Leslie Marmon Silko: Ceremony

Many native cultures use oral tradition as a way to maintain and preserve cultural identity. In the novel Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko uses oral tradition to show the connection between human identity and the land. The novel tells the story of Tayo, a young native american war veteran, and his struggle to overcome post traumatic stress disorder. Tayo goes to a mental institution, and a traditional medicine man, before finding health with Betonie, a more progressive medicine man. Betonie preforms a scalp ceremony, which rids Tayo of the memories of the Japanese that had been haunting him. Betonie's ceremony differs from the first medicine man Tayo saw because Betonie understood societal advancements and worked with the progression of society. Betonie explains this to Tayo on page 116:

"The people nowadays have an idea about the ceremonies. They think the ceremonies must be performed exactly as they have always been done, maybe because one slip-up or mistake and the whole ceremony must be stopped and the sand painting destroyed. That much is true. They think that if a singer tampers with any part of the ritual, great harm can be done, great power unleashed... That much can be true also. But long ago when the people were given these ceremonies, the changing began, if only in the aging of the yellow gourd rattle or the shrinking of the skin around the eagle's claw, if only in the different voices from generation to generation, singing the chants. You see, in many ways, the ceremonies have always been changing...At one time, the ceremonies as they had been performed were enough for the way the world was then. But after the white people came, elements in this world began to shift; and it became necessary to create new ceremonies. I have made changes in the rituals. the people mistrust this greatly, but only this growth keeps the ceremonies strong"(Ceremony, 116)

After the scalp ceremony, Betonie helps Tayo realize the importance of connecting to his environment. Tayo completes the ceremony by finding and recapturing Josiah's cattle, meeting the woman, and traveling through the uranium mine as he watched his friends kill one of their friends. Through all of these actions, Tayo journeys across the reservation and reconnects to the land. Tayo is reminded that the community he belongs to includes animals, earth, elements, and finds solace in their everlasting presence. Silko describes Tayo's reconnection to the land,

"The magnetism of the center spread over him smoothly like rainwater down his neck and shoulders; the vacant cool sensation glided over the pain like feather-down wings. It was pulling him back, close to the earth, where the core was cool and silent as mountain stone, and even with the noise and pain in his head he knew how it would be: a returning rather than a separation" (Ceremony, 187).

This passage shows the deep connection between man and the earth, and the importance of being aware of this connection.