Ceremony

Resource Information

The work Ceremony represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Austin Public Library. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Ceremony

Statement of responsibility

Leslie Marmon Silko

Creator

• trueSilko, Leslie Marmon, 1948-

Subject

• Fiction
• Laguna Indians
• Laguna Indians -- Fiction
• Veterans
• Western fiction
• Western fiction
• World War (1939-1945)
• World War, 1939-1945 -- Veterans -- Fiction
• 1939-1945

Genre

• Western fiction
• Fiction

Language

eng

Summary

This story, set on an Indian reservation just after World War II, concerns the return home of a war-weary Laguna Pueblo young man. Tayo, a young Native American, has been a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II, and the horrors of captivity have almost eroded his will to survive. His return to the Laguna Pueblo reservation only increases his feeling of estrangement and alienation. While other returning soldiers find easy refuge in alcohol and senseless violence, Tayo searches for another kind of comfort and resolution. Tayo's quest leads him back to the Indian past and its traditions, to beliefs about witchcraft and evil, and to the ancient stories of his people. The search itself becomes a ritual, a curative ceremony that defeats the most virulent of afflictions-despair. "Demanding but confident and beautifully written" (Boston Globe), this is the story of a young Native American returning to his reservation after surviving the horrors of captivity as a prisoner of the Japanese during World War II. Drawn to his Indian past and its traditions, his search for comfort and resolution becomes a ritual--a curative ceremony that defeats his despair

Member of

• Contemporary American fiction

Cataloging source

DLC

Dewey number

813/.54

Index

no index present

Intended audience

890L

Intended audience source

Lexile

Literary form

fiction

Series statement

Contemporary American fiction