Rebuilding The Traditional Indian Survival Pattern

Leslie Marmon Silko is one of the most distinguished modern American Indian writers in American literary history, and she is prolific in her career. Ceremony, as one of Silko's representative works, is particularly concerned with the relations between different cultures and between human beings and the changing world. This thesis is a tentative study of the novel from the postcolonial perspective with the theory of hybridity. The reading of the novel mainly involves three aspects as follows: firstly, the protagonist—Tayo's mental trauma is closely related with the social backgrounds which lead to Tayo's situation of an"other"alienated from the traditional Indian culture and mainstream white culture. Secondly, the traditional Indian culture has active influence on Tayo's recovery, however, with the influence of mainstream white culture on American Indians, the"pure"Indian traditions are not the sound method to cure Tayo's mental confusion. Finally, through Silko's employment of the hybrid ceremony, the traditional Indian culture and mainstream white culture are hybridized to recuperate American Indians'status and power to speak in the multi-coexistence of American society.