Ceremony Summary and Analysis

Author Leslie Marmon Silko
Setting the Laguna Rez, land beyond the Rez that's owned by whites/government, jungles and cities from during the war, Gallup
Main Characters
-Tayo: Half white, half Laguna. WWII vet. Protagonist.
-Robert: Auntie's husband. Doesn't play huge role in Tayo's life until Josiah dies.
-Josiah: Father figure for Tayo. Auntie's brother. Dies during the war. Loves his cattle.
-Rocky: Tayo's cousin. Loves white culture. Dies during the war, despite Tayo's promise to bring him back safely.
-Auntie: Rocky's mom, Tayo's Aunt. Devout Christian. Very concerned with what people think of their family.
-Emo: Laguna war veteran. Thinks white culture/whites in general are better. Practices witchery.
-Night Swan: Old Mexican Cantina dancer. Josiah's boyfriend. Hooks up with Tayo.
-Ts'eh: Yellow woman. Tayo's lover. Helps heal Tayo.
-Betonie: Healer that lives in Gallup. Begins Tayo's ceremony to heal him.
-Harley: Tayo's "friend." War vet. Alcoholic. Betrays Tayo in the end by conspiring with Emo.
Plot
Tayo, a World War II veteran, is suffering from some sort of sickness. He has been treated by a white doctor, and by Laguna medicine, but nothing has worked. On top of this sickness, Tayo is struggling with a lot of guilt. He blames himself for Rocky's death during the war, and the feeling that he let Josiah down by going to war, when he promised Josiah that he'd take care of his cattle. Tayo also thinks he caused the draught that's plaguing his reservation by praying away the rain when he was in the jungle during the war. Meanwhile, his "friends" such as Harley and Leroy are enjoying getting drunk at bars and reliving war memories when they felt accepted by white culture. Finally, Tayo visits a Navajo healer, Betonie, at Gallup. Betonie performs a ceremony on Tayo, but warns him that the ceremony isn't complete. Later, Tayo skeptically follows Betonie's instructions, and end up meeting Ts'eh, finding Josiah's cattle, and having a significant encounter with a lion. After this, Tayo ends up going into the wilderness to live with Ts'eh and care for the cattle. He lives peacefully for awhile, until he finds out that Emo has been telling everyone he's crazy and now the government (and Emo) are coming to get him! Because of this, Tayo leaves Ts'eh and goes into the mountains. He eventually gets a ride with Harley and Leroy, and passes out in their car from exhaustion. When he wakes up, Harley and Leroy are gone and Tayo realizes that they are working with Emo. Tayo flees to the mines. That night, he watches Emo, Leroy, and Pinky brutally murder Harley in an attempt to lure Tayo from hiding. However, Tayo resists the urge to kill Emo and, in doing this, finally discovers true balance and banishes the witchery.
Style
-Narrative voice is third person, generally limited to Tayo. There are also extra war stories and Laguna stories that are told through some unknown/unspecified person.
-Lots of importance in the landscape/details/descriptions.
-A ton of symbolism.
Quotes
"Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took."
This really shows the problem that Laguna war veterans such as Emo and Harley struggled with in the book. They wanted so badly to feel like they belonged to white culture again, and they blamed themselves for not being able to achieve the feeling of belonging again. They never thought to blame whites for not being accepting of native americans.
"You don't have anything if you don't have the stories."
This reiterated the importance of stories, a theme prevalent in Ceremony.
Theme
It's imperative to achieve some sort of balance/harmony in the world.
This is something that comes up in the Laguna story being told throughout the book, as well as in Tayo's own story. For example, when the people in the Laguna story begin to ignore Mother corn, the harmony is thrown off and Mother corn leaves. To restore balance, the people and animals have to perform all of these tasks to bring her back. The theme is even more clear in Tayo's own story. Tayo has to work through this whole ceremony to reconcile the differences between white culture and Laguna culture, and how rapidly the world is changing, in order to find peace and balance in his world.