Flashcards for Ceremony

Auntie

Auntie (Thelma) is a Laguna Pueblo woman who takes on the role of Tayo's primary caretaker after his mother leaves him.

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Betonie

Betonie is a Navajo-Chicano medicine man residing on the outskirts of Gallup, New Mexico.

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Emo

Emo is the main antagonist in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, representing the destructive witchery that threatens both Tayo and the Laguna community.

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Harley

Harley is a Laguna Pueblo veteran and one of Tayo's closest friends from wartime.

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Ku'oosh

Ku'oosh is the traditional medicine man of the Laguna Pueblo who appears early in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony as the community's first effort to help Tayo after his return from World War II.

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Night Swan

Night Swan is an intriguing, liminal character in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony — a Mexican dancer and former cantina performer who has retired to Cubero and become involved with Josiah, Tayo's uncle.

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Old Grandma

Old Grandma is a minor yet symbolically significant character in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony.

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Rocky

Rocky is Tayo's cousin and Auntie's son, both growing up in the same household on the Laguna Pueblo reservation.

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Tayo

Tayo is the mixed-race Laguna Pueblo protagonist of Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), and his journey of psychological and spiritual recovery from World War II trauma is the novel's central focus.

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Ts'eh

Ts'eh is a captivating and radiant presence in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, appearing to Tayo in the expansive mountain landscape after he follows the cattle north.

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“Witchery works to scare people, to make them fear growth. But it has always been necessary, and more than that, it has always been possible.”

This passage is from Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony (1977), spoken by Betonie, a mixed-heritage Navajo medicine man, during his healing sessions with the protagonist Tayo.

Betonie

“I will tell you something about stories, / [he said] / They aren't just entertainment. / Don't be fooled. / They are all we have, you see, / all we have to fight off / illness and death.”

This passage appears near the opening of Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony (1977), delivered through Thought-Woman's storytelling voice — represented by the character Betonie or framed within the novel's mythic prologue poetry.

Narrative/storytelling voice (Thought-Woman's frame) · Prologue / Opening poem

“The world was already complete even without him.”

This line comes from Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), a novel that follows Tayo, a mixed-heritage Laguna Pueblo veteran grappling with trauma and a sense of spiritual disconnection after World War II.

Narrator (reflecting Tayo's interiority) · Early narrative section

“The only cure / I know / is a good ceremony, / that's what she said.”

This quote is from Leslie Marmon Silko's 1977 novel Ceremony, delivered through the novel's framing voice that draws heavily from Laguna Pueblo oral tradition.

Narrative/framing voice (attributed to ancestral/feminine wisdom) · Prologue / opening pages

“Everywhere he looked, he saw a world made of stories, the long ago, time immemorial stories, as old Grandma called them.”

This line is from Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), a pivotal piece of Native American literature.

Narrator (focalized through Tayo) · Middle section of the novel (no numbered chapters)

“As long as you remember what you have seen, then nothing is gone. As long as you remember, it is part of this story we have together.”

This line is spoken by Thought-Woman, the storyteller figure, and echoed through Betonie and the novel's narrative voice in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977).

Narrative/Storyteller voice (Thought-Woman)

“Nothing was all good or all bad either; it all depended.”

This line is from Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony (1977), expressed through the thoughts of the protagonist Tayo as he navigates his healing journey after returning from World War II.

Tayo (narrative consciousness) · Prose narrative section (non-poem)

“They want us to believe all evil resides with white people. Then we will look no further to see what is really happening.”

This line is delivered by Betonie, a mixed-heritage Navajo medicine man, during a key conversation with Tayo in Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977).

Betonie

“He cried the relief he felt at finally seeing the pattern, the way all the stories fit together—the old stories, the war, the drought, the one for the cattle, and the one he still had to complete.”

This passage is from Leslie Marmon Silko's 1977 novel Ceremony, narrated in close third person as it explores the protagonist Tayo's emotional breakthrough near the climax.

Tayo (narrative consciousness / third-person narrator) · Climax / late narrative section

“He had arrived at a convergence of patterns; he could see them clearly now.”

This line comes from Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), spoken from the close third-person perspective of Tayo, the Laguna Pueblo protagonist, as he approaches the climax of his healing journey.

Tayo (narrative perspective)

Sand Paintings

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, sand paintings embody the vibrant, restorative power of Indigenous healing traditions.

The Ceremony

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony (1977), the ceremony itself represents healing, continuity, and restoring balance among individuals, communities, and the natural world.

The Spotted Cattle

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, the spotted cattle represent the resilience and revival of Native identity through the fusion of traditional and contemporary elements.

The Stars

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, the stars reflect the enduring structure of Native cosmology and the ongoing tradition of indigenous storytelling.

Ts'eh as Supernatural Woman

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, Ts'eh represents the supernatural feminine force that upholds Laguna Pueblo beliefs and aids Tayo's healing journey.

Witchery

In Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony, witchery represents the harmful forces—both supernatural and historical—that disrupt the balance of life for Native peoples and the broader world.

Extended Metaphor

The novel's main extended metaphor draws a parallel between storytelling and healing.

Prose Poem

Silko integrates italicized verse passages inspired by Laguna Pueblo oral tradition throughout the prose.

Motif

Drought and rain stand out as the novel's most persistent theme.

Symbolism

The spotted cattle Tayo searches for across the mountains carry deep meaning.

Narrative Poem

Silko intentionally breaks away from a straightforward narrative to reflect the fragmented mind of someone who has experienced trauma, mimicking the non-linear style found in oral ceremonial traditions.

Imagery

Silko's imagery is deeply connected to the textures of the Southwestern landscape: the scent of sage after rain, the shifting colors of sandstone throughout the day, and the chill of high-altitude air.

Allusion

The novel makes numerous references to Laguna Pueblo ceremonial traditions, Navajo Beautyway and Enemyway chants, and Southwestern creation myths.

Personification

The land in the novel isn’t just a backdrop; it plays an active role.

Juxtaposition

Silko contrasts the mythic verse with the raw prose of Tayo's life today—bar fights in Gallup, the grim reality of the veterans' hospital, and the racism he faces—creating a powerful impact.

Irony

A deep irony runs throughout the novel's depiction of Tayo's military service.

Repetition

Key phrases and images come back with the force of ritual incantation.

Paradox

The novel's central paradox is that Tayo needs to embrace tradition to move forward.

entertainment

Here used dismissively to mean something meant only to amuse or distract, with no deeper truth or power — the poem insists stories are far more than this.

noun · Chapter 1

named things

In Laguna Pueblo belief, to name something is to call it into existence; naming is an act of creation, not merely labeling what already exists.

phrase · Chapter 1

hollow

An inner emptiness — a numb, gutted feeling inside the body — that Tayo deliberately keeps from turning into active pain by staying in constant motion.

adjective · Chapter 2

belly

The stomach or gut, used here as the physical seat of dread and sickness — the place in the body where emotional trauma registers as a physical sensation.

noun · Chapter 2

drought

A prolonged period with little or no rainfall that dries out the land and kills crops and livestock; in the novel it is both a literal disaster and a spiritual wound.

noun · Chapter 2

battle fatigue

A World War II–era medical term for the severe psychological breakdown caused by combat — what is now called post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

phrase · Chapter 3

superstition

A belief or practice dismissed by Western thinking as irrational or unscientific; Rocky uses the word to reject traditional Laguna spiritual knowledge.

noun · Chapter 5

fragile

Easily broken or damaged; Ku'oosh uses it to describe the world as something that must be handled with great care because human actions can harm its delicate balance.

adjective · Chapter 6

intricacies

The many fine, complex, interwoven details of something; here it describes how the Laguna word for 'fragile' carries layers of meaning about ongoing processes that English cannot capture.

noun · Chapter 6

inherent

Built into something as a permanent, inseparable quality — not added from outside but naturally part of the thing itself.

adjective · Chapter 6

nausea

A sick, churning feeling in the stomach that makes a person feel they are about to vomit; here it rises in Tayo as a physical reaction to Emo's cruelty.

noun · Chapter 7

equals

People treated as having the same worth, rights, and status as others; Emo uses the word bitterly to say that war was the only situation where white society treated Native Americans as fully human.

noun · Chapter 7

hogan

A traditional Navajo dwelling, typically built of logs and earth with a domed or angled roof; Betonie's hogan serves as both his home and his ceremonial workspace.

noun · Chapter 8

shift

To change, adapt, or move in response to new circumstances; in Betonie's teaching, the ability to shift and grow is what keeps ceremonies and living things alive.

verb · Chapter 8

witchery

In the novel's spiritual framework, a destructive force or power — not mere magic tricks — that works to divide people, spread hatred, and perpetuate cycles of violence and suffering.

noun · Chapter 9

sand paintings

Sacred ceremonial images made by carefully pouring colored sand into patterns; used in Navajo healing rituals to map spiritual and cosmic relationships, including the positions of stars.

noun · Chapter 10

transitions

Passages or movements from one state, place, or condition to another; Tayo uses the word to describe a worldview in which nothing is rigidly separate — everything flows into everything else.

noun · Chapter 10

boundaries

Fixed lines that separate one thing from another — whether between nations, peoples, or categories of being; the novel treats them as human-made fictions the land itself does not honor.

noun · Chapter 10

bundle

A collection of sacred or meaningful objects wrapped together in cloth; carrying or receiving a bundle signals a transfer of trust, responsibility, and spiritual power.

noun · Chapter 11

fences

Barriers built by white ranchers to enclose and claim land; in the novel they represent the colonial imposition of ownership and division onto land that Indigenous people regard as shared and alive.

noun · Chapter 11

convergence

The coming together of multiple separate lines, forces, or patterns at a single point; Tayo feels it physically as the moment when the various threads of the ceremony align and reach their crisis.

noun · Chapter 14

turned loose

Released and set in motion so that it cannot be stopped or recalled; the witchery poem uses it to say that the destructive force has already been unleashed on the world.

phrase · Chapter 13