In The Novel Ceremony By Leslie Marmon Silko, We See How Tayo

Term Paper Title	In The Novel Ceremony By Leslie Marmon Silko, We See How Tayo
# of Words	1882
# of Pages (250 words per page double spaced)	7.53

In the novel Ceremony by Leslie Marmon Silko, we see how Tayo
(the main character) a half breed being half Indian and half White appreciates
and accepts his Indians roots more than the full breed Indians that have gone to
the war as well as his Aunt. It is ironic how a person like Tayo is not accepted by
either cultures, but at the same time he wants to be a part of his Indian culture
while people like his cousin Rocky, his aunt, and the other Indian veterans want
to be a part of what they believe is a "superior" culture, the white culture. Due
to Tayo not being accepted by either culture he is as well forced to isolate
himself specially from The Indian culture and is unable to deal with his emotions
and problems that he was faced with because no one, such as his aunt had
made it evident since his youth that he was not part of the family and therefore
must learn by himself how to deal with his problems.
Since Tayo was born he was looked down upon just because of the
mere fact that his mother slept with white men. Ever since he was young and
lived with his mother's family members, his aunt made sure that he realize that
for her as well as the other Indians he will always be looked at as an outsider
even amongst his own family members.
It was a private understanding between the two of them.
When Josiah or old Grandma or Robert was there, the agreement
was suspended, and she pretended to treat him the same as she
treated Rocky, but they both knew it was only temporary.... She
was careful that Rocky did not share these things with Tayo, that
they kept a distance between themselves and him. But she would
not let Tayo go outside or play in another room alone. She wanted
him close enough to feel excluded..(67)
This however did not affect the relationship between his cousin
Rocky who he learned to love as a brother and his uncle Josiah and his
Grandma. The only person who saw Tayo as a disgrace to the family was his
aunt and she felt that because of this now she had to work harder to show the
rest of the community that she was a good aunt and that she had to deal with
much suffering. .
The reasons behind why she feels ashamed of her sister and her
nephew is rather ironic however.. She feels ashamed because her sister was
with a white man and had a white man's child, but at the same time she wants
her son Rocky to be part of that White society that she has looked down upon in
Tayo. Rocky, who is a

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