The Ritual Process Of Tavo In Ceremony:Reconstruction Of Indianness

Leslie Marmon Silko (1948-) is one of the most renowned and accomplishedwriters of Native Americans. She is also a prolific writer in many fields such as poems,essays and novels. Ceremony，published in1977is her representative work as well asan indigenous classic. The penetrating critics have interpreted it from manyperspectives.Based on the theory of ritual of passage, this paper aims to have a bird’s view ofthe ritual process of the protagonist—Tayo. He has experienced three phases, theseparation from the American Indian Culture and White culture, the transitionalperiod of regaining his understanding of the traditional American Indian culture andhis final reintegration to the indigenous culture.This paper includes three parts, introduction, body and conclusion. First, it is ageneral introduction of Ceremony and the author, its study background, and thesignificance of writing this paper etc.It has three chapters as the body of the paper. The first chapter is an analysis ofthe reasons of Tayo’s separation from the American Indian culture and white culture.Tayo’s childhood experience makes him have a fragmented understanding of thetraditional Indian culture. However, he also immerses in the strong white culture. As ahalf-blooded boy, growing up in this cultural soil, he wavers between them. Therecruitment in the Second World War disconnects his chain with his homeland and hesees the violence, hypocrisy of the white culture which finally leads to his separation from both cultures. In the second chapter, it is the transitional period of Tayo’s ritual.The rituals conveyed profound American Indian culture. The cosmogyny of theNative Americans, the value of belonging to the land and its usufruct rather than theprivate possessions and the equal view of all the being on Earth, the female role in thecommunity are explored, all of which help to reconstruct his indianess. The thirdchapter is Tayo’s integration to the American Indian Culture. In this part, it focuses onthe change of Tayo’s role in his community as a mixed blood and on the explorationof how he deconstructs the white culture by stories and the response to the fear andalienation—the opposition to the hierarchical culture. The oral tradition of the NativeAmerican weaves all the other traditions together. Most importantly, the new stories inthe novel incorporate the White, manipulated by the evil power of the Indian witchand by this way, deconstructing the white culture. The return of Tayo as ahalf-blooded identity means that difference should be respected and transition of thisphenomenon will be finally passed.After the research, it can be seen that Tayo’s ritual process is both areconstruction of the Indianness and a deconstruction of the mechanical white culture.By this novel, Silko tries to say that the world was a closely related web, bias amongdifferent race and nation should be erased and all people should cooperate with eachother against the hierarchy.