Leslie Marmon Silko

In Leslie Marmon Silko’s landmark novel Ceremony, she provides an insightful discourse on Native American society, its culture, prejudices and legends, through the people on the Laguna Pueblo reservation in the 1940’s. Tayo, the main character, is a newly returned WWII veteran suffering from traumatic memories of the battlefield, namely his Uncle Josiah’s face on a dead Japanese man’s body. As the reader follows Tayo’s quest, or ceremony, for wholeness, another, less recognizable character…

In 'Yellow Woman And Beauty Of Spirit ', Author Leslie Marmon Silko tells stories from her childhood and recalls the struggles she faced as she learned about modern day racism, sexism, and what it means to be considered beautiful. Silko ends her work with the conclusion that women can accept their sensuality, and while embracing themselves become ‘beautiful’. And In a world as progressive as our own, I agree that it is important to accept one another and we should not shame women and men for…

In Leslie Marmon Silko’s, Ceremony, Emo liked to point out the “dusty wind,” the white people had left with them and to say “’Look what is here for [the Indians]’” (23). Emo’s attitude toward the wind and the white people shows a desire to experience the white peoples’ lives rather than his own culture. Throughout the novel, Silko establishes that this desire is a product of witchery that the Indians created. Moreover, throughout the novel the appearance of wind often correlates with the…

sickness which comes from their wars, their bombs, their lies?’ ” (122). This question Tayo asks is representative to his struggle against his own sickness, and his doubt in the traditional indigenous beliefs of his people in the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. When faced with two choices that might greatly influence our lives, it feels impossible to know which we should choose, or which would be the right choice. This is the nature of the conflict between the ceremony he must take part…

Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko presents to us that there is a necessity for ceremonies and traditions in the world that we live in. She teaches us that forgetting those traditions and ceremonies can bring hardship, that traditions and ceremonies must be constantly changing with the world, and that blindly going through the motions of a tradition can bring dangers. Tayo, the main character, learns the hard way that forgetting ceremonies and traditions can cause hardships. Towards the beginning…

Research Question #2 Migration Stories: Mapping Cultural Survival Across Stolen Terrains Leslie Marmon Silko, a Laguna Pueblo author, emphasizes the importance of place in indigenous storytelling--identity is “intimately linked with the surrounding terrain,” whether it be a specific geographical feature or the exact location where a story took place (43). When tribes migrated to find subsistence, exchange goods with other native peoples, or complete a holy journey, their stories often served as…

for the crops. These two stories show what happens when tradition is kept and when it is lost along the way. Being aware of the expected ceremonies helps to maintain the integrity of it all and not let it be done in vain. Shirley Jackson and Leslie Marmon Silko bring amazing work to the table but these two stories have so much in common yet at the same time are very different. In “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, a yearly sacrifice is done within their small village where someone is stoned to…

also they can be written or an activity. When the immigrants from over seas came over to the United States, the traditions of the Native Americans, as well as African American were torn apart and strip of their meaning. Lullaby written by Leslie Marmon Silko who is a Native American, and The Eatonville Anthology written by Zora Neale Hurston who was African American portrays how tradition was stripped of their true meaning by the whites that were in the United States. These pieces of literature…

Ceremony and A New Reflection on Racial Tension as a Current Event Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko has given me a new perspective on racial tensions/issues in the United States. Although the book is mainly focused on Native Americans, the broad idea of racial issues can be applied to the current events happening to people of all races. I especially gained a more thoughtful view of the recent events in Charlottesville, North Carolina. Ceremony has given me a deeper understanding of racial tension…

surface of their problems. For people who struggle with mental instability, pinpointing the root cause and finding the proper “cure” is integral, so that the instability will not worsen and branch out into other problems. In the book Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, the character Emo suffers from the prolonged effects of war-induced trauma, which causes him to exhibit eccentric behavior that consists of carrying around a bag of human teeth, turning to alcoholism, and partaking in violence. Emo’s…