Gender Stereotypes In Silko's Ceremony

In many novels that take place in this era of post-World War II, women are portrayed to be submissive, clinging, and self-sacrificing. However, in Silko’s Ceremony, the women counter these stereotypical assumptions of how women normally behave. Also, men at this time are supposed to be strong, independent, and subtly heartless. Tayo breaks these norms by having many feelings and truly respecting himself and others. Overall, the gender-stereotypes being broken in this story bring about an entirely new sense of self-righteousness, importance, and acceptance among Tayo and the women and gods throughout the novel.

In the war, Tayo fits in with the stereotype of an American soldier and is forced to kill a countless number of Japanese soldiers,

The normality of women at this time is borderline selling yourself to the men that have come back from war, because they “earned” the gratitude of the women. Even in multiple bar scenes in the novel, women are talked about as objects and are simply used by the men. Tayo said himself, “white women never looked at me until I put on that uniform,” (Silko 40). The women danced around them and gave themselves to the men, and the people don’t even bat an eye. This is what was expected of this time. If one were a single women who liked to be social, then they were going to give themselves to a soldier, and that was the simple truth. However, the reader doesn’t learn any of these women’s names. Nor does the reader know any more about the NAtive American women who sell themselves into prostitution to make money. All of these women are all about sex and men, until the story of Night Swan comes into play. She may have had sexual relations with both Josiah and Tayo, which may see to fit into the stereotypes of this time, but she was much deeper than what would be seen on the surface. Night Swan is a powerful woman, and she even has a sort of mystical power, similar to that of Ts’eh. She isn’t just a regular girlfriend who sleeps with men. She is strong and beautiful, while also leading Tayo along his spiritual