues. In the novel ceremony the author Leslie Marmon Silko uses the Indian ceremonies to show the progress of an Indian (taco) who has returned from the war with PTSD and is
privileges granted to those who are white particularly in Western culture. In the novel Ceremony by Lesli Marmon Silko captures white privilege through the highlighted differences between whites and Native Americans. The narrator Tayo is aware of the privileges that whites have in comparison to Native Americans. Tayos awareness of racism is identified by his examination of the U.S. Army uniform, his analysis of Floyd Lee, and his inspection of Leroy 's truck. Tayo has been suffering
main styles of writing; Puritan and Classical. The puritan style was heavily influenced by God and the puritan's way of life. It was often short and too the point, and referred to ordinary things. The Classical Style was usually used to express analysis, theory, and practice. This style was delivered in a way that it would influence the audience. "Huswifery", by Edward Taylor offers a great example of the use of the Puritan style. He used a spinning wheel, and ordinary object, to compare his
Native American literature began before pen and paper, and before the Europeans came to North America. The Native Americans had already developed a rich history of their own using oral tradition to pass on their stories and myths. This was because the many tribes were so diverse, and at the time, they lacked an actual written language. The oral tradition was not only the telling of a story, but a performance to retell the story of many different themes and ideas. These ideas include a tribe's cultural