Ceremony

This past week our class began to read the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko. The storyline is about a young half native and half white boy, Tayo, who is dealing with post traumatic stress and the loss of two loved ones after WWll. So far Tayo's mind is jumping back and forth from the past to the present and he finds his distractions through keeping himself busy and telling stories to his friends. Tayo lives on a reservation with his family and spends time with his childhood friend, Harley, and others who also served in the war. While Tayo deals with his PTS by crying, keeping busy, and storytelling, Harley deals with it through drinking alcohol.

So far the book is intriguing by reading about Tayo's post traumatic stress and how he learns to deal with it and heal from it. Currently Tayo is suffering quite badly both physically and emotionally. He was a war prisoner in a prison camp so he is healing physically from the horrific conditions that the camps contained. The fact that he keeps enduring war flashbacks just makes his healing process that much more painful however he has found comfort and healing through storytelling. As the book continues I hope to read more about Tayo's PTS healing progress and more about his experience in the war.