FREE ESSAY ON CEREMONY

CEREMONY

While reading the beginning portion of Silko's Ceremony, it is rather evident that
storytelling is going to be a main focus of the novel. The way that this book is set up
is much different than anything that I have read before. It contains poetry sections in
between longer prose sections. When these poetry sections are inserted, I sense a change
of story or place in time. There seems to be alot of flashbacks by Tayo who from reading
isn't very easy to figure out. There is alot of ambiguity to this novel, you kind of have
to figure things out on your own since there is no distinct story line yet, only
different stories thrown in a random order. The story that is told about Tayo in the
Pacific is sort of interlaced with a story of his home. The two settings are contrasted,
the author makes his home out to be a very dry place where not much goes on. The jungle
on the other hand pours unending rain on Tayo and when he tells of his capture by the
Japanese he mentions how much he hates this rain. I think that the point of this story is
to describe the struggle that Tayo had to endure while a prisoner of war. Perhaps the
reason why he has these mental problems later in the reading is due to his sufferings in
the jungle at the hands of the Japanese. I think that this story lays a groundwork for
what is to come because it is the source of Tayo's health problems. After reading this I
realized that this character Tayo would have a major struggle ahead of him in order to
erase his terrible memories of imprisonment. I believe that this was a landmark
experience in Tayo's young life because for someone to have to go through this is a
shocking , life-changing experience. it helps to know the troubles that have been in
Tayo's past but these events have changed him forever and no one, including himself, can
make any sense of why they have greatly affected his health. I think that Tayo doesn't
really want tell anyone what happened to
him in the war and this might explain why he has trouble talking to others or why he
vomits constantly.