Interpretive Richness of Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony

The interpretative richness of Silko’s Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony is the extraordinary tale of Tayo, a mixed-blood Native

American in his long quest to cure the suffering that afflicts him and his people. The novel is

complex enough that it can be interpreted in the context of starkly different paradigms, each

highlighting important facets of the story. For instance, in the article “Feminine perspectives at

Laguna Pueblo: Silko’s Ceremony,” Edith Swan offers a (symbolic) analysis of the plethora of

important female characters in the novel that is based on a deliberately unicultural, Laguna

worldview on the grounds that “[...] western presumptions must be set aside so that they do not

adversely bias or manipulate tribal structures of meaning. Native premises must be allowed to

stand on their own terms” (309). On the other hand, Dennis Cutchins, in his article “‘So that the

nations may become genuine Indian’: Nativism and Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony”

advocates a politico-historical interpretation of the novel as a reaction against the overwhelming

influence of Western civilization on Native American culture. This reaction, Cutchins argues,

takes the form of a “revision” of history for the purpose of removing the Western influence and

adapting ancient traditions to better serve the needs of the present, thus resolving the conflict

between the two cultures. Cutchins’ interpretation therefore, is multicultural, focussing on the

historical relationship between Western and Native American cultures and providing a paradigm

(namely, nativism) that helps put it all in perspective. By utilizing divergent paradigms in

interpreting Ceremony, Swan and Cutchins both succeed in highlighting the many fascinating...

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...nse in the context of the outside world and the history of the

Native American people. The differing theses however, do not contradict each other. Rather,

they complement each other by providing a more complete picture through the simultaneous

consideration of socio-cultural as well as politico-historical perspectives of the novel.

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Works Cited

Cutchins, Dennis. “‘So that the nations may become genuine Indian’: Nativism and Leslie

Marmon Silko’s Ceremony.” Journal of American Culture 22.4 (1 Dec. 1999): not

paginated.

Silko, Leslie Marmon. Ceremony. New York: Penguin, 1977.

Swan, Edith. “Feminine Perspectives at Laguna Pueblo: Silko’s Ceremony.” Tulsa Studies in

Women’s Literature 11.2 (Autumn, 1992): 309-328.

Work cited from within Swan, Edith:

Allen, Paula Gunn. “The Psychological Landscape of Ceremony.” American Indian Quarterly.

5.1 (1979): 12.

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