Leslie Morshead

to defend and protect their cultural sovereignty. Throughout the course of this essay I am going to explore the ways in which Euro-American hegemony and the fight to preserve culture relate to the Laguna-Pueblo history in the novel, Ceremony, by Leslie Marmon Silko. The novel, Ceremony, takes place in the early 19th century in the southwest United States. We meet the main character Tayo who is half white and half Laguna-Pueblo. His mother had an affair with a white man and left Tayo to be

Leslie Marmon Silko is a Tucson based Laguna Pueblo fiction author and poet. Having been based in the southwestern area since 1978, she began to notice the increase in border security and checkpoints. In 1994, her essay, “The Border Patrol State,” was published in The Nation magazine. In it, she explains her concerns and criticisms for the development and enforcement of the US-Mexican border, arguing that it is an infringement on the free right to travel. She backs these arguments up with a series

Leslie Marmon Silko uses the idea of being speckled and/or spotless in her book Ceremony. To try to be spotless is the Laguna people trying to become a part of white society, hence, becoming separated from the Earth and from the roots, tradition, beliefs, rituals and customs of the Native American way. It is letting in white society with the belief that it can somehow improve you. It is destructive change that takes a person away from the Earth. It is change that specifies and names possessions and

Karina Ramirez Hum 312 February 25, 2012 The Rise of Tayo Spirituality is defined as “of relating to sacred matters”. To many people this has different meanings. In the traditional modernistic western, this can be defined as being sacred to Christianity. In the Christian approach one is believed to be spiritual if they attend church and pray to Jesus and abide by the rules set by the bible. It is a sin to go against the bible and doing so leads to a consequence of praying for forgiveness to

The impact of contemporary Native American authors is not diminished by the fact they fail to fully transcribe tales of the oral tradition into an equally successful literary story. The basic elements of the oral tradition are technically adhered to but the interaction between audience and the teller is absent. The lack of personal interaction with the histories and ethical tales changes the culture of Native Americans. Literary stories are generally published for public consumption. The public,

Alcoholism Alcohol consumption was initiated on reservations when traders in the nineteenth century started to offer it to oppressed and depressed Native Americans. Natives represent, in fact, the ethnic group with the highest degree of alcohol consumption in the United States. Confinement on reservations after displacement brought for Native Americans identity conflicts and assimilation problems. This situation promoted the abuse of liquor to mitigate the psychological pain inflicted by the

Ceremony      Throughout Ceremony, the author, Leslie Silko, displays the internal struggle that the American Indians faced at that time in history. She displays this struggle between good and evil in several parts of the book. One is the myth explaining the origin of the white man.      As common in Indian cultures they create a myth to explain why the white people came to them. The author begins to show the Indians feeling of hopelessness by showing in the myth, on pages 132 - 138, that there

No matter how many different qualities you have, you are beautiful the way you are, no matter what people say or think about you, you just keep on going forward with your life because everyone is beautiful in their own little way. Leslie Marmon Silko is a Native American of the Laguna Pueblo people. She speaks about her people's interactions with the antelope people and the way her people haunted them. Silko goes on to tell her people's tale of the earth's origin. The Laguna Pueblo people have a

The Man to Send Rainclouds In the story, The Man to Send Rainclouds, the author Leslie Marmon Silko talks about a family losing their grandfather death and putting them to rest and making sure they are peaceful, bringing different cultures together to honor the deceased. But many things are going on behind the scenes of planning the funeral, Leon warps Father Paul’s ministry to serve the Pueblos’ true intentions, Silko alters the short story’s intentions to show the process of cultural practices

Silko’s use of multiple points of view in her exposition engage the reader and reinforce her themes. Her switching between societies and points in time allow her to present the ideas and perspectives of multiple groups and what affect those ideas have. This changing of perspective also shows how ideas have shifted over time. The structure of Silko’s exposition makes her points clear, convincing and engaging because of its shifting perspective. Silky analyzes modern white society and Laguna society