Leslie Marmon Silko In Ceremony

Leslie Marmon Silko’s Native American fictional novel, Ceremony, depicts an interracial man named Tayo who struggled tremendously throughout the early years of his life regarding who he was. Tayo struggles in understanding his role in society especially with the constant reminders of his differences from Auntie. Auntie makes sure he always knows he is different from his family, but when Tayo decides to get away from it and follow Rocky to war he begins to witness the atrocities that are involved in war. There he is deeply affected psychologically by what he sees, but during that time of great vulnerability he sees the fruition about men of different skin color coming together displaying great feats of camaraderie. This results in leaving Tayo with a feeling of self-awareness and belonging he had lacked earlier due to the isolation in his small community. Silko’s Native American fictional novel, Ceremony, depicts Tayo character …show more content…
With Tayo being exposed to things other than the everyday occurrences that he was accustomed to he would not have grown and matured as a character. Tayo’s abandonment by his mother leaves a great impact on him for her absence, but also the reminder that he is does not fit in. Tayo feels that his mother's absence ruined his entire life because of how he had no one to teach him about not only who he was, but where he came from and the importance of his heritage, “My old lady got out her Phillips 66 road map, and she looked at it all night until she found the place on the reservation that was the farthest away from any bars. I might be there right now, living on top of some mesa, if my father hadn’t talked her into sending me to the ranch” (Silko 37). The use of the phrase ‘my old lady’ proves Tayo’s absence of a mother figure as he does not respect her nor love her enough to actually call her something more endearing such as his