Ceremony Summary and Analysis

Author: Leslie Marmon Silko is a Laguna Pueblo, Mexican, and white author-this puts her in an unique position to write about Tayo's battle between two cultures.

Setting: Post WWII America, crossing a Laguna Pueblo reservation and an American city (near Los Angeles?)

Plot: Tayo is suffering from something that American doctors diagnose as PTSD. He has recently returned home from a Veteran's hospital. The trauma comes from not only the death of his cousin, Rocky, but from imagining that he saw his beloved uncle, Josiah, among the Japanese soldiers he was supposed to kill. He has returned to his home with his Auntie, Grandmother, and Uncle, Robert. He feels guilty about praying the rain away when he was in the jungle, because now there is no rain around the reservation. His friend Harley stops by. They decide to go to a bar. They have some flashbacks.

Auntie is really just kind of ashamed of Tayo. She takes care of him because she has a responsibility to his mother, and she wants Jesus points. Tayo fells like he is getting worse and they decide to call old Ku'oosh, a medicine man. Tayo goes through some ancient rituals. Note points: we learn about Auntie's fixation on rumors and gossip here, and learn a tad about "Josiah and that Mexican woman". Auntie seems to just want a chance to say "I told you so."

Ku'oosh warns Tayo that the ritual doesn't help everyone who comes back from the war like them. The old cures do not work the same since the white men arrived. It becomes easier for him to live when he does not care about life. He goes to a bar with some of his army "friends". The alcohol dulls all emotion. They are talking about when they were in the army and they could get any women they wanted. Tayo tells a story but he is essentially ruining their good time, because he sees how people see then when they are in uniform vs. out of it. Emo is resentful against him for always ruining their fun. They go on drinking to recapture the old time feeling. Tayo starts crying and they think it's because he hates the Japanese. In truth, he doesn't. He has a small flashback to Rocky's death.

We're back in the present with Tayo and Harley. They go to the bar. Tayo flashes back to when he and Rocky had killed a deer and Rocky didn't really care much for the Native superstitions about it. Flashback to the time Emo taunted him about him being half-white, thinking he's superior and was shaking the human teeth and then Tayo stabs him and calls him a killer (that sentence didn't grammar). Flashback to Tayo and Rocky signing up for the war. Flashback to how Auntie loved Rocky and tolerated him. Story about Laura, Tayo's mom, being caught between two cultures. Story about getting the cattle. Story about Josiah and Night Swan and Tayo and Night Swan. Story about swatting flies. Tayo meets Betonie for the first time. Story about Shush, the bear boy. Story about Betonies Grandma (this is important!) Ceremonies must change.

Gambler and rainclouds story.

They meet Helen Jean. We read her story. He ends up at another woman's house. He tells her about the cattle. He saw the stars Betonie told him about and came to this place. Tayo leaves her in the morning. He is now searching for the cattle, following Betonie's directions. He finds and follows them.

Later he meets a hunter. (shh, he is the mountain lion). They go back to the woman. She has the cattle.He goes back home.

Sparknotes says "Alone at the ranch, Tayo realizes that his nightmares after his return from the war were due to his incredible sense of loss, but that in fact nothing had been lost because the mountains and the people you love can never be lost. "

He spends a lot of time with the woman, learning. She has to leave. His friends pick him up but betray him. Emo is the witchery. Torturing and killing Harley. The ceremony ends. It is dead for now.

Characters:

Tayo: main character
Auntie: his aunt, she cares about what people think too much. Jesus points.
Josiah: uncle who died
Rocky: cousin who died
T'seh: the woman
Betonie: the old man
Emo: the witchery
Harley: Buddy

Style: Silko makes this story sound a lot like it's being told orally. Lots of simple words but extensive description, the side tales into mythology, and the flashbacks create this effect. There's a lot of imagery.

Quotes:

"Sunrise, accept this offering, Sunrise."
This quotation really shows the cyclical nature of things which is emphasized in this book, as well as the importance of revering nature.

"Here they were, trying to bring back that old feeling, that feeling they belonged to America the way they felt during the war. They blamed themselves for losing the new feeling; they never talked about it, but they blamed themselves just like they blamed themselves for losing the land the white people took. They never thought to blame the white people for any of it; they wanted white people for their friends. They never saw that it was the white people who gave them that feeling and it was the white people who took it away again when the war was over."

This quote shows how not many people see how the white people are turning the Indians against themselves, how the white people keep taking away but convince the people they don't deserve what they have. 

Theme: Revere nature, revere your culture, don't get fooled by those around you.

The way the story is told like a traditional story, orally, interspersed with Laguna mythology emphasizes the importance of culture. The strong descriptions of weather, wind, sky colors, and the colors of nature emphasize culture. The white people being witchery (also, see second quote) show how getting fooled pulls them away from culture and nature.

Response to Course Material 4/14

So we've finished Ceremony and I really found it interesting. There was a LOT of symbolism, etc, and I think I need to read it again to totally get it. Comparing it to other books we've read this year, this is from a totally different, non-Western, perspective, and that does a lot with the gender roles, expectations of characters, and mythology used. For one, in most of the other books we've read, there's definitely far more of a patriarchal structure and dynamic, while in Ceremony, things are matriarchal, even though the slowly invading American society is trying to change views.

Now we're reading Fifth Business, and I quite like it so far, even though I'm just at the beginning. 

Open Promt 11/11 edit

1988. Choose a distinguished novel or play in which some of the most significant events are mental or psychological; for example, awakenings, discoveries, changes in consciousness. In a well-organized essay, describe how the author manages to give these internal events the sense of excitement, suspense, and climax usually associated with external action. Do not merely summarize the plot.

     In the novel Sense and Sensibility, Jane Austen creates an engaging plot revolving around the social and love affairs of young women of the upper-middle class. The majority of the action isn't what you would consider physical action, as in many novels, because it all happens with the dialogue, thoughts, and the relations between characters. Austen manages to make these as exciting as gunfights or car chases by making the characters relatable yet still exaggerating the drama past what is realistic to make it seem bigger. 

     The way Austen makes characters more relatable is a key element in making the action exciting. Simply talking about two people who are suffering from heartbreak is somewhat boring, but feeling like you yourself or someone you are close to is suffering makes you want to know how the pain will resolve, and so you are more engaged in the action. Austen makes this possible by giving the characters traits that you can see in yourself (idealism, emotion, romantic vision, extreme judgement, a shoulder to lean on), and then gives each character a love interest that you may sympathize with or despise, therefore giving you a reason to root for one or the other to succeed or fail in their courtships. 

     The internal conflicts of the story are made more engaging by Austen's way of making them more dramatic than would be realistic. For example, there is the tale of Colonel Brandon, the 35 year old married-once military man who falls in love with Marianne, the younger of the two sisters in the story. At first, his attentions to a naive, silly, idealistic 16 year old seem odd, but as Austen unravels his story, you start to sympathize with his pain. It is filled with dramatic twists-the promising of his childhood love to his older brother, who then abused her and left her penniless with an illegitimate child, and as she died of tuberculosis in the slums, he promised to take care of her child and forever bear the heartbreak. His past is almost shocking, engaging you immediately and heartbreakingly, making you want to read on to find out how he deals with it.  

     Jane Austen successfully makes internal conflicts as interesting as external ones by making the characters relatable and the events dramatic. These techniques make the reader get involved with the characters and get them curious about the events, even though they all are just simple dialogues and relationships. A relatable character draws one into the story because you start to put yourself in their shoes and desire to see how things work out, while making events more dramatic give them a scope outside of what you are used to, engaging you in how they are resolved. 

R&G are DEAD

Author: Tom Stoppard wrote this in 1966. He is a post-modernist playwright.

Setting: Well, the setting of this play is ambiguous. There really doesn't seem to be a defined setting, which I believe is the point. It emphasizes the, again, ambiguous nature of the play, as well as defines the confusion that follows throughout. Sometimes, however, we have a defined setting, and that's when this play transitions into Hamlet.

Summary:

Two Elizabethian men, R & G, are in a unknown setting, flipping coins, which always come up heads for some reason, Rosencrantz winning each time this happens. They recall that they are travelling because a messenger sent for them. The encounter the Players, who are actually prostitutes in a way, and say the men can "participate" for a fee. Guildenstern, thinking about the coin flips, uses it to his advantages and proposes a bet, and the Players must perform for them because they cannot pay. (also we are then told the coin landed tails up).

Now they are in Elsinore, bam. They watch as Hamlet and Ophelia leave stage and they meet Claudius who mixes them up. They realize what is going on, and practice questioning him. They overhear Hamlet speaking in "code" to Polonius. They talk to Hamlet and fail with their plan to question him. The Players arrive. There will be a play the next day. Hamlet tells them what they have to play.

They rehearse the play which, obviously, mirrors Hamlet. When they perform it, Claudius is upset, and sends R&G and Hamlet on a boat to England. Hamlet switches the letter they were carrying. There is a comical scene with pirates and then Hamlet is gone. The players mimic death, they talk about death, then it switches over to the end of Hamlet .

 Characters: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern- two men finding their purpose in life. One is philosophical and jaded while the other is childish and idealistic. They flip kinda.

 Alfred- that poor boy.

 Player- cunning, witty, confident, desperate. For the rest, see Hamlet post.

This play is written in a way that is very specific about the actions the characters perform, how they perform it, and where on stage they are when they do them. However, in contrast, the setting is rarely that specific, except when they're in Elsinore, which essentially is specific to follow an interpretation of Hamlet. The often vague, float-y language helps us visualize how hopeless the characters sometimes are.

Symbolism:

The way the coins always land on one side represent how many things they took to be true are no longer in effect (such as probability, time, and randomness), and tell us perhaps the characters are not in charge of their own fate.

Quotes:

"GUIL: Well…aren't you going to change into your costume?
PLAYER: I never change out of it, sir."

This kind of shadows the idea that the characters are in a play within a play, and that the Player knows so. It also shows how people don't need to "act", persay, because they are always acting, and prepared to do so. 

Theme: 
Death is not to be feared, nor is it something to be welcomed. Fate brings all to the same end, nothingness. 

These themes are emphasized throughout the play by 
a) the philosophical discussions about death being just dissapearing, just nothingness. 
b) how the things they do are predetermined (by the plot of Hamlet)
c) the ending, how the characters just fade away

(somewhat unfinished post)

Response to Course Material 3/10

In class, we've started to read Ceremony. I like it a lot, actually, because it's nice to have a change of pace from the plays we've been reading. It has a unique structure, it's almost like someone broke a mirror and as the story goes on, you see each piece of the mirror as it's put together, and as it progresses, the mirror is less and less fragmented. I see a lot of symbolism in this story, and I'm excited to see how it pans out.
We've also been doing some writing practice for the AP, which is a good thing, seeing as I'm not to great with essays when I'm on a time crunch. In other classes, we've practiced essay writing so differently, because we're usually writing papers- not writing AP essays. AP essays seem to differ in the ways that a) they are timed and b) you need to synthesize more information, with less prior knowledge and no research into a smaller package. It's a challenge, to be sure, but I think I'm getting the hang of it. 

10/13 Open Prompt Edit

2006, Form B. In many works of literature, a physical journey - the literal movement from one place to another - plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.

     In The Eye of the World by Robert Jordan, the characters have to undertake a journey from a small village to a large city, and from there, they go to a place in which the doings of the whole world are worked. This epic journey not only helps the characters grow, but symbolizes that growth itself.

     When our main characters, Rand, Mat, and Perrin, are introduced, they are mischievous farm boys, excited for a yearly festival. Rand's friends are teasing him about Egwene, the girl he's in love with, who, this year, is considered a woman. The village and the daily day to day workings of their lives symbolize simplicity. As they're getting ready for the long awaited festival, things are quite exciting, which foreshadows the excitement to come. The journey has not begun yet- they are still in their peaceful, sheltered hometown-still innocent.

     That night, dark creatures that were originally thought to be fictional attacked the village and the outlying homes. Rand makes a journey back to the village and is greeted by total chaos. This is where things start. This small journey symbolizes a shaking-he must move now to save himself, literally and figuratively. 

     Moraine, a mysterious lady in the village, has taken a liking to the three boys, and deems it imperative that they leave as soon as possible. Without explanation or trust, Rand must leave his now severely injured father to a yet unknown location. This sudden shock  is the true start of his journey, and him not knowing his destination symbolizes the uncertainty he has about his future. 

     As they flee, they are pursued daily by more and more enemies, and this makes their journey harder while hardening their resolve. The physical burdens as well as the darkness they start to see shows us how they are slowly losing their innocence as they travel to new lands.
     Out of desperation, they take refuge in a ghost town. The characters being forced to take refuge in a place of darkness symbolizes the nature of their journey, as well as how their minds no longer have the lightness of before.

(here is where I finished earlier)

Response to Course Material

So, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is nothing like I've ever read before. Seriously. It's confusing and great and everything in it makes me really concentrate, like "this has a meaning to it that I can just barely grasp, but when I try to think about it...it slips my mind." It's profound but...I sometimes can't wrap my head around it.

It seems to present death in a way unlike any other thing we have read. In The American Dream, death was more psychological and emotional than physical- the loss of your humanity and dignity. In Death of a Salesman, death was something that was the ultimate end to all your problems, a way out. In Hamlet, death was abundant- a way to solve your problems. In this play, however, death is something to be scared of. It could come to you at any moment, and suddenly-you're nothing. Eternity and death, proclaimed as two of the worst things- and it's just the absence of is.

We have never really covered death as a literary topic in any class, and now I think that would be a really interesting course to take.