Cultural Healing in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

Cultural Healing in Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American from New Mexico and is part of the Laguna tribe. She received a MacArthur "genius" award and was considered one of the 135 most significant women writers ever. Her home state has named her a living cultural treasure. (Jaskoski, 1) Her well-known novel Ceremony follows a half-breed named Tayo through his realization and healing process that he desperately needs when he returns from the horrors of World War II. This is a process that takes him back to the history of his culture.

Tayo returns home when World War II ends in 1945. He feels alienated from his home and hardly desires to live any longer. He is constantly vomiting as a result of the war and his grandma finally decides to have him meet with a medicine man because the doctors and hospitals cannot seem to cure Tayo's illness. The traditional purpose of the men is to wash off evil, and in Tayo's case it is to rid him of the evil of killing in the war.

Tayo goes to see a man named Betonie who conducts ceremonies and right away Betonie's love of the land is displayed, along with his disappointment in what has happened to the land. Tayo later learns to love the land as much as Betonie "There was something about the way the old man said the word 'comfortable.' It had different meaning - not the comfort of big houses or rich food or even clean streets, but the comfort of belonging with the land, and the peace of being with these hills. But the special meaning the old man had given to the English word was burned away by the glare of the sun on tin cans and broken glass, blinding reflections off the mirrors and chrome of the wrecked cars...

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...erstanding of their own historical developments and maybe even desire to research the traditional developments in other cultures. Ceremony is a novel that brings up many racial and cultural issues, and if they can be recognized and used as inspiration to make changes and become better people, the world will become a better place and hopefully negative racial issues will become nonexistent.

Works Cited

Jaskoski, Helen. Leslie Marmon Silko: A Study of the Short Fiction. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1998.

Salyer, Gregory. Leslie Marmon Silko. New York: Twayne Publishers, 1997.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: The Viking Press, 1977.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. "Fences Against Freedom." Hungry Mind Review: An Independent Book Review (1999). 8 December 2000. <http://www.bookwire.com/hmr/Review/silko.html>.