Spotless in Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"

1310 Words3 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Essay on ceremony leslie marmon silko

Leslie Marmon Silko uses the idea of being speckled and/or spotless in her book Ceremony. To try to be spotless is the Laguna people trying to become a part of white society, hence, becoming separated from the Earth and from the roots, tradition, beliefs, rituals and customs of the Native American way. It is letting in white society with the belief that it can somehow improve you. It is destructive change that takes a person away from the Earth. It is change that specifies and names possessions and makes you question your own beliefs.

On the other hand, being speckled is learning and shifting with this clash of cultures in order for it not to interfere and destroy you. It is a change that helps you beat white society by not conforming to, but adapting to it. It is the idea togetherness and faithfulness in your own tradition and heritage and the idea of being one with nature (land, water, animals, etc.). This idea can be seen in Josiah's special breed of cattle.

Josiah breeds a new kind of cattle. They are spotted and skinny -- don't drink much water or don't eat much. Most everyone around him deems them worthless. These spots show a contradiction to traditional, spotless "white face" cattle. Traditional cattle cannot survive because they have been separated from the land so that they are no longer wild. They are scared lost and unfamiliar to the Earth. They are a fenced possession of man, not the land.

This is representative of characters like Tayo, Emo, Rocky and Harley, who have been separated from their culture because of the white man's war for so long, they don't know how to react now that they are back (Blumenthal, 368). In Ceremony, Josiah says, "Cattle are like any living thing. If you separate them from the land ...

... middle of paper ...

...ite society is just an illusion.

Works Cited

Blumenthal, Susan. "Spotted Cattle and Deer: Spirit Guides and Symbols of Endurance and Healing in Ceremony." The American Indian Quarterly. 14 (Fall 1990) : 367-77

Cutchins, Dennis. " `So That the Nations May Become Genuine Indian': Nativism and Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony." Journal of American Culture 22.4 (1999) : 77-89.

Kilgore, Tracy Y., East Tennessee State University. " The Story is Everything: The Path to Renewal in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony. " East Tennessee State University, 2003.

Reck, Alexandra. "Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony: An Exploration of Characters and Themes." http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/bassr/218/projects/reck/alr.htm (6 Dec. 2005)

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin Books, 1986

Show More
Related

  • Explaination of Horse Culture in Plains Indians Summaries by Hämäläinen

    1461 Words  | 3 Pages

    Hämäläinen goes on to explain that his purpose is to trace and analyze the contradictions of the Plains Indians’ horse culture, rather than just condemning it as something baleful, which many historians tend to do. Hämäläinen also refutes the common eastern farmer-western nomad manner of analyzing Plains equestrianism, in which there is “a tendency to cast the villagers as cultural reactionaries who failed to embrace the liberating powers of equestrianism and, locked in space and time, were crushed by the double invasion of the aggressive nomads and the encroaching Americans,” (Hämäläinen, 2) and instead proposes that Plains horse culture is understood from a latitudinal --rather than longitudinal-- viewpoint, since horse culture spread from the south, northwards. It is also explained that the latitudinal spread of equestrianism gave rise to the creation of markedly diverse horse cultures, vary...

    Read More

  • Leslie Silko's Ceremony

    2125 Words  | 5 Pages

    In Ceremony, Leslie Silko brilliantly crosses racial styles of humor in order to cure the foolish delusions readers may have, if we think we are superior to Indians or inferior to whites, or perhaps superior to whites or inferior to Indians. Silko plays off affectionate Pueblo humor against the black humor so prominent in 20th-century white culture. This comic strategy has the end-result of opening our eyes to our general foolishness, and also to the possibility of combining the merits of all races. Joseph Campbell wrote in The Inner Reaches of Outer Space of the change in mythologies away from the local and tribal toward a mythology that will arise from "this unified earth as of one harmonious being." Ceremony is a work that changes local mythologies in that more inclusive spirit.

    Read More

  • Racial Conflict In The Autobiography Of Malcolm X

    1012 Words  | 3 Pages

    After pin pointing the major differences between black and white culture, Malcolm finds white culture to be extremely bland and lifeless, rather than black culture which is lively, colorful, and the exact opposite. Malcolm takes up a job as a shoe shiner at the Roseland State Ballroom where his first early lessons on hustling began. After being “schooled” Malcolm’s point of view enhances as he starts to learn the ways of how Boston works. While working at the ballroom Malcolm observes the dancing styles of blacks and whites, how “The white people danced as though somebody had trained them-” and “-those Negros – nobody in the world could have choreographed the way they did whatever they felt-”(pg.52) Malcolm feels as if dancing is in the blood of African Americans, and feels prohibited by the fact that he doesn’t know how to dance (“I could feel the beat in my bones, even though I had never danced”). The author describes the feel of the ballroom during these dances by using fast paced words and short sentences to create the illusion of a lively environment. Exclamation points and hyphens add on to the noisy, ear-ringing atmosphere. The way the sentences are structured makes the reader want to read faster and faster, trying to keep up with the rapid movement. Malcolm begins to change his style, by buying outrageous zoot suits, knob style shoes, and he even gets his first homemade conk. The conk represents black people inflicting pain upon themselves trying to look “pretty” by white standards. It shows how blacks would “literally burn my flesh to have it look like white persons hair.” Malcolm even admits that “This was my first really big step toward self-degradation.”(pg.56) Everything that was white or affiliated with white culture, was seen as superior and everything that wasn’t was considered

    Read More

  • Leslie Marmon Silko Ceremony Summary

    459 Words  | 1 Pages

    In Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony, our main character and protagonist is named Tayo. He is returning home to the reservation after serving in World War II. Tayo has just been released from a veteran’s hospital and experiencing what the reader assumes is PTSD. The reservation is experiencing a severe drought that Tayo believes he caused by wishing the rain away when he was a prisoner of war. The novel jumps back and forth in time from the present to Tayo’s service in the war. Tayo relives the events of his cousin Rocky’s death and believes his caused his uncle’s death as well. Tayo tries to live a normal live like he once had before the war. He starts meeting and drinking with childhood friends who also served in the war. After still experiencing deep depression, Tayo meets with a medicine man, but is not cured. He invents a rain ceremony and it rains the next day. However, this is not enough and Tayo meets with another medicine man named Betonie. Betonie shows Tayo the deep spiritual and ceremonial battles between good and evil that have continued for years. Tayo and Emo, one of his drinking buddies, are revealed to be part of these two opposing ideologies. In short, Tayo completes his new ceremony and the drought ends.

    Read More

  • Yams In The Invisible Man Essay

    1055 Words  | 3 Pages

    This represents the American society and the different races. The narrator believes that throughout his life, America is segregated into the majority and minority. He believes that he is part of the minority which prevents him from having the freedom that the majority has. Ellison uses a reverse role of the what the colors white and black actually represent. In the novel, black has a negative feel while white is more positive. This portrays the two races depicted in the book and how the society feels about them. During the narrator’s time at the Optic White Paint Factory, he is told that in order to make the whitest paint, he needs to add ten drops of “dead black” liquid (200). This is ironic because in order for the white paint to look white, black needs to be added to it. This portrays that blacks are just as important as whites in a functioning

    Read More

  • Social Influences on Family Formation

    1668 Words  | 4 Pages

    Stevenson, Betsey, Stephanie Coontz, Barbara Dafoe Whitehead, Helen Fisher. 2010. “For Women, Redefining Marriage Material.” The New York Times. February 21

    Read More

  • Native Americans and Mental Health

    2885 Words  | 6 Pages

    Stark, H. K., & Wilkins, D. E. (2011). American Indian Politics and the American Political System. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.

    Read More

  • Shakespearean Wedding Customs

    726 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marriages during the Renaissance shared common customs such as “crying of the banns” ceremonies, a dowry or gift for the husband’s family, special clothes, and a wedding feast. Commonly, marriages were arranged although Shakespeare’s was not. William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway followed some traditional wedding customs and disregarded others.

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Leslie Silko's Ceremony

    1884 Words  | 4 Pages

    As I walk through my hometown Sao Paulo and look up at the sky and my surroundings, I become sick. I feel sick because the sky is grey, not blue; I feel sick because my surroundings are grey, not green, and I feel especially ill because everyone is ignoring it, instead of working to bring our original home, nature, back to our city. In today’s society, dominated by the Western culture, nature is not alive. Western society sees nature as antiquated, and that it should be solely used for power and profit. The consequences of all this destruction is not only losing Nature for us, but destroying it before future generations have a chance to experience it. Leslie Silko, is his book Ceremony, writes about the interaction and the invasion of the Western/Christian

    Read More

  • The Poem Analysis Of The Supremes By Cornelius Eady

    1176 Words  | 3 Pages

    Line one says "we were born to be gray." I infer here that all people born to be alike to fit in and blend in. i came to this conclusion when the word gray was introduced, gray is a middle color were not color stands out more than the other all equal. Line one through three says "...we went to school sat in rows, ate white

    Read More

  • Use Of Skin Complexion In Wallace Thurman's 'Blacker The Berry'

    430 Words  | 1 Pages

    Skin complexion is a physical feature of an individual that cannot be changed. For example, Emma is very unsatisfied with her skin complexion and she internalizes her pain very deeply. She feels she could escape the pain she experiences at home, school, and in her neighborhood if she finds a way to lighten her skin. As a result, Emma uses products such as cream and ointment to bleach her skin in hopes of having a lighter skin complexion. However, she is unsuccessful with lightening her skin and continues to encounter negative experiences of discrimination. Skin color is different than other physical features such as hair which can be straightened, curled, or styled in a variety of ways. The reasoning behind Emma’s motives for lightening her skin is the perception and value of lighter skin in

    Read More

  • Analysis Of Black Hair

    811 Words  | 2 Pages

    Throughout the semester we have studied the black vernacular tradition and its attributes of competition, group interaction, the in- group, and pattern of call and response and we have learned to take those attributes and apply then to the complex subject of Black Hair. Black Hair is a complex subject not only because so little is known about it but because of the aesthetic, political, and interpersonal context through which Black hair can be studied and interpreted. Hair is honestly in just about every text and it is used to not only add insight to characters identity but to also give context to time. Many of the black vernacular tenets are seen throughout Margo Jefferson’s chapter in Negroland, in particular the first section called “The

    Read More

  • Victorian Wedding Traditions

    940 Words  | 2 Pages

    Marriage in the Victorian time period was carefully contemplated, as Rosenberg addresses that “Wedding ceremonies were seen as an expression of Victorian social values that that the Queen wished to renounce, while on the other hand, such occasions were viewed as having national and collective significance” (Rosenberg 98). Love played a very tiny role in the Victorian Era marriages. An engagement was more approached as a business deal. Once married all possessions went to the husband as property. Anatolyevna emphasizes how “Victorian weddings should be transformed from a formalized procedure to a celebration, a holiday for a young couple in honor of their initiation” (Anatolyevna 1) The Marriage and Wedding Customs of the Victorian time period are interesting because they are religious, strict, unique, and elegant. First of all, the Victorian time period wedding mores were intriguing because of their strong connection to religion. Terpening explains that “in the sense that marriage is an act through hardship and trial, people who led Christian lives were rewarded by enjoying years with their spouse” (Terpening 22). Even though in the Victorian time period their marriages were arranged, if you and your spouse had the same religions beliefs your marriage will be strong and last longer than other couples. People during the Victorian time believed that if you didn’t practice the same beliefs of your partner your marriage would fall apart or be in great bitterness. Religion played a big role in the Victorian wedding ethnicities but the harsh laws of marriage were a huge part for weddings during this time period. Next, the Victorian time period Wedding traditions were remarkable because of the firm traditions. Author Kat Stromquist ment...

    Read More

  • Orland by Janet Woolf

    1661 Words  | 4 Pages

    Chesser, Barbara Jo. “Analysis of Wedding Rituals: An attempt to make weddings more sfdsdfffdmeaningful”. Family Relations. Vol. 29, No. 2. (Apr., 1980) pp. 204-209. [JSTOR]

    Read More

  • Noughts and Crosses

    1286 Words  | 3 Pages

    The author uses language as a tool to show the characters’ status in society as black or white. Various language techniques are used to display the classes of society. The words “blanker” (used by blacks to describe whites) and “dagger” (used by whites to describe blacks) are used repeatedly throughout the novel. This use of language reflects the intolerant attitudes towards one another in Blackman’s radical world. There is a significant amount of symbolism used in these words. “Blanker” is used to describe a blank, worthless, brainless white person. And “dagger” is used to depict a weapon that is capable of scratching and severing, reducing and disconnecting a person, or even bringing them to an end completely. “ I bet it was one of her blanker friends, they’re blank by name and blank by nature”. Through the difference of educated, formal language used by Crosses and the sometimes tasteless, simple language of the noughts, the reader can see the grades in which noughts and Crosses are separately classed. Through this technique I believe Blackman is trying to show the extent to which racism can affect people. It can lessen, degrade and have heavy social affects on a person proving where they belong and what they will never be.

    Read More

More about Spotless in Leslie Marmon Silko's "Ceremony"

Open Document