Tayo in Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

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Table of Contents

Introduction
Fiction ceremony
Conclusion
Works Cited

Introduction

In the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, the author brings into light Tayo, the main protagonist in the story, his relations with other characters in the book and brings out the effects of these relationships, people who in the long run affect his life in one way or another.

Some of these characters become his mentors and teachers by interaction. Though his life is characterized by so many problems more so that of identity (Silko 3), the impact of some of the characters brings out some positive qualities in his life as he copes with life as a crossbreed in society. Caught up in a society with stereotypes regarding a persons cultural and physical appearance, Tayo is caught at crossroads and needs to find the best way out of his problem as a crossbreed of a White father and an Indian mother.

Fiction ceremony

To begin with, there is Betonie, the medicine man. He offers Tayo a challenge, of completing a ceremony, with which to liberate him and his people (Silko 43). Betonie is the one who helps fill the gap between the Mythical world and the real world in which Tayo finds himself in. Betonie appears to be connected with both the Native American society and also the White society because he is also a crossbreed just like Tayo.

And all the same, he represents a new breed of medicine men that have incorporated both White and the local ways of witchery which he tells the people is mandatory in the changing society (Silko 76). Regarding Tayo, Betonie can be seen as a mentor because as a crossbreed just like him, he can easily identify with him because he is an accomplished medicine man which gives Tayo confidence in himself because he can see that regardless of the situation and his position in society he can at least find someone he can easily identify with (Silko 19).

Old grandma can also be seen as a mentor and a teacher in Tayos life because it is through her that Tayo finally gets in touch with the true belonging to the world around him. Old Grandma does of course accept Tayo as he is, a crossbreed. She considers him as his grandchild as any other that is why she never cared to know what other people thought of her and her grandson (Silko 98). His mother could have walked out on Tayo but she stood firm to care for him even though he looked different from the rest of the family members. Tayo feels hollow and invisible to the world around him but the realization of Old Grandmas love and affection lifts him emotionally and gives him a sense of belonging. Through her, he learns to appreciate his position in society.

Old Grandma is the one who teaches Tayo about the importance of some ceremonies to the Indian culture. Through her appreciation for him, Tayo gets a sense of belonging. She fills the emptiness in his life and this fills the hollowness that was in him there before which in return gives him a sense of belonging. He is no longer the shadow that he was in connection with the Indian culture, but instead, he feels like any other person who ever existed.

He gets to understand the value of being half breed not as an intruder but as a human being like any other. He was able to go on living even without her because she had cultivated the seed of confidence and belonging in Tayo such that the invisibility that once engulfed Tayo before does not exist in him anymore (Silko 15).

Tayos Uncle Josiah plays a very significant role in Tayos healing ceremony is as a mentor and teacher. Tayo always remembers the underlying moral lessons in Josiahs tales and applies them in his life in whichever circumstances that he finds himself in (Silko 112). These tales are the morale checks that he employs in his life as he oriented himself into society both physically and emotionally. As he learns to heal himself Tayo gets guidance from his uncle Josiah.

Even long after his death Tayo always finds a way of recalling the stories and the moral lessons in them and this acted as a moral map where he trod every day of his life. At the time that Uncle Josiah told him the stories, he seemed not to pay attention to the tales but long after, in the post-war Laguna, he happens to draw a lot of moral lessons more especially in his healing ceremony. Following his death, Tayo is deeply affected but with time his desperateness fades away due to the same lessons that he picked from the stories that he had told him.

Uncle Josiah plays the role of Tayos guardian ever since he was four years old when Tayos mother entrusted Tayo, not unto her mothers care, but that of His uncle Josiah. Therefore Tayo is put under his guardianship so early in life. He, therefore, plays a very important role in Tayos life because he takes up that responsibility up to the end of the novel. He often protected Tayo from Rocky. He appears to be the only source of hope in Tayos life and as much as the rest of the people rebuked and never noticed his importance, just like Old Grandma., Uncle Josiah showed him love and affection which later helps him build his self-confidence and personality.

He offers Him emotional support more especially when Tayo was mourning his mother after Aunt took away the picture of his mother. Tayo cries so much due to this and it is his Uncle Josiah who comes in to comfort him (Silko 71). Following his mothers death, it is Uncle Josiah who also comforted him and told him not to cry (Silko 93). Uncle Josiah can therefore be said to be Tayos reason for living because when others including his mother never found anything good in him, he was there for him at all times and helps Tayo accept and appreciate himself, not as a crossbreed but as a human just like any other.

In the guardianship of Betonie, Tayo analyzes his culture and the effects of the arrival of the whites on his culture. He realizes that the white invasion of the locals results in some negative attributes such as alcoholism and racism (Silko 62). The war in which he was involved as a result of white invasion brings him lasting tragedies and guilt and through his guidance into the ceremony, he finally heals from the trauma that faces him after the war.

The ceremony that Betonie creates gives Tayo a chance to overcome his pain. Old Grandma, on the other hand, comes in handy at very critical points in Tayos life which contributes to Tayo accepting his position and space in society. Through Uncle Josiah, Tayos identity crisis was considered nonexistence because never in his life did he treat Tayo as an alien (Silko 97), but rather took responsibility and treated him as the rest of the members of the society.

Conclusion

All of these three figures are helpers in the healing of Tayo. He in the long run creates himself a sense of self that goes beyond the stereotypes created by a society that accords him respect for self and acceptance. Just like the crossbred cattle raised by Uncle Josiah which are full of meat and are strong( Silko 186), Tayo as a crossbreed has the potential of standing up to the challenges facing him and proves so as intelligent, he also proves to be the ideal acceptable person that everybody else was not ( Silko 75).

Silko portrays Tayo as an ideal person, everything else that the rest of the people are not, because even with the discrimination, he can stand strong till the end. Having both the attributes of white and Indian, he is the one who lives through. Therefore these characters described here help bring out Tayo like so because through them he withstands the challenges that he encounters and in the long run, they stand tall as his mentors.

Works Cited

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

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Tayo in Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko

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