Leslie Marmon Silko’s novel Ceremony is not only about Native American culture, it is also about the environment and how different ethnical groups deal with it. Even though they do not intervene in the story’s course, animals (except the cattle Tayo has to find), plants and last but not least the ‘land’ (as a term for all more or less ‘dead’ things in nature, like stones, e.g.) play a crucial role in this piece of fiction. This essay will take a look at the novel from an environmentalist perspective in order to show how nature is treated here by the humans and which effects are caused by this. It will also examine how this plays a role in Tayo’s personal fate.
In the case of Ceremony environmentalism is also humanism. Aboriginal peoples are very often connected with their land and everything in and on it in a way which is quite different from the European U.S. American way of living. Every harm done to ‘their’ land hurts them very much. This is also shown in Silko’s novel and therefore will be taken as a theme in this essay.
In a Native American culture as the Laguna Pueblo’s reality, dream and belief often become mixed. Therefore it will sometimes be necessary here to go beyond the actual events and get involved in what could be called ‘religion’ (even though the focus will mostly be on what really ‘happens’), speaking in Western terms. What is meant here are mainly the stories which are scattered throughout the book. These stories represent traditional Laguna beliefs (the stories themselves reproduced in Silko’s literary modification) and offer a view on nature that is based on harmony and a peaceful living together.
But first this essay will deal with the bad things commited towards the environment, because this way the contrast to the positive actions and interactions with nature that form the second part will be as sharp as it should be seen.
As a last part will serve what can be considered the ‘environmentalist boiling-point’ of the book, the part in which the Native American ecocatastrophe is lifted on a global level.
Table of Contents
1. Introduction
2.1 Crimes Against Nature
2.2 The Ignorance of the White Man
2.3 Tayo’s Mistake
3.1 Native Americans Living in Harmony with Their Environment
3.2 The Nature Helps the People
3.3 Tayo’s ‘Re-Conversion’ – Ts’eh
4. The Destruction of the Earth
5. Conclusion
6. Works Cited
Objectives and Topics
This paper examines Leslie Marmon Silko's novel Ceremony through an environmentalist lens, exploring the deep connection between Native American culture, the land, and the devastating impact of Western exploitation on both nature and human identity.
- The clash between indigenous perceptions of the environment and Western commodification.
- Tayo’s psychological journey and his alienation from the land after World War II.
- The significance of traditional Laguna beliefs and stories in restoring ecological and spiritual harmony.
- The intersection of human, animal, and environmental fate as illustrated in the novel.
- The symbolic role of "re-conversion" through mythic figures like Ts’eh.
Excerpt from the Book
2.1 Crimes Against Nature
When the American continent was discovered by the Whites, its nature was untouched and beautiful because its human inhabitants were able to profit from it goods without harming it. But the conquest of the New World did no good to the environment there. The white people exploited its goods and gradually began destroying it. In Ceremony there is a passage which illustrates this quite good (although this is quite a few hundred years later, “in the early 1900s”2):
In the twenties and thirties the loggers had come, and they stripped the canyons below the rim and cut great clearings on the plateau slopes. The logging companies hired full-time hunters who fed entire logging camps, taking ten or fifteen deer each week and fifty wild turkeys in one month. The loggers shot the bears and mountain lions for sport. And it was then that the Laguna people understood that the land had been taken, because they couldn’t stop these white people from coming to destroy the animals and the land.3
Here we can see which impact the Whites had on the plants and the animals on the land that was formerly owned (if we can say that in this case) by the Laguna people. They did not only steal the land from its inhabitants, they also destroyed it.4 At the latest at this point of the novel the reader has to understand what must have been a very important matter for its author, what became a crucial topic of the book: “a struggle between irreconcilable notions of land use and land tenure, a struggle between different cultural orientations towards the natural world.”5
Summary of Chapters
1. Introduction: This chapter defines the environmentalist perspective of the essay and highlights the novel's focus on the interconnectedness of Native American culture and the land.
2.1 Crimes Against Nature: It details the historical and narrative impact of Western land exploitation on the Laguna Pueblo, framing it as a destructive force against both nature and human heritage.
2.2 The Ignorance of the White Man: This section contrasts Western attitudes toward animals and land with Laguna beliefs, illustrating the conflict through the character of Tayo.
2.3 Tayo’s Mistake: It analyzes Tayo's internal struggle and perceived guilt, linking his personal trauma to the larger loss of connection with the environment.
3.1 Native Americans Living in Harmony with Their Environment: This chapter discusses figures like Josiah and Betonie who represent the preservation of traditional values and the importance of ecological respect.
3.2 The Nature Helps the People: It examines how the land and its creatures support those who treat them with ritualistic respect, reinforcing the theme of reciprocity.
3.3 Tayo’s ‘Re-Conversion’ – Ts’eh: This part explores the symbolic reunion between Tayo and the natural world through his encounter with the mythical figure Ts’eh.
4. The Destruction of the Earth: It connects the novel's story of witchery to the real-world creation of the atomic bomb, emphasizing the global scale of environmental and human catastrophe.
5. Conclusion: This final chapter synthesizes the arguments to show that the environment serves as a primary protagonist essential to Tayo’s healing process.
6. Works Cited: A comprehensive list of the academic sources utilized to support the analysis of the novel.
Keywords
Ceremony, Leslie Marmon Silko, environmentalism, Native American culture, Laguna Pueblo, land use, ecocriticism, Tayo, cultural identity, spirituality, exploitation, interconnection, myth, Western rationalism, nature.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the core theme of this academic paper?
The paper explores Ceremony as an environmentalist novel, focusing on how the destruction of land by Western forces impacts Native American cultural and personal identity.
What are the primary areas covered in the analysis?
The paper covers the contrast between Western exploitation and Laguna respect, the role of myth, Tayo's personal recovery, and the connection between historical land theft and the nuclear era.
What is the central goal or research question?
The goal is to demonstrate how nature functions as a primary protagonist in the novel and how Tayo achieves healing through re-establishing his relationship with the environment.
Which scientific or analytical approach does the author use?
The author employs an environmentalist and ecocritical perspective, combining literary analysis with historical and cultural context from Native American studies.
What is the focus of the main section?
The main body examines the destructive impact of the "White" world, the traditional wisdom of the Laguna people, and the process of Tayo's cultural and spiritual "re-conversion."
How would you describe the main keywords?
The key themes include ecological harmony, cultural trauma, the significance of rituals, the legacy of colonial exploitation, and the interconnectedness of all life forms.
How does the author interpret the significance of the "uranium" mentioned in the novel?
The author identifies the mining of uranium as the point where the novel's fictional "witchery" aligns with historical reality, specifically referencing the development of the atomic bomb near Laguna land.
Who is Ts'eh and why is she important to Tayo?
Ts'eh is presented as a mythical and natural entity who teaches Tayo how to live in balance with the environment, acting as a catalyst for his spiritual reunion with the earth.
What does the "boiling-point" refer to in the context of the essay?
The "environmentalist boiling-point" refers to the specific narrative segment where the local struggle of the Laguna people is expanded to represent a global ecological and human catastrophe.
- Quote paper
- Ole Wagner (Author), 2004, The stolen land will eat their hearts – Leslie Marmon Silko’s Ceremony from an environmentalist perspective, Munich, GRIN Verlag, https://www.grin.com/document/75058
