The Preservation of Identity in Ceremony: Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.

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The Preservation of Identity in Ceremony The concepts of change and identity are problematic for the characters within Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony. Tayo’s hybridity represents all that the Laguna people fear. The coming of change and meshing of cultures has brought an impending threat of ruin to Native American traditions. Although they reject him for his mixed heritage, Tayo’s journey is not his own but a continuation of the storytelling tradition that embodies Native American culture. Through tradition he learns to use his white and Mexican heritage to identify himself without abandoning his Native American practices. Tayo’s journey begins with his visit to Night Swan. Unknowing to Tayo, she embodies the mountain spirit Ts’eh and when Tayo sleeps with her, his life becomes a retelling of an older story. Tayo takes refuge with Night Swan and opens up to her about his feelings involving being estranged from his family and the Laguna people. Opening up to others is something that he struggles with throughout the rest of the novel. “I always wished I had dark eyes like other people. When they look at me they remember things that happened. My mother” (Silko 99). Tayo’s mixed heritage brings the notion of change and the Native American people fear that change will cause them to lose their culture. “They think that if their children have the same color of skin, the same color of eyes, that nothing is changing” (Silko 100). The Native Americans think that keeping everything the same and not meshing cultures will preserve theirs, but Night Swan acknowledges that this would only lead to ruin. Things that don’t change simply don’t grow. Without changing the old traditions, the culture won’t be able to survive in this new world they... ... middle of paper ... ...acters of mixed heritage opened Tayo’s eyes to reveal to him the knowledge of both worlds, a vantage point that people without mixed heritage had a difficult time comprehending. Change is threatening to the Native American people; the emergence of white society has shifted their world and brought ruin. They try to preserve their culture by rejecting white society but have instead made themselves stationary and unable to grow. Tayo’s hybridity, although rejected by many, revives the old traditions of storytelling and ceremonies. The identity of the Native American people is different now that it has meshed with white society. They are survivors of a war with themselves. “It seems like I already heard these stories before… only thing is, the names sound different” (Silko 260). Works Cited Silko, Leslia Marmon. Ceremony. New York: The Viking Press, 1977.

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