Leslie Marmon Silko
Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony opens with Tayo, a young Native American veteran, recovering in a Veteran’s hospital. Returning from World War II where he was held at a Japanese prison camp, Tayo suffers from acute PTSD. He experiences hallucinations, flashbacks, survivor’s guilt, alienation, and despair. He weeps uncontrollably. His concept of time and location is scrambled. Events that happened in the past are experienced in the present, triggering erratic responses. Scenes of war play before his eyes. One minute he is trudging through the Philippine jungle; the next he is vomiting at a train station.
Released from the hospital, Tayo returns to the Laguna Pueblo reservation. His friends, also veterans, seek refuge for their anger and bitterness in alcohol and senseless violence. They reminisce about being in the military because it reminds them of a time when they were treated with respect. Tayo indulges them but recognizes the futility of their actions. His quest for healing takes a different path. He visits Betonie, a medicine man who performs traditional rituals and ceremonies designed to heal. Through storytelling, Betonie explains the witchery plaguing mankind and how Tayo can help to combat it. He performs a healing ceremony on Tayo and explicates the traditions of the past. As is true of much of Native American culture, every aspect of the ritual is endowed with symbolic significance.
The healing ceremony has a restorative impact on Tayo’s mind-set. He perceives the interconnectedness of all living things and recognizes boundaries of separation are artificial, man-made constructs. He observes insects, birds, animals, the colors of the sky, the flowing streams, and majestic mountains with acuity and appreciation. He connects with nature as if for the first time and locates himself within it by embracing his surroundings.
Tayo shares his story with the elders on his return home. By reconstructing the events through storytelling, he transforms the memory of the trauma, claims it, and integrates it into his life. Storytelling becomes an act of resistance and occasions healing and empowerment. Tayo establishes a safe, restorative haven for himself in which he achieves wholeness, adopts a new way of thinking, exercises agency, and strengthens his community.
The non-linear, meandering progression of the narrative replicates the scramble in Tayo’s mind during his recuperation. The shifts in time and place occur abruptly just as they do for Tayo. The present circles back to the past, each time adding detail to a flashback and developing the narrative thread until a fuller picture emerges. The diction is richly poetic. The sights, sounds, smells, textures, and colors of the natural environment are described in vivid detail and grounded in a sense of place. By threading Tayo’s story with elements of Native American folklore, mythology, songs, rituals, and ceremonies, Silko has spun a rich tapestry illuminating a path toward healing.
A challenging read but well worth the effort.