A Reconstruction Of Ecological Harmony

Leslie Marmon Silko is an outstanding Native American woman writer. The New York Times Book Review proclaimed her as the most accomplished Native American writer of her generation.Her novel Ceremony aroused many critics'attention because of its deep Native American culture and excellent narrative techniques. There appeared a variety of essays from different theoretical and critical approaches, including formalist, historical, cultural, semiotic, ecofeminist, and ethical, to name some of them. Yet up to now, few critical studies have been devoted to discovering the relationship between Native Americans and nature. However, this issue is one of the most important themes of this novel. This thesis will explore Native Americans'attitude towards nature by analyzing the protagonist, Tayo's process of recovering himself from ecocritical perspective.After surviving horrifying experiences in World Warâ…¡, and after an extended stay in a Veteran's Administration mental ward, Tayo, a young half-breed, returns to the Laguna Pueblo in New Mexico. Alienated from his culture and family as well as the white world, Tayo is troubled by paralysis of memory, nightmares and fragmentation of reality. However, in contrast to the white doctors'inability to cure him, several Native Americans'joint efforts succeed in helping him break away from insanity and embrace a spiritual return to the Laguna Pueblo culture. An old medicine man called Betonie takes Tayo through a ceremony designed to cure him. Finally, Tayo finds his identity and live in harmony with the people and the nature.It is true that this recovery to some degree is fulfilled by going back home and keeping his own cultural tradition. However, what plays the most important role during the recovery is his relationship with the nature. From disharmony to harmony, he finds himself and the whole tribe.Hence, Tayo's journey of searching for himself shows us Native Americans'harmonious attitude towards nature. It is not exaggerated to see and present Native Americans as models of an ecological attitude, sometimes even as born conservationists, or as patron saints of a close relationship between man and his environment.