Leslie Marmon Silko, from Ceremony


1. In these opening pages to her novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko interweaves portions of Laguna Pueblo chants and stories with passages composed in the novelistic style characteristic of European and American literary traditions. Do the events described in the chants and the novelistic narrative parallel or inform each other? Does there appear to be a hierarchy between these two culturally distinct forms of narrative? What, for instance, is the significance of Silko's decision to begin with a Laguna chant, and of the specific chant she selects?

2. Does Silko's use of culturally distinct forms of narrative itself become a metaphor for human relations, or for human identity? How, for instance, does Tayo's feeling that "years and months had become weak, and people could push against them and wander back and forth in time" or that "memories were tangled with the present" describe the form of the book as well? Does Silko appear to perceive these entanglements as strengths or as weaknesses?

3. In the opening chant in Ceremony, whatever Ts’its’tsi’nako (Thought-Woman) "thinks about / appears." Later, Tayo feels that "the words of the story" he is telling "poured out of his mouth as if they had substance." Examine how Ceremony investigates the notion of "creative" thought--how visionary or imaginative perceptions of the "real" world are not distinct from that world, but can affect and alter its substance.

When Tayo hears Japanese voices, for instance, or sees the face of his uncle in the face of a dead Japanese soldier ("He knew it was Josiah," Silko tells us), is the reader meant to perceive Tayo's visions as hallucinations, or as revelations of deeper visions? If so, what is the revelation? Similarly, when Tayo prays for dryness in the Pacific jungle, does he create the drought experienced in the Arizona desert? And does that imply that a supernatural framework exists within Ceremony, or just a broader and metaphorical tribute to the power of storytelling and language?