Race in Silko's Ceremony

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Ceremony Throughout Ceremony, the author, Leslie Silko, displays the internal struggle that the American Indians faced at that time in history. She displays this struggle between good and evil in several parts of the book. One is the myth explaining the origin of the white man. As common in Indian cultures they create a myth to explain why the white people came to them. The author begins to show the Indians feeling of hopelessness by showing in the myth, on pages 132 - 138, that there was no way the Indians could stop the white people from destroying the Indian culture. “Entire tribes will die out, covered with jestered sores, shitting blood, vomiting blood.” (pg. 137) The myth says that the white people will cause chaos, killing their people and taking their land. That is exactly what they ended up doing. The Indians are hopeless because there is nothing they could have done because according to the myth once the Indians knew what was coming it was to late to stop it. “It’s already turned loose. It’s already coming. It can’t be called back.” (pg. 138) The White man killed many of the Indians through murder and disease. The few that were left were cramped on tiny reservations. By reading this book you can see that the Native Americans live in extreme poverty. This is brought upon the Indians by the white man who gave them dry dusty desert land that he didn’t want. Then white men do not give the Indians a chance to get out of the poverty because he bel...

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